Sunday, March 28, 2010

Palm Sunday of Holy Week: Do we recognize His presence?

Today's passages: Matthew 21:1-17; Mark 11:1-11; Luke 19:29-44; John 12:1, 9-19

For over a decade now, I've set aside whatever Bible study I've been doing, pushed the pause button on wherever I am in my on-going read-through of the Bible, and pick up my Parallel Gospels to focus on the happenings of Holy Week. Each day, I read through all 4 Gospel accounts of the events leading up to Jesus crucifixion. This practice has helped me stay focused on the cross, fully feel its crushing blow to the disciples, and rejoice on Resurrection Morning as I realize afresh why the message of the early church was, "He is Risen! He is risen indeed!"

Another habit I've developed in conjunction with this is praying for God to reveal something at a deeper level each time I read the now-familiar passages. I don't want to check something off a list. I've learned that Scripture is like an onion with many layers and as we seek to know and obey Jesus, the Holy Spirit will peel back more layers. As I prayed that prayer this morning, I began to see a theme throughout the Palm Sunday readings: Do we recognize His presence? The passages give us several portraits of individuals at various points on a spectrum of awareness that can be instructive to the church today. I pray that the Lord will use these portraits in your life and in the life of your church or small group as we seek Him during this most significant of all weeks on the church calendar.

Clued in: The owner of the colt and Jesus' 2 disciples. (Mark 11:1-7; see also Matt. 21:1-3 and Luke 19:29-34)

(Mark 11:1-7 NASB) - As they approached Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples, and said to them, "Go into the village opposite you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, on which no one yet has ever sat; untie it and bring it here. "If anyone says to you, 'Why are you doing this?' you say, 'The Lord has need of it'; and immediately he will send it back here." They went away and found a colt tied at the door, outside in the street; and they untied it. Some of the bystanders were saying to them, "What are you doing, untying the colt?" They spoke to them just as Jesus had told them, and they gave them permission. They brought the colt to Jesus and put their coats on it; and He sat on it.

On our spectrum, these individuals are as aware as they could be prior to the day of Pentecost and the eye-opening Holy Spirit. What strikes me the most about these individuals is their unqualified obedience. The 2 disciples, of course, had been around Jesus and realized that He could make some, shall we say, unconventional requests (see: Loaves and Fishes, Water to Wine, Mud for healing blind man). What intrigues me about these disciples' obedience is that as far as we can see in Scripture, there is no questioning or second-guessing. While the disciples certainly felt the freedom to ask questions - Scripture records numerous occasions - by this point these two disciples apparently had learned enough to just go along. They were clued in to His presence enough to know that if He asked them to go do something, He had a reason.

The owner of the colt also exhibits a high level of "clued in". We don't know any more about this man other than an important quality: He surrenders what he had to the Lord. Did he know "the Lord" was Jesus? We really don't know. But for nearly 2000 years his obedience has set a high bar for believers in Jesus. Like this man, anything in our possession should be available if "the Lord has need of it". 2 Corinthians 8:12-15 provide our best understanding of how this might look in our lives: God wants us to meet the needs of others with our resources. If we have more than our basic needs, then "if the Lord has need of it" through the needs of one of His people, we should be willing to supply.

Interestingly, neither the disciples nor the owner of the colt are named. Like so many shining examples of the faith, they remain anonymous except in His eyes. It didn't matter that we know their names. What mattered is that He knew they were willing to obey ... and that they were clued in to His Lordship.

Getting a clue: The crowd. (Matthew 21:8-17; see also Mark 11:8-11; Luke 19:35-40; John 12:12-18)
(Matthew 21:8-17 NASB) - Most of the crowd spread their coats in the road, and others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them in the road. The crowds going ahead of Him, and those who followed, were shouting, "Hosanna to the Son of David; BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Hosanna in the highest!" When He had entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, "Who is this?" And the crowds were saying, "This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee." And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. And He said to them, "It is written, 'MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER'; but you are making it a ROBBERS ' DEN ." And the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that He had done, and the children who were shouting in the temple, "Hosanna to the Son of David," they became indignant and said to Him, "Do You hear what these children are saying?" And Jesus said to them, "Yes; have you never read, 'OUT OF THE MOUTH OF INFANTS AND NURSING BABIES YOU HAVE PREPARED PRAISE FOR YOURSELF'?" And He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there.
Further down the spectrum we find the crowd that welcomes Jesus into Jerusalem, the Triumphal Entry that fulfilled prophecy. This crowd always intrigues me, since we know that it is likely many of the same people who, 5 days later, will be calling for Jesus' crucifixion - people in Jerusalem for the great Passover feast. In that, the crowd represents our human condition and the fickleness that we have toward those in whom we place great hope. But today, I see something different in the crowd. I see glimpses of understanding. I see a group of people who don't completely realize the significance of what they were doing, and yet who still present a picture of praise.

The crowd gets a lot of things wrong. They have Messianic expectations that are focused on political solutions - treating Jesus as a king coming to overthrow the Romans and retake Jerusalem. They readily recognize Jesus as a prophet, but fail to submit to His unqualified Lordship as the disciples and owner of the colt do. They praise God for the miracles that Jesus had done and continues doing even in their midst as He heals the blind and lame in the temple. John tells us that many were drawn to the gathering after hearing that He raised Lazarus from the dead (see John 12:17-18). Their focus seems more on what He can do and what they hope He will be, than on who He has revealed Himself to be. From the vantage point of 2000 years, we could pick apart their theology for hours. And yet ...

Jesus does not condemn the crowd. In fact, He defends them. When the Jewish leaders call for Him to rebuke the crowd in Luke's account, Jesus responds: "I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out." (Luke 19:39-40). In the passage above in Matthew, when the leaders are indignant over the children's worship of Jesus, He pulls out a passage from the Psalms and defends their praise. In Jesus' reaction I see both the obvious - He was the Messiah, and He was being very public about it - and the subtle. He doesn't condemn them not only because what they are saying is true, but because He is the Messiah who, in the words of Isaiah, does not break bruised reeds or extinguish faintly burning wicks (Isa. 42:1-3). He doesn't condemn us for our less-than-perfect understanding, our faltering faith, or our human errors in methodology. He knows when the focus is on Him, and when our eyes are rightly focused and our hearts willing, He can teach us and correct us.

Don't get me wrong. Sound doctrine is critical within the church on essential matters. When we have the full counsel of God's Word and the indwelling Holy Spirit, we should not be easily swayed (see Ephesians 4). However, I see the crowd as more like those who are trying to understand, who have a limited awareness of Jesus because they come from a background where He wasn't known or if known, not honored and His Word not taught. Even within the church, our awareness of Him should constantly be growing (compare 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians and rejoice!). But especially for seekers and new believers, I believe it's important to point toward Jesus as the object of worship, and the Holy Spirit and Word of God as the tools for revelation. If those with the Ephesians 4 gifts (apostles, evangelists, prophets, teachers, pastors) consistently teach and speak God's Word and point new believers back to it, helping them learn to discern the Holy Spirit's voice, those early errors will quickly be corrected. When dealing with those 'getting a clue', let's learn to match the gentleness of Jesus as He defends their imperfect praise.

The clueless: The Pharisees, the chief priests and the scribes. (Matthew 21:15-17; Luke 19:39-40; John 12:10-11, 19).

Jesus' words of rebuke are leveled at the religious leaders who, in their minds at least, knew the truth. Never mind that Jesus had made clear early in His ministry that they sought the Scriptures but missed Him (John 5:39-47). These "leaders" clearly had their own agenda already; they determined to put Jesus and Lazarus to death after He raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11:53 and 12:10-11). John 12:19 reveals the heart of their concerns: The Pharisees therefore said to one another, "You see that you are not doing any good; look, the world has gone after Him."

"The world has gone after Him." What a clueless reaction. Of course the world would go after Jesus - the Messiah, the Savior, God incarnate. They had tried unsuccessful to thwart His ministry and now, on the day of His triumphal entry, failed to stop the praise that He was rightfully due. Their plan to kill Jesus now begins to gather steam and it will culminate later in the week.

What a rebuke to the "religious elite" whose focus lies everywhere but Jesus and who, by their actions, try to stop what God intends to allow. We see it every day: established churches critique a new start-up; denominational churches denounce non-denominationals; non-denominationals judge denominationals; we hold up this or that method and verbally blow holes through it; and on it goes. Again, I'm not talking the fundamental doctrines of the faith. So much of this happens over non-essentials, preferences, even cultural issues like whether to use African drums in worship! We fail to take a step back and see if we can recognize His presence in a non-traditional format. We fail to examine whether the unfamiliar paths lead to the cross.

I don't know about you, but I don't want to be "clueless" - I want to be "clued in". Hopefully I'm at least "getting a clue", because I don't want Jesus to say to me, as He said of Jerusalem in Luke 19:44, "you did not recognize the time of your visitation." May we always recognize His presence.

See previous Palm Sunday posts here and here.  

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