Palm Sunday

A holy city. Two hills. One Savior. This is the story of Palm Sunday.

Israel is an incredibly hilly country. The hills of Judea are not mountains, in terms of our Rockies, or even of our Adirondacks. But they are steep, and they descend sharply into deep valleys. Because the land is dry, and receives little rain, the landscape has not felt the softening effect of water erosion. The terrain is rough, and rugged. There are stones and rocks everywhere, and for most of the year, the vegetation is dry and brown. About the only thing that will grow on those hills are sheep and goats.

The city of Jerusalem is located right in the middle of those limestone hills. It isn’t flat, like New York, or Los Angeles, or even Tel Aviv down on the Mediterranean coast; it is a city of hills and valleys. The streets are crooked, and go up and down.

Usually, cities are located near water. But Jerusalem isn’t situated on any major rivers. Getting enough water into the city has been a problem since ancient times. Jerusalem isn’t where it is because of any economic reason, either. There are no major trade routes, natural resources, agriculture, or industries that place it where it is. It is literally off the beaten path, in what we would call the back country.

So why is it there? It is there because God put it there. For reasons known only to Him, he chose Jerusalem to be the focal point of the greatest events in human history; events which have had, and will continue to have, a decisive impact on the whole human race. That’s a pretty big claim to make for an obscure city located up in the back country of a tiny little nation in the Middle East.

The amazing thing about Jerusalem is that, in spite of the fact that it doesn’t seem to have any particular economic or strategic value, it has been more fought over than any other city on earth. Thirty-seven wars have been fought at its gates. It has been besieged countless times. More blood has been shed in its streets than any other city in history.

And the reason for it is that Jerusalem is at the center of a great spiritual battle that is taking place. Not just human wars have been fought there. The armies of heaven and hell have literally been arrayed at its gates. You see, Jerusalem is the place where God chose to deliver the fatal blow to the evil empire of Satan. And Satan’s death throes have made Jerusalem, for most of its history, a dangerous place to be.

In the year 30 AD, just outside the city walls at the foot of a little rise that the locals called Skull Hill, a man was nailed to a Roman cross and hoisted up to die. And as he hung in agony there, with the blood flowing out of his wounds, God accomplished the redemption of the human race.

Jesus of Nazareth was not the only man that was crucified that day. Nor was he among a select few to meet death that way. History records that thousands of individuals were crucified on the hills around the city of Jerusalem, both before and after 30 AD.

So what made Jesus’ death unique? What was it that gave his death power to affect the life and destiny of every other person on earth? Well he was the only one who was the Son of God. He was the anointed one. He was God’s Messiah.

“Not so.” said the Jews, both then and today. “The only thing that Jesus’ crucifixion proved was that he was not the Messiah. He couldn’t have been the Messiah, because the Scripture, in Deuteronomy 21:22-23, says that anyone who is hung on a tree is cursed by God. Jesus was hung on a tree; ergo, Jesus could not have been the Messiah.” That is why the Jewish people do not accept Jesus of Nazareth as their Messiah.

But let’s go back to Palm Sunday. You see, there are two hills involved in this story that took place in the city of hills. One of the hills is called Calvary: Golgotha, the Place of the Skull. But the other hill is called the Mt. of Olives.

When you approach Jerusalem from the east, you can’t see it because there is a big hill in front of it. That hill is the Mt. of Olives. A traveller coming from the east, would have to ascend that hill, which is actually higher than the old city of Jerusalem, before he could see Jerusalem itself.

When you get to the top of the Mt. of Olives, the whole city spreads out before you. And that’s where Jesus was on Palm Sunday, five days before his crucifixion. He was seated on a donkey, at the head of an incredible procession, coming over the crest of the Mt. of Olives. Let’s read how John has recorded it for us in John 12:12…

The next day the great crowd that had come for the Feast heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed is the King of Israel!”

Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it, as it is written, “Do not be afraid, O Daughter of Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.”

At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that they had done these things to him.

Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word. Many people, because they had heard that he had given this miraculous sign, went out to meet him. So the Pharisees said to one another, “See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!”

Let’s see if we can understand what is going here. The time of year was Passover, which was immediately followed by the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This was one of the greatest feasts of the Jewish people. The city of Jerusalem was swollen with Jewish pilgrims who had come to observe the Feast.

The purpose of Passover, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, was to remind the children of Israel of their bondage in Egypt, and of the miraculous way that God had delivered them. Passover reminded them of that awful night when the angel of death passed over their houses because they had sprinkled the blood of a lamb on their doorposts. The Feast of Unleavened Bread reminded them of their hasty escape from Egypt, where they were in bondage as slaves. So hasty that they couldn’t even wait for yeast to cause their bread to rise.

But now, in 30 AD, the Jews were in bondage again, only this time, it wasn’t in a foreign land, it was in their own land. That was what made their captivity so hard to take. The Romans controlled Judea and their presence was felt all over the city of Jerusalem.

When you stood at the top of the Mt. of Olives, you could see the whole Temple Mount before you, just across the Kidron Valley. The Temple was a magnificent structure, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Josephus said “If you have never seen the Temple, you have never seen a beautiful building.”

But at the north end of the Temple Mount stood a huge, ugly fortress, called the Fortress Antonia. The Romans occupied it, and now, with the Feast of Passover at hand, that Fortress was full of soldiers. The Romans brought extra troops into the city to keep an eye on the Jews during their special feast days. When trouble erupted, it was usually then.

The Jews hated the Romans, and wanted nothing more than to be rid of them. They saw it as a sacrilege that the sacred temple should be overshadowed by a Gentile fortress. They resented the fact that even as they engaged in worship, they fell under the mocking stares of the pagan soldiers.

If Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread was all about deliverance, you can be sure that the Jews in 30 AD were praying that they would be delivered from the Romans. And the one who would deliver them was their Messiah.

The Messiah was spoken about in the Hebrew Scriptures. He would be a divine leader, anointed by God to save Israel. As the Roman occupation dragged on, getting harsher all the time, the Messianic hope of the Jews only grew stronger. By 30 AD, there were even groups of Jews who had gone out into the wilderness down by the Dead Sea. There, they awaited the arrival of the Messiah and the great war of liberation that would ensue.

The Messiah would be a wonder-worker; he would be filled with the power of God. He would be a king in the royal line of David. The prophet Zechariah (9:9) wrote that he would come to Israel riding on a donkey.

That sounds like a strange image to us, but in ancient times, before the horse came into widespread use in the Middle East, the donkey was the mount of choice for kings. In fact, we read of King David and his sons riding donkeys. Absalom was riding a mule when he got his head caught in the branches of a tree.

So these were the things that were in peoples’ heads on Palm Sunday. They were expecting the Messiah. It was Passover - deliverance time. Jesus of Nazareth was a wonder-worker. He had healed the sick; he had even raised the dead. He was an amazing man who seemed to have the power of God. Everybody was talking about him. And here he was, riding on a donkey, coming over the Mount of Olives toward Jerusalem. It all fit together perfectly. The Messiah had arrived at last!

So they took up palm branches and waved them. They took off their cloaks and laid them down in his path. They shouted “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

But then something strange happened. Turn to Luke 19:41. About halfway down the slope of the Mt. of Olives, there is a pretty little church with a dome in the shape of a tear drop. It is called the Church of Dominus Flevit - the Lord wept. And it is built on the traditional spot where Luke 19:41 happened.

Luke 19:41 As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”

In the midst of all this tumult and celebration, Jesus wept. He wept because he knew that their idea of a Messiah was not God’s idea of a Messiah. The people figured that all the Messiah needed to do was kick out the Romans and usher in the Millennium. But Jesus knew that there was far, far deeper work to be done.

He had come not to bring political freedom to the Jews, but spiritual freedom. They didn’t realize it, but they were in bondage not to the Romans, but to the power of darkness and sin in their own hearts. That was the bondage that the Messiah had come to break. And to break it, he had to die, just like the Passover lamb had to die to bring the people deliverance from their bondage in Egypt.

He wept because he knew they didn’t understand, they couldn’t understand, they wouldn’t understand that that is what their Messiah had come to do. They wanted a Mt. of Olives Messiah, but Jesus had come to be a Golgotha Messiah. And that was why the crowd ultimately turned against him, and why people reject him to this day.

In many ways, we tend to be a lot like those people on the Mount of Olives. We want Jesus to do for us what we think needs to be done. We want Jesus to help us to become nicer people. We want Jesus to take away the bad things in our lives, just like the Jews wanted him to kick out the Romans. We want Jesus to change our outward circumstances, so that we can get on with life. That’s our agenda.

But that’s not the agenda that Jesus has for us. Jesus isn’t interested in making a few cosmetic changes in our lives to help us be nicer people. He knows that there is a desperate, fatal disease at the very root of our lives called sin that needs to be taken care of. And that’s why he died. He died to make an inner change to our hearts. He died to take away our sin.

So if we’re going to receive Jesus as our Messiah, as our Lord and King, we’re going to have to receive him on those terms: as a Savior who died for us.

The story of Palm Sunday is the story of two Messiahs: the Messiah that the people wanted; and the Messiah that God actually sent. Which Messiah do you accept?

The prophet Zechariah, remember, was the one who prophesied that the Messiah would come riding on a donkey. That prophesy was fulfilled on Palm Sunday in the year 30 AD. But Zechariah goes on to tell us that one day the Messiah will set foot again on the Mount of Olives.

Zechariah 14:1 A day of the LORD is coming when your plunder will be divided among you.

Zechariah 14:2 I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it; the city will be captured, the houses ransacked, and the women raped. Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be taken from the city.

Zechariah 14:3 Then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights in the day of battle.

Zechariah 14:4 On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south.

Zechariah 14:5 You will flee by my mountain valley, for it will extend to Azel. You will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.

Zechariah 14:6 On that day there will be no light, no cold or frost.

Zechariah 14:7 It will be a unique day, without daytime or nighttime—a day known to the LORD. When evening comes, there will be light.

Zechariah 14:8 On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half to the eastern sea and half to the western sea, in summer and in winter.

Zechariah 14:9 The LORD will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one LORD, and his name the only name.

Zechariah is talking about the day when Jesus Christ will come again in glory and majesty to set up his kingdom on earth. He will come to the Mount of Olives. But he will only come there at his Second Coming, because at his First Coming, he went to Mount Calvary.

You see, there can be no victory, there can be no peace on earth, there can be no rule of God in the hearts of men until the sin problem has been taken care of. Jesus knew that. On Palm Sunday in 30 AD, the crowd wanted to crown him prematurely. But Jesus knew that he could not reap the accolades on the Mount of Olives unless he first went to Mount Calvary. And the same is true of you and me.

A holy city. Two hills. One Savior.