Ride On

On Palm Sunday, Jesus enters Jerusalem. But not as expected. Riding on a donkey, He reveals a kingdom marked by humility, peace, and a personal call to follow.

Transcript

Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 21. The gospel according to Matthew, chapter 21. And when you found Matthew 21, go ahead and stand for the reading of our gospel text this morning.

Notice these words that we have already sort of lived out a little bit today, but notice these words that's found in Matthew 21, starting with verse one. When Jesus and his disciples had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples saying to them, go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey to tied and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, just say this. The Lord needs them, and he will send them immediately.

This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet saying, tell the daughter Zion, look, your king is coming to you. Humble and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey, the disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put their cloaks on them. And. And he sat on them.

And very large crowd, a very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road. And others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and that 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 entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, who is this? The crowds were saying, this is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.

So, Jesus, we thank you for your holy, holy word. You have not left us without a word, but instead you have given us your word. And so today, by the power of your Holy Spirit, would you join us now to not only enlighten us to your truth, but to transform us in our inner man so that we can bear fruit, repentance and fruit to eternal life. We pray in your name. Amen.

And you can be seated.

Well, much has been said on Palm Sunday regarding the palm branches, the cloaks, the shouting, hosanna in the highest. And I don't know that I've ever just focused on the donkey, but if you could see in my prelude to the kids, that's exactly what I'm going to do in this sermon, is really locate this donkey in the text, which is a little odd, I must say, and then draw out some implications for us, because in this opening scene, what we typically refer to as the triumphal entry, in other words, Jesus riding into Jerusalem, the holy city, to triumph. Okay, it's going to be a long week, you know, you think our week is long because we have these services. Imagine Jesus. That's what I always think about, right?

Could we suffer with him just a little while? Didn't he ask his disciples to do that? Could you not pray with me just a little while? Couldn't we just take a couple of nights to really remember what all takes place on this one week of his life? If you notice, in each of the Gospels, they give a bulk of their material to the last week of his life.

I mean, we're at chapter 21 and this is Palm Sunday and Matthew's going to end at 28. And the other Gospels, we could just go through them and show how, how many chapters are given to one week of three years of ministry. The focus we are meant to lift our gaze to this week and the events that take place on even this very day when he rides in on a borrowed animal on a Roman road. Think about that. That a king that no one really fully understood, perhaps a king even today that we don't fully understand.

And you know, if you're just sort of reading this willy nilly, as it were, you just sort of breeze right over the donkey, you know, you're just like, yeah, this must just be, I mean, interesting detail perhaps, right? But it's fascinating that the other gospel writers, they too mention the donkey. But Matthew's the only one to mention the foal of a donkey or the colt. So he doubles up the animals here. Two donkeys in fact are mentioned.

And it's specific that there's the mama donkey, okay. And the baby one, all right. Or the young one, we could say, okay. And it seems as if Jesus rides on the smaller one, alright? Which is interesting in itself to really think about.

He chose this way to come into Jerusalem. And it's worth our consideration this morning to kind of just muse a little bit about why a donkey. Like what in the world kind of significance would this play at all in our story or for my life in 2026, right? Like, you know, maybe people in the first century, they owned donkeys and oxen. Like we own cars and trucks.

But I mean, let's get real. Probably no one in here has a donkey. Maybe one person, okay, don't raise your hand, but just bear with me in my understanding here of our times, right? It's just not a common animal. And so not today for us.

And so everything it seems that I'm going to do this morning is really on the back of this donkey, if you will, okay? And it's really. The first point I want to make is really what's made here. And it's a quotation. You can see it when it's indented like that in your text.

If you were looking at the Bible, there's a quote here, and it's actually from Zechariah. Remember, he's one of the 12 minor prophets, just oftentimes called the 12. Okay? And, you know, of course, 12 is an important number. The 12 tribes of Israel, the 12 sons of Jacob, the now 12 minor prophets in the Old Testament, and then, of course, the 12 disciples.

All right? And so this is not by accident that Jesus chooses 12, of course. And so Zechariah here is mentioned because Matthew's wanting to point us. Hey, hey, look right here. Notice this.

A donkey. Get it? And we're like, hang on, what? You ever had that happen before where somebody's telling a story and they're like, you get it? You're like, no, you're going to have to rewind and like, redo that again, because I must have missed something somewhere along the way, right?

And I think some of us are in that boat when it comes to why it is that Matthew would sort of bear down on this animal and bear down on this text in Zechariah. And of course, the real reason is because of this one little word this took place to fulfill. You see that word there, what had been spoken through the prophet. In other words, Zechariah. Now, I never have been one to.

I don't want to sound like this is a negative thing, but like, when people oftentimes, they talk about Christ fulfilling things in the Old Testament, they use it in such a way as to say, like, okay, this was predicted in the Old Testament. And. And look, in the first century, Jesus fulfilled that. Therefore, Christianity is true. And I mean, I get that apologetic sort of polemic, you know, it's an argument, right?

Like, oh, well, if he can do that, then we can trust him, and that's good. But to be honest with you, I don't know that that's ever fully impressed me as much as this point about fulfillment. The term actually has to do with filling up what is incomplete. You see the difference, the slight difference there. It's not just about prediction, okay?

It's not just about like, oh, that's cool. There's all these predictions, and there are, by the way, and they are a proof of some sort, right? Like, if you're looking for proofs, they are a proof, no doubt. But there's another aspect to this word fulfill. And it's literally to fill up to fullness.

In other words, something is still lacking when. When the Old Testament closes down, you know, when the last word was written, okay. And the Old Testament canon is closed. And then we have this sort of 400 and something years of what we kind of call silence. Even though the world was not silent by any means during that period of time, if you know anything about it.

But we call it kind of. Why? Because, well, we don't have anything from a prophet written down that. That is holy scripture. Nothing similar.

Similar to what you have at the end of Genesis, right? Genesis closes down and the promises of Abraham are not fulfilled, are they? So you're thinking, hang on. You know, it's like what they do in movies, right? Or shows that you watch.

You know, some shows, they end and you're like, oh, yeah, that was great. You know, they wrapped everything up cool. Other shows, you know, they kind of end on a cliffhanger. Like, you're like, bro, there's no way this could be the end. They obviously are planning season two.

Well, the Genesis closes, and you're like, there's still a lot of questions out here. I don't know that God has really fulfilled his promises. In fact, the very land promised Abraham, they're not even in it. They're in Egypt.

And then you turn One page, Genesis 50 to Exodus 1, 400 years just evaporates. And we see them in Egypt enslaved by the dominant leading world power of the time. Okay? And then God does his rescue plan, right? He sends interesting.

A little baby. You remember? Isn't it interesting how God kind of consistently works in the same way throughout scripture? He like, when God's ready to do a rescue plan, he sends a baby. Kind of interesting, isn't it?

But there's also another power that's at work killing the babies. You remember throwing them into the Nile. Well, if we say that Malachi is the end, or maybe in the Tanakh second Chronicles would be the end of the Old Testament. And it closes. We have about 400 years.

Again, silence. Just boom. I mean, if you're reading the Bible, you just, wow, 400 years is gone. And what picks up? Well, now we're under Roman rule, but guess what?

Still killing babies. You remember, oh, there's a king on the loose. We got to kill the babies. They start killing babies, and guess what? One baby slips through, interestingly, fleeing to Egypt.

You getting the point here? You know, it's one of those things where you're like, anybody keeping up and this baby goes to Egypt for safety, okay, until he can come back to his own homeland, the land promised to Abraham. And we get a towering figure like Moses. But now Jesus, who towers over the whole thing, in fact, is the pivot on which both the Old and New Testaments draw together in. In him, he is the central figure not only of the Holy Trinity as the Father sends him and as the Spirit points back to him, but he's the central figure of the Old and New Testaments.

He also should be the central figure of our own lives. And when he's not, we're told our lives are disordered. And so if you find disorder, disorientation, I don't know who I am. I don't know what to do. Listen, those are real human problems.

Like, I'm not dismissing them, just simply saying we need to make sure that God, that specifically Jesus, is magnified in our life as central, like, Lord, what do you want from this situation? Not just what do I want. What can I get and grasp at? Remember what he did when he came, was emptied himself and didn't grasp at his divinity. What an interesting statement.

Remember, the first sin is one of grasping for the fruit. I see that it's good and I want it, and so I grasp at it most. Every sin in our life is one where we determine this is good and grasp for it, and it produces death within. When it comes to full.

See that term, when it comes to its completeness, to its termination in us, it's death. The wages of sin, the payment for sin, the end of sin is death. But thanks be to God, right? The gift of God that end in us, that seed that's planted by faith, by the way, through grace, comes to fruition in eternal life and goodness.

And so this term fulfillment, Matthew sees as kind of, you know, my wife Jessica, she does these puzzles. I'm not much of a puzzler, but. But she likes these things, right? And, you know, I mean, when she starts getting down to the end, it does get a little excited. Oh, shoot, now I see what you're working on, right?

Like the picture's now coming into focus. And when you finalize that last piece, I mean, the worst thing ever, I mean, for you puzzlers, I would imagine, is like if somebody had already done that puzzle and they were missing one piece, and we've had that happen before, and you're just searching the house, it's like, ah, it's just not complete, right? Matthew said, hey, well, look, fulfillment. Here's the missing piece. Christ riding in on A donkey.

And he's going. Matthew's going, see? Get it? Get it. Like, he's fulfilling now.

He's filling up to completion. What was left off. In other words, what we ought to see on Palm Sunday is season two's beginning.

Season two is opening up, and he's reaching back. You know how they do at the beginning of the season, right? Like, you know, showing a little recap. So this is Matthew's way of, like, hey, hey. Got it.

Everybody good? Okay, let's move on. Because now this begins a whole new humanity through Christ. The old humanity, through Adam is dead and condemned, but Christ is starting a new humanity. That's why we must be born again.

Remember, we've all been born once. We're all under Adam, every one of us, under sin, under death. Boom. Check, check. We must be born again.

What does that mean? A new humanity, Humanity in Christ, born of the spirit. Okay, so this back to the donkey, right? The donkey actually shows up. I looked all this up, and it's.

You know, and I knew some of these. I just had not connected one of them. But in Genesis, Jacob blesses Judah. I'll be quick here. But here's what he ends up saying, is that Judah, the binding of this foal, interestingly.

So we're talking about, again, a foal. Real quick, I found out some stuff about donkeys, and if you kind of look up some of the etymology here of some of our terminology surrounding donkeys. Everybody with me in this. I don't want to say it, you know, but, you know, and like, Jack and Jenny. So Jack, donkey, Jenny, male, female.

Okay, this is. Jack's giving me the nod, so I know I'm in good territory here. Colt. Colt is like this larger, you know, specification for equine animals, like horses and whatnot, like the kids just said moments ago. So colt foal, same thing.

F, O, A, L. Okay? So when I'm using that term or the Bible is. That's really what it's getting to. Okay? And so Judah mentions this as a coming Davidic line, right?

Because remember, what line is Jesus from Judah? Okay? So this blessing way back in Genesis should be popping into the mind of anybody that remembers kind of the Old Testament story, which, by the way, is not a Jewish story. It's our story. It's not to take anything from the Jews.

Jesus gave it to us. He grafted us into this story. If you're gentile, okay? So it's not to steal it from the Jews. It's just simply to say that The Old Testament is not a Jewish book, properly speaking, it's a Christian book.

It really is because of Christ, who is a Jew, by the way. Okay, you see how that whole thing works there, right? All right? Deuteronomy also mentions for kings. And by the way, in Deuteronomy, you don't even have a king anywhere in focus.

If you remember, there's no king in focus at all. Okay? It's just Moses, right? All this. But he says, do not multiply horses.

What does that mean? Don't build up your military horses equivalent of war, alright? That's really. In the ancient world, they are tanks, they are fighter jets bearing chariots and so on and so forth, okay? And then you remember the famous one that one of the kids just brought out a Moment ago, numbers 22, it's Balaam.

You remember Balaam, right? He's supposed to be a seer. That's kind of a technical term we don't use a lot. S E E R. It's a prophet. Because prophets are supposed to be able to see the things of God.

Hence seer, right? Literally. But Balaam, he can't even see that the angel of the Lord is ready and drawn with a sword to kill him. And the donkey won't move and he's beating this thing and you know, he's wearing it out. Okay, just go and read it.

It's wild story. And the donkey ends up talking to him. Hey, buddy, I'm trying to save your life, man. You know, most of us would just be like, okay, sure, you know, you know, maybe, I don't know. But this donkey, he wants the best for his master.

And interestingly, he stays put. He's like, I'm not going over there. He sees something that the seer see, which is fascinating, right? And then of course, in the book of Judges, we see donkeys being used by kings or these judges, like local kings in peacetime. In other words, you ride in on a donkey when it's peacetime and really kind of the equivalent, I think, would it be like a limousine today, right?

So like, you know, our president, other dignitaries, they ride limousines. You know, they don't come in on tank. Because that would be kind of like, you know, if our president went and visited somewhere and he came in on a tank, it'd be like, oh, everything okay. Comes in, in a limo, it's like, oh, okay, cool. Donkey more stable, not to do with war.

That's really the key point here. And then in First Kings, we have David commands, think about this. This is David's wisdom to Solomon, his son. He commands him to ride a mule, okay? Very similar to a donkey here rod a mule in for his coronation rather than a horse because he doesn't want him saying, hey, I'm here to dominate everybody.

But instead, hey, peace. I bring peace to the land, right? And then in Isaiah, and this is probably most interesting, and this is why in the Christmas story, we often put in the symbols the, the donkey and the ox here at around the manger. This is, I mean, because it's not said in the text, right? But notice this, notice this.

The ox knows its owner, the donkey its master's crib. Kind of interesting little note there, isn't it? The donkey knows its master's crib. And then finally, in Zechariah, of course, victorious, riding on a donkey, humble, humble, bringing peace. In other words, the donkey helps represent both the fulfillment of the Old Testament of the Messiah riding in, and also peace and humility.

Now, on that point of humility, this term about being humble, it's not just thinking like less of myself, right? It's thinking more so, like not of myself at all, right? It's like being caught up in a good conversation. You're not thinking about yourself or if you've ever done speech. Anybody ever been like to speech class, you know, the last thing you want to do is think about what do I look like while I'm talking.

This sort of third person reflect. You're not in the moment. You know what I mean? That's the worst thing you could ever do, right? You're going to mess up because you're reflecting on what you sound like or look like, and the whole thing's going to be over.

Being humble is concerned with the other. But this term, it's interesting. This term actually also bears the weight of suffering. So it's not just being humble like the way we would normally think of it. It also has to do with suffering.

And so in this week of Holy Week on Palm Sunday, we sort of stand between cheers of hosanna in the highest and cheers of crucify him. And we have to hold those in tension this week until we come to next Sunday, right? Which is Resurrection Sunday. But this donkey and Jesus choice to ride in on the colt shows exactly what Lucy read moments ago from Philippians 2, what we call the kenosis or the emptying or the descent of the Son. In other words, we say it in the Creed, don't we?

He came down for us and for our salvation, remember, in the Nicene Creed. And it's indicated even in the Apostles Creed, isn't it? He became human and then he descended to the dead, where everybody goes and then he ascended. Notice, notice that movement of descent first and then ascent. And so this donkey bears the very one who is there to come down after us.

Think about it, this animal, we call it the beast of burden. That's typically the way it's been understood throughout humanity. Not just American way, but like the beast of burden was meant to carry other burdens. Think about that. Do you think that's significant that Jesus Christ is there, the one who's prophesied?

Remember that he will bear our iniquities, bear our sins. He will take our place. That's why he's here. He's riding in not to fight us. Think about this.

In other words, his peace comes not through war, but love.

And you know, apparently he's the only one who can do that.

Governments have tried and failed.

Governments still try and fail because there's only one government that is upon his shoulders that is truly peaceful, truly loving. This philosopher I'll read. He said there's really three ways that humans have interacted with each other. Hierarchy. So think monarchy and equality.

Both of them forced, by the way, which would be like communism. Okay, that's kind of two ends of the spectrum, right? One, very hierarchical. The other, you flatten everybody to be the same. Right, but it's all by force that both happen.

He said, but there's a third way that humans interact with each other. Christianity. He said with Christianity, the dominating images of are marriage and family. And although there is hierarchy there, it's not forced. And although there's equality there, it's not flattened by force, but instead we can see in the union of husband and wife and then the subsequent family being produced from that union.

Two dominating images that God himself identifies with. Doesn't He Remember he's not just king, but he's also father. Yes, he's also husband. Husband of Israel, husband of the church, his bride. He comes for us when he rides in on that donkey, humble, loving and bringing peace that surpasses all understanding.

And so I want to end with this.

There's another thing. Not just fulfillment, not just humility, and not just peace, but calling. Notice we're sort of the donkey in this story.

I don't mean that derogatorily because in fact no other animal got this benefit of carrying Christ into Jerusalem. No other animal but the donkey. But notice the donkey is called. In other words, Jesus sees over to wherever the calls the disciples to Go. And he says, look, the there's going to be this and it's going to be that.

And here's the thing. Untie that thing.

He calls them to untie it. Some of us are too tethered to this world. And this is really what Lent's all about, by the way, is untethering ourselves from the things of this world so we can be untied for use, untied for service, untied for freedom that we can't produce in ourselves. And guess what? He sends his disciples to help untie us.

Isn't that neat? Jesus doesn't go himself, does he? Instead, two by two, he sends them out. This is discipleship 101. This colt was tied up unridden, unbroken, and now is untied, ridden by Christ himself and submitted to Jesus, his Creator.

And so it would be interesting, wouldn't it, if we could have seen the donkey that was at Jesus crib, perhaps looking in on its creator. And now, right at the end of his life, guess who shows back up, but that same donkey being able to ride Christ. Now, full man, full God, to take our place as humans.

Isn't that what we're called to do? Take Christ to the world, bear Christ to the world. To do so, we too must be untied, liberated from our sins, liberated from self interest, free to serve. We too must understand that before we ever called his name, he chose us. He saw us.

Before we were ever formed fully, he knew us.

That's a different way to look at our salvation. Rather than we're in charge. He's in charge and we submit to Him.

We surrender. And then in classic Jesus fashion, He sends us out. He sends us out to bear him to the world. So, brothers and sisters, today, are there things in your life that remain unfulfilled? Perhaps promises that God gave you?

Yes, but more specifically, his character formed in us. Do you find still things lacking? That you're not like God? That you don't love those he loves? That.

That carnal nature still has a grip, that we find ourselves grasping at things?

I'm here to tell you today he's ready to fulfill his work in your life. You remember what Paul says in 1st Thessalonians 5, I pray that your sanctified body, soul, spirit, he who calls you is what faithful. He will do it. Let him do it today. Submit to him.

Surrender to him today. That means you'll humble yourself before Him. But what you'll find is peace with God. Not God riding in with a sword, but riding humbly into our life to conquer us with love.

The Lord has need of it. Say, why all of this? Because the Lord has need of it. Let me leave you with that thought echoing in your mind. Why would he call me?

Because the Lord has need of it? I don't know. He has need of you. He has need of you. Like me.

Yes, you. We're all ministers of His. And just as he said of this donkey, the Lord has need of it. Just tell him the Lord has need of it. He has need for you.

And he's calling you today to follow Him. Will you follow?

May it be so. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, amen.