“The Lord is in Need of YOU!”

Scripture Text: Luke 19:28-40

As we continue on our Lenten journey, we join Jesus as He heads for Jerusalem and His encounter with divine destiny. It’s been a long 3 years, and as hard as the trip has been so far, the real pain has yet to begin, and the real destination has yet to be revealed.

The disciples are not especially anxious to go back to Jerusalem. Even though Passover is approaching, with it’s obligation for the sacrifice of a lamb at the temple, even though tradition tells them that this is the right thing to do, even though Jesus seems bent on returning to the city for some strange reason, they do not want to go.
They know that both the Jewish and Roman authorities are just aching to get their hands on this band of believers, and the disciples are fearing for their lives. And on top of that, Jesus has been acting pretty strange lately – all that talk about His having to die so that He can then be raised from the dead after three days in the ground. What in the world is that all about?
Nothing is making any sense anymore, and they would just as soon avoid this whole Jerusalem thing altogether!

Read Luke 19:28-34

And it continues to get stranger. Not only does Jesus tell them to take a man’s young donkey without any compensation, but He tells them what the owner is going to say and how they are to respond! And what in the world does Jesus need with a donkey? He’s never ridden one before – why now? After all, He is a famous rabbi, and He should be praised, not humbled by riding on such a lowly beast!
Glorious? Absolutely. A king? Certainly. But a conquering warrior? Not even close. A victorious king always returned home to accolades and grand parades, but the people who would be praising Christ on this day were the lowest of the low, not the grandest. Jesus had become the king of smelly fishermen, and despised tax collectors, and hated Samaritans,and
condemned prostitutes, and the unclean – the blind, crippled, and demoniacs. They were all shunned by the “good” people of the nation, and yet, Christ welcomed them all.

Some king! Some hero! These were not the people who His friends had hoped would be following Jesus, but then, neither were they! This is NOT who the disciples wanted Jesus to be, this was not how they had expected the saga to play out, and their life with Him was getting stranger by the minute!

Read Luke 19:35-37

But even so, there was still a great crowd of admirers waiting for them as they approached the gates of the city, and the shouts of adoration began to swell. Well, maybe this day would turn out better than they had thought.
Perhaps they were even remembering when Jesus told them “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:13-17) Well, that’s exacly who had turned out that day – sinners of all kinds and shapes and sizes. Not a righteous person among them!

Isn’t it strange - the God of all Creation, the Anointed One of prophesy, the long awaited Messiah, had come to earth just for the likes of these?

Glory for the inglorious! Healing for the unclean! Salvation for the undeserving! Riding into town on a borrowed donkey, humbled at His own volition, heading for a show down with earthly authority, with an outcome that no one would believe!

And He was about to do this for every single person who had come out to cheer for Him that day. His words “The Lord is in need.” weren’t meant for just that small burro. He was in need of these very people, and He is in need of each and every one of us.
But if He had just been a little more “politically correct”, if He had lightened up on the Pharisees and not been so down on all the work that they had done over the centuries, if He had just cut them all some slack,
He might have gotten more of the elite, the educated, the leadership of Israel! But of course, He had one message to deliver and it couldn’t be watered down. Not for them, not for anyone! His voice could not be silenced.

And the people could not be quiet, either.

Read Luke 19: 38-40

“Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest!” At least for now it was peace and glory. They were all caught up in the excitement of the moment.
But what would they be shouting later in the week? Would the message of “glory in the highest” still resound throughout the city? In retrospect, we know that it wouldn’t, that the voices of the people would, indeed, be silenced.

Are we too quiet? Or do we continue to proclaim the “peace and glory” of Jesus Christ no matter what comes?
Do our voices ring out on Sunday, but seem to be strangely quiet the rest of the week?
Do we hear the Lord calling our names, saying “I am in need of you”, but because of our busy, hectic lives, because we don’t want to bother those around us, because we think that someone might be offended at the name of Jesus, we respond “I’ll get back to you in a little while”?
Do we want the glory of Palm Sunday without all the struggles and pains and fears of holy week?
Do we want to hear God telling us “Well done, good and faithful servant”, but without our having to submit to all the inconveniences of actually following Him?
Do we expect to receive the glory of God without being truly yoked with His Son?

It’s Palm Monday. The donkey awakened, his mind still savoring the afterglow of the most exciting day of his life. Never before had he felt such a rush of pleasure and pride. He walked into town and found a group of people by the well. “I’ll show myself to them,” he thought.
But they didn’t notice him. They went on drawing their water and paid him no mind.
“Throw your garments down,” he said crossly. “Don’t you know who I am?” They just looked at him in amazement.
Someone slapped him across the tail and ordered him to move. “Miserable heathens!” he muttered to himself. “I’ll just go to the market where the good people are. They will remember me.”
But the same thing happened. No one paid any attention to the donkey as he strutted down the main street in front of the marketplace.
“The palm branches! Where are the palm branches?” he shouted. “Yesterday, you threw palm branches!”
Hurt and confused, the young donkey returned home to his mother.
“Foolish child,” she said gently. “Don’t you realize that without him, you are just an ordinary donkey?”
—Various sources, Homiletics On Line.

Without Jesus, we are just ordinary people who will continue to be ordinary. No grand parade. No shouts of “Hosanna”! No “glory in the highest”. No “heavenly peace”. No eternal life. We will just be left standing on the side lines, wishing that the crowd would keep the noise down.

Where will each of us be standing by this time next week? What will we be shouting then?