Worship the Right Jesus (Luke 19:28-44)
Big Idea: Palm Sunday warns us not to remake Jesus to suit us, but to receive and obey him as he truly is.
Six days before Passover, the narrow streets of Jerusalem were jammed with people. From every village and town, Jews were coming to fill the city beyond capacity. Streets overflowed outside the city, and in the surrounding towns and villages, pilgrims found lodging. This was the Feast of Unleavened Bread, a time when Jews celebrated their deliverance from bondage in Egypt.
It was a bittersweet time. Even though God delivered the Jews from Egypt many years before, what about the Romans who ruled over them now? Tensions ran high. Extra troops had been ordered from the Roman garrison at Caesarea, 45 miles west. Trouble was expected.
A Jewish group called the Zealots opposed Roman rule and remained fiercely loyal to Jewish traditions. They looked forward to the coming of the time of salvation, in which God would deliver Israel from Rome, just as he did with Egypt. Could this be far away? Could the Messiah, the one who would deliver them, be far from coming?
Romans had recently arrested a number of the Zealot rebels, including a vicious and notorious killer named Barabbas. To make it worse, rumors circulated about a man named Jesus. It seemed ridiculous, but some were claiming that he raised a dead man by the name of Lazarus in Bethany. One of this man's followers, named Simon, was a Zealot himself. Some called Jesus the Messiah, and he too would be traveling to Jerusalem for the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Could he be the Messiah? Would this be the time of their deliverance?
The streets leading to Jerusalem were crowded with pilgrims. Donkeys, adults, and children clogged the roads. Word came that Jesus was on the other side of the Mount of Olives. The Mount of Olives was on the road leading to Jerusalem from the east. It rose to a height of 2,700 feet, some two hundred feet higher than Mount Zion. From the Mount of Olives, you get a stunning view of Jerusalem, particularly the temple area. And now Jesus was coming.
Zechariah 14:4 predicted that the Messiah would come from the east, from the Mount of Olives. Could he be the Messiah? It's hard to recreate the excitement that took place. Matthew 21:10 tells us that when Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred. As the crowd heard that Jesus was approaching Jerusalem, they ran out to meet him as he approached.
Years earlier, when Maccabee had driven out the hated Greeks, the palm became a symbol of Jewish freedom. It was a symbol of rebellion. Jews prayed a prayer from the Psalms named the Hosanna, which came from Psalm 118:25-27:
Save us, we pray, O LORD!
O LORD, we pray, give us success!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD!
We bless you from the house of the LORD.
The LORD is God,
and he has made his light to shine upon us.
Bind the festal sacrifice with cords,
up to the horns of the altar!
Their rallying cry was "Hosanna!" which came from Psalm 118:25, "Save us, we pray, O LORD!" When they cried "Hosanna!" they were crying out "Save us, we pray, O LORD!" Could Jesus, who had calmed a storm and fed a large crowd with just a few loaves of bread and a few fish, be the answer to this prayer? "Save us, we pray, O LORD!" Was Jesus perhaps the answer to the prayers of Israel?
Back in Jerusalem, soldiers lined the ramparts of the four towers of Antonia. This was the busiest day of the whole week of preparation, the day on which lambs were chosen for sacrifice. As the soldiers looked out to the Mount of Olives, the crowds could be heard shouting the great Hosanna.
Save us, we pray, O LORD!
O LORD, we pray, give us success!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD!
We bless you from the house of the LORD.
(Psalm 118:25-26)
The people were pleading for God's deliverance. And here came Jesus – the one they had all heard of. A procession surrounded him as he came down the Mount of Olives. The travelers halted as they surrounded the man, and the crowd continued to chant, "Hosanna! Lord, save us!"
In Jesus' procession, there was a donkey and its colt. The donkey was a symbol of humility, peace, and Davidic royalty. Cloaks were spread on the colt, and as Jesus rode through the crowd, they threw their cloaks down on the road. Others ran and cut branches from the fields and waved them in excitement. Some even procured palm leaves, symbols of Jewish freedom, from Jericho far away and waved them as they cried, "Hosanna! Lord, save us!" "Help, please, O Son of David!" Save us, please, O Son of David!"
All eyes were on Jesus, but his eyes were focused on Jerusalem.
And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” (Luke 19:40)
As he approached Jerusalem, tears welled up in his eyes. And he cried out:
Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation. (Luke 19:42-44)
Despite the celebratory atmosphere, Jesus wept as he entered Jerusalem. He recognized that the people had missed their moment of divine visitation and anticipated his coming death. Their rejection of him—even as he arrived humbly on a donkey—would bring judgment through foreign powers. Forty years later, Titus of Rome destroyed Jerusalem, killed its people, and left the city in ruins. Jesus grieved deeply over their squandered opportunity to receive him as their God.
This is the story of Palm Sunday. A city filled with tension, filled with Jews who were looking for someone to overthrow the Romans. A city in which the Messiah they desired would lead them to military victory. A city in which Romans were ready to crush any sign of rebellion. A city in which, ultimately, the very people of Israel would reject Jesus as the Messiah.
Palm Sunday tells a story of victory. Jesus finally received the recognition he deserved as he entered Jerusalem. The crowds welcomed him as Messiah, crying out, "Lord, save us!" Jesus usually shunned attention, but this time he accepted it, saying, "I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out" (Luke 19:40).
This story is also deeply sad. As Jesus entered Jerusalem, it coincided with the day Jews selected their Passover lambs. He came from the east, descending the Mount of Olives, which tradition says is the path the Messiah would take. His actions conveyed a strong message: he portrayed himself as the Lamb of God, prepared for sacrifice, urging others to see him as both the sacrificial Lamb and their true King.
Many people misunderstood his point that day. They looked for a political leader—someone to overthrow Roman rule. They waved a nationalistic symbol and chanted political songs. They were willing to make Jesus their Messiah, but only if he used military power. In essence, they were trying to make Jesus into something he was not.
If we're going to worship Jesus, we have to worship Jesus as he is. Worship is fine and fitting, but John 4:24 tells us that God desires worshipers who worship in both spirit and truth. Those waving palm leaves were worshiping in spirit—they were zealous and passionate and put their entire spirits behind their praise. But they weren't worshiping in truth. They didn't worship according to who Jesus really is; they were worshiping according to their own preconceived ideas.
Who is the Jesus you worship? The real Jesus, or the Jesus of your preconceived ideas?
In church as a child, I attended Sunday school. We sang songs like "Jesus Loves Me" and learned using cutout figures mounted on flannel graph boards. Over the table in my Sunday school room, there was an oil painting of Jesus, surrounded by sheep, with a child on his lap. This was the Jesus of my childhood. Gentle Jesus, meek and mild – someone kind and reassuring, with no sharp edges.
But is this the Jesus of the Bible? Well, the Jesus of the Bible was gentle to children and compassionate to sinners. But the Jesus of the Bible overturned tables in the temple and called Pharisees hypocrites, whitewashed tombs, snakes, and vipers. Many picture Jesus as going around telling people to be nice to each other. But how would telling people to be nice get a man crucified? What government would execute a man whose message is to be nice?
Many picture Jesus as an ancient Mr. Rogers, perpetually gentle and agreeable. Yet his contemporaries labeled him a wine-bibber and glutton, a companion of sinners. Religious and political authorities viewed him as a dangerous disrupter of social order. He rejected conventional pursuits of fame, family, and property, behaving instead like a revolutionary. This Jesus bears little resemblance to the tranquil figure who merely soothes egos and avoids confrontation. He was decidedly not a "nice guy" by societal standards.
Philip Yancey writes:
What would it have been like to hang on the edges of the crowd? How would I have responded to this man? Would I have invited him over for dinner, like Zacchaeus? Turned away in sadness, like the rich young ruler? Betrayed him, like Judas and Peter?"
He continues to write:
The more I studied Jesus, the more difficult it became to pigeon-hole him. He said little about the Roman occupation, the main topic of conversation among his countrymen, and yet he took up a whip to drive petty profiteers from the Jewish temple. He urged obedience to the Mosaic law while acquiring the reputation as a lawbreaker. He could be stabbed by sympathy for a stranger, yet turn on his best friend with the flinty rebuke, 'Get behind me, Satan!' He had uncompromising views on rich men and loose women, yet both types enjoyed his company.
Two words one could never think of applying to the Jesus of the Gospels: boring and predictable. How is it, then, that the church has tamed such a character—has, in Dorothy Sayer's words, "very efficiently pared the claws of the Lion of Judah, certified him as a fitting household pet for pale curates and pious old ladies?
Are you sure you know Jesus? Jesus warned that many people who think they know Jesus really don't.
On that day many will say to me, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?" And then will I declare to them, "I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness." (Matthew 7:22-23)
Accepting and worshiping Jesus means accepting him for who he claimed to be. As Ray Vander Laan says, we can't remake him into what we want him to be.
We can’t keep the things we like and throw away the things we don’t. If we want Jesus as the one who forgives our sins, we must also accept him as the one who says, "Love your enemies. Turn the other cheek. Pray for those who persecute you."
If we want the Jesus who promises to relieve the burdens of life, we must also accept the Jesus who demands that we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, care for the poor and lonely, and visit the prisoner
If we want the Jesus who, with power and conviction, confronts the evil of the demoniac and the hypocrisy of the religious leader, we must also accept the Jesus who touched the unclean and wept with the brokenhearted
It’s far too easy, however, even in our Christian community, to reshape Jesus into someone with whom we’re comfortable.
The kingdom of Jesus comes through forgiveness, love, and witness, not through power and politics or any other wordly strategies. The kingdom of God comes as people accept, in their hearts, the Messiah for who he claimed to be.
Our very existence compels us to praise God. Jesus himself said if we remain silent, the stones would cry out. Yet tragedy marked that Jerusalem entrance—the crowds shouted "Hosanna!" with spiritual fervor but without true understanding.
We sang praises earlier today, and soon we'll lift our voices with "Hosanna!" again. But beware the potential tragedy—worship filled with emotion yet lacking truth.
Who is the Jesus you worship? Have you crafted a comfortable savior who meets you on your terms? Or will you embrace Jesus as he truly is, accepting his challenging teachings alongside the comforting ones?
And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it. (Luke 14:26-27)
Is this the Jesus you worship?
Despite the tragedy of Palm Sunday, there is profound hope in the gospel. Jesus entered Jerusalem to fulfill his mission of redeeming humanity, not to be a political savior. He came as the Lamb of God, willingly offering himself as the ultimate sacrifice for sin. Despite the crowds misunderstanding him, Jesus' journey to the cross was an act of love, providing forgiveness and reconciliation for all who believe. Jesus, who wept over Jerusalem's rejection, invites us today to accept him as the true Messiah—not on our terms, but as the Savior who offers peace, salvation, and eternal life. The good news of Palm Sunday is that Jesus came to save us, achieving through his death and resurrection what no earthly king could.
