Journey to Jerusalem: Save Me!
By Dr. Tom Pace
April 2, 2017
Matthew 21:1-11

Our Scripture today is that story of the entry into Jerusalem. Jesus is coming in through Bethany and Bethphage. He’s come from Jericho which is where you cross the Jordan River from the gentile territory, and he’s come across the river down a very dangerous road from Jericho to Jerusalem. He’s reached the outskirts to the city – to Bethany and Bethphage which are twin cities which are like suburbs of Jerusalem. They are called the Daughters of Jerusalem. All the little towns around Jerusalem were called the Daughters of Jerusalem, and so there Jesus sends his disciples off. Listen to the Scripture this morning:
When they 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 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 of 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 he sat on them. 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 the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
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.” (Matthew 21:1-11 NRSV)
Join me in prayer, O God, open us up, open our eyes that we might see and our ears that we might hear. Open our hearts that we might feel and then O God; open our hands that we might serve. Amen.
I want to ask you three questions today to help us sort of determine what this Scripture passage might mean for us. And if you want to follow along in your bulletin I’ll be looking at some specific Scripture.
So start if you will, with verse nine: ^“The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
For much of my ministry, every time when we came to Palm Sunday we waved palm branches and sang the Hosanna songs. I always thought we were singing “Praise! Praise! Praise!” But then somewhere in my research I discovered that that’s not what the word “hosanna” means. It actually began as a Rabbinic Hebrew word – hosheane that then became brought into Aramaic, which was the language that Jesus spoke. Rather than them translate the word into Aramaic, they just brought the word in and it kind of got corrupted. It became “hosanna.”
The word hosheane means “Save me! Save me now!”
So as Jesus came riding in and the people were shouting, the word kind of became to mean simply “Salvation.” They’re crying out for a savior.
Now here’s my first question – do you need a Savior? That’s the first question – do you need a Savior?
Now I think for each one of us that means something different. I had a call from a friend this week who shared that her marriage is on the rocks. She doesn’t know what to do and she feels like she’s tried everything there is to do. She doesn’t want her marriage to end but she can’t figure out a way to save it. So she said, “Can you help me?” She needs a savior.
I had an opportunity to hear a lecture a week and a half ago from a man who is from Syria. He was talking about his family there and their fear of ISIS and their fear of the Assad regime and the famine and hunger that have gripped the village where they live. I thought, “Those are people who need a savior.”
I had a conversation with a man who has struggled with alcohol all of his life and was sober for a year. Then a few weeks ago he fell off the wagon and he hasn’t quite recovered. He said to me, “Tom, I don’t think I can do this.” He needs a savior.
We’re leaving on a trip to Israel in a couple of weeks and I was talking to someone, telling them about the trip. This woman said, “I sure wish we could go, I wish I could go.” I said, “Well, next time when we go you need to be sure to sign up.” And she said, “I could never afford to do it.” Then she shared a little bit about her financial situation and the responsibility she has and the income she has. I could see the anxiety on her face as she said, “I just don’t know how I even get by each week.” I thought, “She needs a savior.”
See, each one of us experiences this in a different way. But all of it comes – it is a manifestation of a world into which sin has entered and things have gone awry. Some of it is sin that has entered into each one of us, and the mistakes that we’ve made, and how we have drawn apart from God. Some of it is based on sin that has entered into the world around us and everything has gone awry. It’s like in Isaiah 6 where he says, “I am a man of unclean lips. I dwell among a people with unclean lips.” It is just a mess.
So you might be one who says, “I don’t think I need a savior. I make good decisions; my life is in pretty good order. Things are going well with me. The people around me make some bad decisions and I help them to deal with those. Yes, I make some mistakes, of course I do, but I don’t need a savior. I just need to try a little harder.”
I would say to you, “If that’s who you are then perhaps you need a savior more than anyone.” Perhaps you are that Pharisee in the temple who beats his breast and says, “Thank God I’m not like these others, a sinner.”
When you find yourself not identifying with the idea that you need a savior, you are further away from where God wants you to be than when you’re standing in control of your own life. And let me tell you something in as honest and as straight forward way as I can – there will come a time in your life when you stand at the edge of the Jordan River, looking over to the other side, and you will need a Savior. “Lord, save me!”
That’s the first question. That’s where the Christian journey starts.
Now admittedly, the Jews at that time when they were there shouting to Jesus “Save us!” they meant, “Save us from the Romans!” Save them from Roman occupation. But even more than that, there was a realization that things in their world in Israel were a mess. And this king was going to come in and make it right.
Do you need a savior? Do you think we as a community need a savior?
Here’s the second question and it comes if you go back a verse earlier in verse seven:
^“They brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.”
Now the Gospel of Matthew doesn’t say that they were palm branches but the other Gospels list them as palm branches. Matthew is always the Jewish Gospel and always focuses on Jesus as the Jewish Messiah, the fulfilment of the prophecy. So he looks back at the prophecy from Zechariah that when the Messiah comes he’ll come riding in on a donkey. And he’s saying, “This is the King – this is the one.”
The palm branches were a symbol of royalty. If you look at ancient money there are palm branches on the money as a sign of recognition of sovereignty. So my question to you is, “Who or what is sovereign in your life?” Jesus is inviting you – as Jesus rides into the city of Jerusalem– is inviting you to proclaim him king. To say, “Jesus is sovereign in my life.”
Here’s a way to ask the question. What is the driving force of the decisions you make? Is it economics? If it is, then money is sovereign for you. If the decisions you make are based on the economic impact of that on your life, then money is sovereign.
Maybe for you it’s politics. Or ideology. Maybe for you it’s social standing – what others think of you. And that’s the force that drives you. Maybe for you it’s family. Now that’s a good thing – to have family first. But we can make an idol even of family. We can make an idol out of that.
What is sovereign in your life? What Jesus is inviting you to do is to say, “I want you to be sovereign in my life. I want to live the way that you taught us to live. I want to live according to the rhythm of life that you showed us how to live. Where the last are first. Where we receive life by giving. That’s how I want to live and that will be what it means for you to be sovereign.”
I think sometimes we kind of make those Jews outside the city, who have gathered around, all of those folks who gathered around and proclaimed Jesus as king – we make them kind of superficial. We say, “They don’t really mean that. When they get into the city they’re going to change their minds. They’re going to shout ‘crucify him!’” Indeed that’s true and we’re going to talk about that. But let’s not sell them short. In that moment, they said, “Yes, I need a savior and yes, you are him!”
We don’t doubt their authenticity there, that they are authentically proclaiming him to be king. I believe as we celebrate this, as we think about this passage, we have Jesus riding right through our lives inviting us to join in the parade. To join in the acclamation of him as king. I suspect there were people who were standing outside the parade. This is a processional, everybody is going into the city for the pilgrim feast of Passover. Everybody’s on their way in and they’re proclaiming him to be king. They’re putting the palm branches down, and there are others, I suspect, who are standing on the side going, “He’s not going to do it. He’s not the king – I don’t buy it. He’s not the one. He’s a charlatan, he’s a fake. I’ve seen these messiahs before.”
And then there are people who just feel that call, that pull on their hearts and they want more than anything to step into the parade and pick up their palm branches and to join unabashedly, without reservation, the proclamation that the Messiah has come and that they found a savior, and that he will be sovereign in their world and their life. That the Kingdom of God is on its way. Yet they hold back for some reason. I hope that’s not us. I hope we don’t say, “We’ve been through this before. It comes every year.”
No, I hope this is a year in which when we respond and say, “Yes, yes, I will make you sovereign in my life, because I need a Savior, I will make you sovereign.”
Do you need a savior? Who or what is sovereign in your life?
The last thing I want to lift up is not actually printed in your bulletin, it’s what immediately follows this passage. This passage you have there, ends: “The crowds that went ahead. The crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.” “And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple and he overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those who sold doves.”
What is it in your life that needs to be driven out? What needs to be turned upside down?
You see, it’s when we proclaim Jesus as king, the first thing he does is go to the core, the heart of where we are and overturn the things that are awry inside. And that can be uncomfortable at best. It can upset us and you know, our lives can’t be the same after we proclaim Christ as king. They just can’t because he’s going to turn everything over. So what we begin to do is we push back.
The poet Edwin Poteet says, “They pluck their branches and hail him as king early on Sunday. They spread their garments. Hosannas they sing early on Sunday. But where is the noise of their hurrying feet, the crown they would offer, the scepter, the seat? Their king wanders hungry, forgotten in the street, early on Monday.”
But what happened between Sunday and Monday? He went to the temple and turned over the tables of the moneychangers and he drove out those who were selling doves. He made everything different.
So it’s a process. You have to see the order. The first thing we do is to recognize we need a Savior. The second thing is that we accept Jesus as King. And once that happens nothing can be the same again. Everything begins to change. It’s the power of sanctification, the Holy Spirit changing us. And the things that we worship within us, those get driven out. And that’s a process, it takes time. It doesn’t happen on a Monday afternoon. It happens over the rest of our lives. Things change.
That’s why during the season of Lent it’s such an important time of repentance. I can tell you in my life what I think needs to change or I’ll tell you some of it – I won’t tell you all of it. I’m not that silly. One of the things I know in my life is that I have this attitude that is just underneath the surface, that I get it just a little bit more than everybody else. Sort of a subterfuge of arrogance that’s there – a self-righteousness. That I understand things maybe a little bit better than most people. That’s got to be driven out of my life.
I recognize that one of the things that I have to eliminate is this desire to always be the good guy in peoples’ eyes. Never to be the bad guy, always the good guy. That’s got to go away. I repent of that.
I realize that I have to face the fact that sometimes – often I think – there’s nothing I can do, there’s no reason to try and change, I don’t need to lead the charge. The forces of inertia are just too strong. Here’s how I rationalize it. I say, “You have to pick your battles, Tom. You have to pick your battles.” So you give in to complacence and think, “Well, there’s really nothing I can do.” I repent of that.
You see, the process that once we proclaim Jesus as King, something’s got to change. And it’s not this sort of nice, easy growing. There is conflict involved, there’s upheaval in the heart.
So what needs to change in your life? When you joined St. Luke’s United Methodist Church we ask you a series of questions and the first is the most important. It is, “Do you confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of your life?” Lord – like king –and Savior of your life. “…and pledge your allegiance to his kingdom.”
“Yes, I need a Savior. Yes, I’ll make you sovereign in my life.” We ask the parents of those who are being baptized those same questions here. “Do you accept Christ as your Savior and pledge your allegiance to his kingdom?”
These are the essential questions of the faith. All in this single story. So on this day I ask you those questions. Do you need a Savior? Who or what is sovereign? And what needs to change?
Let’s pray together. Gracious and loving God, we confess that sometimes we think we don’t need a Savior. Sometimes we know we need a Savior but we’re not willing to make you sovereign. We want to control it all ourselves. Forgive us, God. Help us to see the brokenness of the world around us and our part in it. Give us the courage to step out and join the parade and make you sovereign, make you king. In our hearts, in our lives, in our world. And then enter into the temple of our hearts and turn the things upside down that need to be turned over and drive the things out that need to be gone. We pray in Christ’s name, Amen.