THE PASSOVER KING:
Palm Sunday 2017
John 12:12-16
Introduction:
The rain we had last week made think of something I shared some time ago written
by the famous theologian... Charles Schultz, yes, in a Peanuts comic strip…
Lucy and Linus were looking at a rain storm through a window and
Lucy asks: “What if it keeps raining until it floods the whole world?”
Linus replied “God promised Noah that would never happen again.”
Lucy sighs, “You’ve taken a great load off of my mind.” Linus gets the
last word: “Sound theology has a way of doing that.”
Sound
theology is a good thing! People have a lot of different ideas about who Jesus
is, and why He came. We shouldn’t be surprised, because the people in Jesus’
day also had a lot of different ideas about the Messiah, about who he would be
and what he would do. What is the truth about Jesus? Where can we find “sound
theology”? We teach and preach the Bible in this church, since God’s Word is
the source of God’s truth. We’ve been studying the Gospel of Mark for
a couple of months, but I decided to go back to John’s account of the Triumphal
Entry today. (At the rate we are going, next Palm Sunday we’ll look at Mark’s account!). The Gospel writers
had different emphases, but they all want us to know Jesus. Today we’ll depart
from our current series in Mark, and to look at the story of the Triumphal
Entry of Christ in it’s context in the Fourth Gospel, John 12:12-16.
On the one hand, we want to join with
the revelers celebrating Jesus, the coming King. But we celebrate Jesus from a
different perspective than the Jerusalem crowd that day, almost 2000 years ago.
We have the whole story... we know what they did not yet understand: the King
was also the Lamb, He was both the Sovereign and the Sacrifice that would open
the way for us to enter the Kingdom as citizens and sons by giving himself for
us! He is Lord, He is in control, no one could take His life, rather it was His plan to lay down His life for His
sheep.
John especially wants us to celebrate
His deity and to worship Him. He wants us to marvel at His love demonstrated in
the Cross and to love Him in return. He invites us to believe in Him: to submit
to His Lordship and obey Him. In the Bible we see hundreds of
prophecies that were made about the Messiah fulfilled explicitly in the life,
ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus. God had a plan, that plan
was revealed, in part, in advance, in these Old Testament texts, yet most
people simply did not yet get it. Palm Sunday leads us into the last week of
Jesus’ life before the Cross. The story unfolds exactly as God had
planned it—confirming Jesus’ identity, inviting us to consider how we should
respond to Him.
Context: Consider how
this passage fits into John’s Gospel account. After the raising of Lazarus in
John 11, the Jewish leadership conspires to put Jesus to death. Unwittingly,
the High Priest even prophecies the substitutionary death of Jesus
(11:49-51). Chapter twelve begins with a reminder that Passover was only
days away. Since the very first chapter the reader of the Gospel has had
to struggle with the idea that Jesus is both God’s Messiah (1:41) and “the Lamb
of God” (1:29,36). How could this be? What did the approach of
Passover portend? Both the anointing of Jesus “for his burial” (12:1-8)
and the plot to also kill Lazarus (12:9-11) sound an ominous
note as the story unfolds. The contrast with what is about to
unfold is an example of Johannine irony. The crowds, even the
disciples, did not understand the full meaning of what was happening, what it
really would involve for Jesus to fulfill His role as the “King of the Jews”
(see 12:16). As we consider this we’ll see…
The Maine* Idea: Palm Sunday teaches
us some sound theology: It invites us to worship the Passover King, the Lamb
upon the throne, and calls us to love Him and obey Him.
I.
Jesus is the King, and most people still don't understand! (12:12-13).
12 The next day the
large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to
Jerusalem. 13 So they took
branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, "Hosanna!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!"
As John tells us the story of Jesus,
there is a lot of irony in how it unfolds. The Jews were expecting a Messiah, a
King, a greater Son of David who would restore the kingdom to Israel.
They had somehow lost sight of the truth that the coming King was also to
be the Suffering Servant. The title “King” doesn’t show up a lot in
John’s Gospel, until chapters 18, 19 when in Jesus’ trial and crucifixion it is
the charge for which He is executed. But the few times it does appear are clues
that John gives his reader early on about His kingship:
The
first time Jesus is called “King” in this Gospel occurs in the first
Chapter, the confession of Nathaniel: John 1:49 49 Nathanael
answered and said to Him, "Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King
of Israel!" Before this confession however, the reader has heard John
the Baptist, twice, calling Jesus God’s Lamb: in John 1:29 we read "Behold!
The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!; then again in John 1:36 36 And
looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, "Behold the Lamb of God!" We
read that and take it for granted, we’ve heard the phrases and this language
applied to Jesus in church. But imagine the disciples when they first heard
it, imagine John’s readers when they first read this Gospel: for a Jew in the
1st century, “Lamb” whatever else it might mean, implied sacrifice. Lamb and
King? Both Sovereign, and Sacrifice? How could it be?
The
second time in John’s Gospel that the word “King” appears, is in Chapter 6,
and comes in response to Jesus miraculously feeding the 5,000 with 5 small
loaves of bread and a couple of fish. John 6:14-15 says,
“Then those men, when they
had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, "This is truly the Prophet who is
to come into the world." 15 Therefore when
Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king,
He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.”
In response
to this miraculous provision, they wanted to make him king by force. Jesus knew
their thoughts, what they intended to do, and went away. It wasn’t time for the
king to be revealed. John had just reminded the reader of the Gospel, a
few verses earlier: John 6:4 “Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near.” After
hearing John the Baptist call Jesus “the Lamb,” the reader of the Gospel has a
clue as to what is coming – the disciples still don’t understand. He is the
King – but also the Lamb.
The
third use of “king” in John’s Gospel comes that first Palm Sunday, the
triumphal entry. The crowd quotes from Ps 118:25-26 which says,
“Save now
(hosanna), I pray, O LORD; O LORD, I pray, send now prosperity. 26 Blessed
is he who comes in the name of the LORD! We have blessed you from the house of
the LORD.”
Notice
that they add something to the text: John 12:13 “…took
branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out: "Hosanna!
'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!' The King of Israel!"
They understand the coming One to be the King. What they said was correct, and
this time Jesus allows it, even though there is little doubt the crowd was
still clueless as to what was about to happen, what had to happen.
The reader of the Gospel, however, now knows…
1. Passover was coming in a few days; the Lamb would soon be sacrificed (12:1).
2. Mary had just anointed Jesus, and he said it was “for his burial” (12:2-8).
3. The chief priests were plotting to kill Lazarus, because his being raised
from the dead was irrefutable proof that Jesus was from God, and they wouldn’t
hear it (12:9-11). Even raising a man from the dead could not convince them, their
minds were made up, they would not consider the evidence that Jesus was the
messiah (see Peter’s word in Acts 2:22).
Part of the irony here is that the crowd, in quoting from Psalm 118 had
forgotten part of the context: “The
stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone...” (Ps 118:22). That rejection
would reach its climax in just a few days when the leaders insist: “We’ll not have this man to be our king! …We
have no king but Caesar!” They were looking for a king like the
nations around them. Jesus is King, much more so than any merely human
king. He is the Lord of all creation, our creator and redeemer.
A merely human king can demand our obedience, but not our heart.
Jesus is the Shepherd King who would lay down His life for his sheep. God
showed us his love, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for
us. Palm Sunday invites us to celebrate Jesus, the Passover King,
the Lamb upon the throne, and calls us to worship Him, to love and obey Him.
II.
He is the King, and He came in fulfillment of the Scriptures (12:14-15). John takes us from the
shouts of the crowd, which were ironically true, even though they didn’t
understand correctly who Jesus was, to the actions of Jesus, taken in
deliberate fulfillment of Scripture:
Then Jesus, when He had
found a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written: 15 "Fear
not, daughter of Zion; Behold, your King is coming, Sitting on a donkey's
colt."
The main point is that God had a plan,
and every action of Jesus was taken in submission to and in fulfillment of the
Father’s will. This week would lead to Calvary. The cross was not a failure, it
was not an accident, it wasn’t plan B. Peter said on Pentecost that Jesus
was delivered up by the predetermined purpose and foreknowledge of God. That
speaks to God’s love for us. That is sound theology.
It also speaks to the reliability of His Word. The Scripture, made centuries
before was fulfilled precisely: He is the King. All four of the Gospel writers point out the
fulfillment of prophecy, Scriptures written centuries before Jesus’ birth, is
one more testimony, another witness to the messianic identity of Jesus.
Ironically, even as He was rejected by the leaders of the Jews, their very
rejection fulfilled the Scriptures. Remember, after the resurrection, when
Jesus appeared to the disciples on the road to Emmaus. And as they recounted to
this “stranger” what had happened in Jerusalem, and revealed their confusion
and shattered hopes, Jesus said,
25 And he said to
them, "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets
have spoken! 26 Was it not
necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his
glory?" 27 And beginning
with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures
the things concerning himself.
Rather than causing one to doubt Jesus’ identity, the Passion
vindicated His messianic claim! They
needed to understand God’s plan: the Messiah is King, He is also our Passover
who was sacrificed for us. By the way, notice that John leaves out a word from
Zechariah’s prophecy: “Lowly” or “humble”. John was emphasizing Jesus’
power, control, sovereignty, and glory. He is the King of Kings! He is in control. Later, when they come to
arrest Him in the Garden, we’ll see that they couldn’t even touch Him unless He
allowed it. This King, the Sovereign who created and rules the universe, had
chosen to give himself as the Lamb, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of
the world. Palm Sunday invites us to
worship Jesus, the Passover King, the Lamb on the throne, and calls us to obey
Him.
III.
He is the King, the Passover King, both Sovereign and Sacrifice (12:16).
16 His disciples did not
understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then
they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done
to him.
John steps back for a
moment and explains from his position years later what he and the other disciples
were thinking at this point in the story, it was only when “...Jesus
was glorified, then they remembered that these things...”
The disciples didn’t understand at first what all of this meant. Even
though he had repeatedly, explicitly told them about the necessity of his death
and resurrection, they couldn’t grasp it. It was only “…when Jesus was glorified then they remembered…” In John, its
especially on the cross that Jesus is glorified (see John 3:14,15). The
cross was his lifting up, his exaltation, his glorification, because it proved
who he was, fulfilling the Scriptures, and it accomplished what he came to do,
giving his life for our sins. The fulfillment of prophecy was a vindication of
His identity, proving, from the Law, that is was necessary for the messiah to
suffer (Lk 24:44).
Notice a little further down in the near context, John 12:25-28,
"He who loves his
life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life
eternal. 26 "If anyone serves Me, he must
follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me,
the Father will honor him. 27 "Now My soul has
become troubled; and what shall I say, 'Father, save Me from this hour?’ But
for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name…"
Speaking
to Pilate of the nature of His kingship, Jesus said,
"My kingdom is not of
this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be
fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My
kingdom is not of this realm." 37 Therefore
Pilate said to Him, "So You are a king?" Jesus answered, "You
say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I
have come into the world, to testify to the truth…” (John
18:36,37).
You
see, He is the King, the Passover King. That is truth. That is sound
theology, and it demands a response from us.
What
is God saying to me in this passage? Palm Sunday invites us to worship Jesus,
the Passover King, the Lamb upon the throne, and calls us to love Him and obey
Him. What the crowds said on Palm Sunday was true, but they
didn’t grasp the full implications. Jesus was not a victim. He was in control.
And as Sovereign, he fulfilled the Scriptures, and came to give his life as a
ransom for many.
In Revelation 1:5 He is “…the
ruler over the kings of the earth… [He] who loved us and washed us from our
sins in His own blood…” In chapter
five John sees in his vision He appears “…in the middle of the throne as a
lamb that had been slain…” (Rev 5:6; cf. Rev 5-7, 22:1-3). The
Passover King, exalted, on the throne of heaven, worthy to open the scroll and
loosen its seals. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain. The One who
was, who is, and who is to come.
What
would he have me to do in response to these truths? What difference
does this doctrine make in my life? Our response can only be to stand in
awe of the matchless grace of God, to love the one who so loved us. Have you
come here this morning to worship King Jesus?
Maybe you are reading this “by chance,” or maybe you just came to church
today simply because you always do on Palm Sunday. Maybe you were invited and this
is all new. Does it ring true to you? Do you feel hope welling up in
your heart? It may be that God, who so loved you that He gave His only begotten
Son, is, by His kindness, drawing you to repentance and faith. Jesus said, “My sheep
hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give to them eternal life
and they shall never perish.” Worthy is the Lamb who was slain. The Passover
King, who gave His life, so that we could have life. Praise him
for his indescribable gift. Trust Him, receive Him. All hail King Jesus!
All hail Emmanuel!
And if we believe in who He is, we must
also recognize His authority. Later in this Gospel He will tell his disciples:
“As the Father sent me, so send I you…” At the outset of His ministry He
warned them, “If anyone would be my disciple, he must deny himself, take up his
cross, and follow me…” My life is not all about me. He chose you on
purpose, for a purpose. To be His witnesses. To love your neighbor so much,
that it becomes your life mission to show them Jesus, to point them to the
truth. Will you love the King? Will you obey Him? Is there
someone in your sphere of influence, in your oikos, that you can invite next week? There are still
more invitation cards – let’s get them out to our people and pray that God
would touch their hearts to come and hear the Good News of the Gospel! AMEN.
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