A Reenactment Reinterpreted

Transcript

Good morning, family. Family, if you’d be so kind as to turn with me in your Bibles to the Gospel of John chapter 12. This morning we’re going to be looking at verses 12 through 19. I’ll read our text and then we’ll pray and we’ll jump in. The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. 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. And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Zion. Behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt. 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.

The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. So the Pharisees said to one another, You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him. This, family, is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let’s pray. Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you that your word reveals, it speaks, it transforms, it convicts, and it changes us. We confess that in order for any of those things to happen, that the Holy Spirit must be at work. And so we pray, Holy Spirit, fill this place. Open our eyes. Open our hearts. Open your word to us. And may it do all of the things that your word does.

Historical Context

Father, I do pray that even in my weakness, that your truth would be proclaimed, and that you would move powerfully. And that you would move powerfully. We pray these things in the mighty name of our King Jesus. Amen. Family, we read and we preach scripture in light of its historical context. And what that means is that the passages that we preach, they don’t just drop out of the sky, disconnected from the world in which they were written. They’re shaped by the cultural, religious, and even political landscape of their time. And the reason why we pay attention to the historical backdrop is so that we might begin to see more clearly all the things that are happening in the foreground. So if you remember a few weeks ago, when we explored the historical context of John 10, when the Pharisees confronted Jesus as he was walking in the temple in Solomon’s colonnade,

we looked briefly at history of a man named Judas Maccabeus. You remember that? Judas Maccabeus was kind of a national hero. The Jews nicknamed him the Hammer. Judas was a man who fought back against Antiochus Epiphanes, the ruthless Greek king who violently oppressed the Jews in the 2nd century BC. The one who desecrated the temple. Judas the Hammer pushed out Antiochus and sparked a revival of Jewish pride and resistance. But Judas wasn’t the end of the Maccabean movement. In fact, his brother Simon Maccabeus picked up where Judas left off. And what Judas fought with blood and fire, Simon began to politically formalize. So under Simon, the people of Israel experienced a moment of real national sovereignty. And when all was said and done, the Jewish people declared Simon as their commander, their high priest, and effectively their king. After the temple was purified under his watch for a time, the Jewish nation was free from foreign rule.

So imagine what that did to the collective imagination of the Jewish people. Imagine what that set in their hearts as the model for a long-awaited king. A king who would ride into Jerusalem not just with hope, but with the authority to cleanse the temple and claim the throne. Well now fast-forward 150 years. The air is still thick with national longing. The Jewish people are back under foreign rule. This time, they’re under Rome. They’ve seen political power come and go for years. But deep within their bones, they still want what Judas and Simon gave them. Victory, restoration, and national freedom. They were longing for another Maccabean movement. And into that backdrop walks Jesus, or rather rides Jesus. Our passage this morning is a very popular passage, usually preached on Palm Sunday. It’s what’s commonly known as the triumphal entry where Jesus enters into Jerusalem, and he is welcomed by a massive crowd of people.

But this is not just a standalone story of Jesus entering into the city. It’s actually a reenactment of the Maccabean movement. And the imagery of that reality is weaved all throughout this story. The crowd swells in celebration and coronation. The people wave palm branches, the people shout Hosanna, which is a call for salvation. They’re all playing their part in a well-known scene as they welcome their king. The very things that have been done for Simon Maccabeus. But here’s the twist. Jesus, knowing the impulse of the crowd, participates in the reenactment, but he reinterprets it. He rides not on a war horse, something that Judas or Simon would have done, but on a donkey. He doesn’t come to cleanse Rome out of Israel. He comes to cleanse sin out of his people. He doesn’t come to establish a political kingdom, but rather a redemptive kingdom. And in so doing, he subversively confronts their expectations and

ours about the kind of king Jesus is. And family, in the same way Scripture is always couched in historical context, Scripture in every way speaks directly into our current context. Just like the Jewish people back then, we too still attempt to shape Jesus into the kind of king that we want. But if you want Jesus as king, you must receive him on his terms. And this is the provocative beauty of John 12. It’s a reenactment reinterpreted. It’s an expectation appropriately explained by Jesus and by creative design. And so what I want to do this morning is walk you through this scene carefully, letting Jesus define his kingship for us and not the other way around. And to help us, I’ve broken up this text into three sections that will hopefully and helpfully carry us through this narrative. So in verses 12 through 13, we’ll look at the reenactment of the crowd.

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The Crowd’s Reenactment

In verses 14 through 16, we’ll look at the reinterpretation of the king. And then in verses 17 through 19, we’ll look at the reactions from the world. Each of these scenes, family, offers something profound about who Jesus is, what he has come to do, and how we are meant to respond. And so let’s begin with scene one, the reenactment of the crowd. Verse 12. The next day, the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. 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.

Now before we begin, it’s important to understand that this crowd-swelling moment that Jesus is writing into didn’t come out of nowhere. In fact, there are two things that predominantly contributed to this movement. First, John tells us that it’s the next day, okay, which is meant to point us back a day to the raising of Lazarus. So if you remember when Andre preached this, Jesus just one day earlier had called a dead man, his closest friend, out of the tomb. And so obviously news like this would have spread like wildfire throughout the region. The people who witnessed it, they would have been telling everyone they knew about what happened. I mean, it’s not often where you hear about someone who was dead even, you know, who sat in the grave for a few days and then is miraculously raised to life by nothing than the powerful words of a man.

So this news, of course, went viral. And the people who saw it happen, they went and they told everybody about it. And then that contributed to the size of the crowd. And then secondly, this scene here takes place about one week before the Passover. And so the city was already growing numerically. Electric with anticipation, Jewish people from all over the place were flooding into Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. And so the scene is filled with this kind of nationalistic energy. I mean, you remember what the Passover was all about? God delivering the Jewish people from their Egyptian oppressors. So beneath the religious celebration was also a national component that was thick in the air. Because at this point in history, Israel wasn’t a free nation. They were under the iron grip of Roman occupation. Roman troops walked their streets. Roman governors sat in judgment over all of their affairs.

Roman taxes burned in their pockets. And Roman power hung like a shadow over every sacred festival the Jews celebrated. And so as they prepared for Passover, the people likely whispered, Could this man who is powerful enough to raise someone from the dead be the one? Could this be the king that we’ve been waiting for? You see, they weren’t just longing for spiritual renewal. They were hungry for liberation. They wanted a ruler who would overthrow Caesar’s empire the way the Maccabees once overthrew the Greek empire. And now Jesus enters the scene, fresh off the powerful resurrection of Lazarus, headed straight for the holy city with a growing crowd excited. And you can almost feel the national energy begin to rise. And what’s interesting is that the people don’t just follow Jesus into the city. They begin to reenact something familiar. They act out what history has taught them to do

according to the arrival of a king. They grab palm branches. They shout Psalm 118. They march out of the city to escort him into the city like royalty. And to begin to get the fuller picture of what’s happening here, we need to understand what all of that meant. So why palm branches? Well, palm branches were more than just festive decorations. They were loaded symbols. Nationalistic symbols. In our culture, they would be akin to something like stars and stripes. The Jews waved palm branches when military leaders returned home from battle, demonstrating that they’ve brought peace. In fact, palm branches were etched onto Jewish coins that were minted during the Maccabean revolt. So they were in every way emblems of previously hard-fought independence. So to be clear, this wasn’t just a spontaneous celebration with leftover tree clippings that the Roman landscapers left behind. It’s a reenactment of something they’ve heard before.

Something etched into their national memory what would have unfolded a century earlier after Simon Maccabeus led a successful campaign to reclaim Jerusalem from foreign rule. The people welcomed him with palm branches, with music, and with shouts of praise. The book of Maccabees, 1st Maccabees, which is not scripture, but it actually gives us some good history of what happened. It tells us that when Simon and his men entered the fortress, the people met them with hymns and thanksgiving, waving palm branches and celebrating their deliverance. With Simon, the palm branches were part of a parade of peace and triumph. A moment of national pride. And in that parade of peace, they were declaring Simon as their political ruler, their commander, and their priest. So in this moment with Jesus, they’re simply reenacting the same story. The crowd knows what to do. They’ve been taught this by their ancestors.

They’ve read this script before in Maccabees. So they go out to meet Jesus like their forefathers went out to meet Simon. They roll out this makeshift red carpet and they shout Hosanna. A cry that means save us now. And right on cue they quote Psalm 118, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. That cry itself comes from verses 25 and 26 where the people cried, save us we pray. Oh Lord, oh Lord, we pray give us success. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. So when the people in John 12 shout Hosanna, they are deliberately invoking a cry for help from a long anticipated hope. Declaring out loud that they believe this one is coming to save them from their Roman oppressors. But they don’t stop there. They actually add in their own commentary and context to their quote. They say even the king of Israel.

So you can feel the political expectation in the air. The people aren’t simply offering polite admiration for this very kind Jesus. They want a king. They’re making a political statement. This is our new king. This is the one who will deliver us. This is our long anticipated liberator. And honestly, we shouldn’t just dismiss what they say as this kind of gross misunderstanding. Because what they’re saying or shouting isn’t necessarily wrong. It’s just incomplete. They were right to call him king. They were right to hope for salvation. But what they meant by those words and what Jesus meant by fulfilling those words are two very different things. You see in every way they were hoping for a second Simon. They were hoping for a second Simon. A Messiah who would overthrow Rome the way Simon overthrew the Greeks. A king who would drive out their oppressors by the sword.

Purify the temple through military might. Restore national dignity through political reform and finally give them their freedom back. So they weren’t wrong to long for justice. They weren’t wrong for wanting liberty from their enemy oppressors. They weren’t wrong to cry out for deliverance or salvation. They just didn’t realize that the enemy wasn’t outside the walls of Jerusalem with Rome. The real enemy was inside the walls of their own heart. And this is precisely why Jesus needs to reinterpret their reenactment. Because everything on the surface seemed right to the people. Everything was going according to script. But in so many ways the people misread the whole thing. It was very wrong. Which is why Jesus does something by design that throws the whole drama of this reenactment completely off balance. And this brings us to scene two. The reinterpretation of the king. Verses 14 through 16.

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The King’s Reinterpretation

And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it. Just as it is written. Fear not daughter of Zion. Behold your king is coming. Sitting on a donkey’s colt. 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. All right. So if you were standing in the crowd on that day. Caught up in the joy and the shouting and all the palm branches. Your eye would have naturally shifted to the one figure at the center of it all. And as your gaze began to set on Jesus. One thing would have clearly stood out to you that would have rocked your expectations a bit. Jesus wasn’t riding on a stallion. He wasn’t mounted high on a warhorse like a conquering general. He was on a young donkey.

A beast of burden. So low to the ground that Jesus’s feet were likely being dragged through the dirt. Leaving a cloud of dust in his train. This is not the picture of power. This is not at all intimidating. And it’s definitely not regal. If anything it’s bootleg. Completely awkward. I mean you’ve seen donkeys before.

They are a strange looking creature. Stubby legs. Big ears. Some people find them to be cute. But most people, most rational people. They recognize those are strange creatures. And the reality is for the most part donkeys aren’t meant to carry people. They’re meant to carry cargo. They’re meant to carry cargo. So this isn’t exactly a regal king’s entrance. And that’s by design. You guys remember back in 2016 when Donald Trump literally rolled up to his campaign rally in a garbage truck? Now despite what you think about him or the message he was sending, that act in every way was political theater. It was meant to intentionally provoke a response from the crowd. With Donald Trump it was equal parts trolling and equal parts political statement. He was saying at least how I interpreted it, I’m here to clean up this mess. And in a way that’s the kind of political theater Jesus is doing here.

So long before Donald Trump thought of the idea, Jesus already figured it out. Only with Jesus it’s not with sarcasm, it’s not with spite, it’s not meant to troll the religious elite, and it’s not primarily for political theater, but to display with sovereign clarity the prophetic power of the kind of king he is. He knows exactly what he’s doing. He’s intentionally stepping into the moment riding a donkey. And fulfilling prophecy while flipping everyone’s expectations on their head. This isn’t just humility, family. This is a holy disruption. He’s preaching something with his transportation. He’s saying, I’m not here to conquer by force like other kings. I’m here to conquer hearts. He’s saying to the people, I am the king of Zechariah 9, gentle, lowly, righteous, bringing salvation on a donkey’s colt. He’s not grabbing for power. He’s redefining it. You see, this is the kind of king he is.

And though it’s not the kind of king that people wanted, it’s exactly the kind of king they need. And though it’s not the kind of king that people wanted, it’s exactly the kind of king they need. His prophetic drama is preaching without even saying a word. My kingdom is not of this world. And what’s crazy is if you were in the crowd and if you knew your scriptures, then the very thing that awkwardly stood out to you would have stirred your memory. Because Zechariah 9, 9 had promised this very image that was being dramatically played out by Jesus.

Zechariah 9, 9 says,

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your king is coming to you righteous and having salvation as he humbled and mounted on a donkey on a colt, the fowl of a donkey.

— Zechariah 9

(ESV)

And what’s fascinating is that Jesus in this drama doesn’t just fulfill the prophecy. He embodies the prophecy. And by doing so, he reinterprets the whole moment. The people want a king of power. Jesus gives them a king of peace. The people want a revolution. Jesus brings reconciliation through repentance. They expect him to go to war with Rome, but he has come not to go to war with Rome, but to go to war with sin, Satan and death. And family, don’t miss what’s happening in this moment, because John doesn’t want you to miss it either. The drama of Jesus is meant to reveal not only the kind of king he is, but he’s also

using the drama to point people to the scripture so that they might recognize from the scripture his true identity. And that’s a good word for us today. If you’re going to point people to Jesus, if you’re going to explain to your family and your friends, your co-workers, who Jesus is, don’t just point them to your story. Don’t just point them to the vibes you feel because you’re a Christian. Because you’re a Christian. Don’t just point them to your church or their convictions. Point them to the scriptures. Because the scriptures are what reveal exactly who he is. You know, one of the biggest problems in our culture right now are people sharing their personal vision or personal version of Jesus. Not the Jesus of the Gospels. Not the Jesus of Isaiah or Zachariah. Not the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Not the Lion of Judah who is coming to judge. Just the Jesus they’re most comfortable with. For some, he’s a political Jesus. For others, he’s therapy Jesus. For some, he’s activist Jesus. For others, he’s vibes Jesus. And for others, he’s hyper-tolerant spiritual life coach Jesus. But listen, if that’s the Jesus you follow, and that Jesus is crafted into your own preferences and not by scripture, then you’re not following him. You’re following you.

The real Jesus is revealed in the scriptures. Family, this is why we try so hard to bring the scriptures to bear on your life. From the moment we have the call to worship, we give you scripture to the call to worship. To the closing of the service, we give you scripture. Because all of it testifies of the kind of king he is and what he’s come to do.

The moment we detach him from scripture, we lose who he actually is. So if you want people to know Jesus, give them Bible. Quote the Bible. Preach the Bible. Testify the Bible. Because when people are drawn to Jesus, what they need is not your version of him. But the words version of him. And what’s crazy is that the scripture Jesus points them to was written over 500 years before this moment even happened. That means scripture has been long testifying of Jesus even before the arrival of Jesus.

Think about this. Not only was this the fulfillment of prophecy, but this is effectively five centuries of waiting. 500 years of your king is coming. Hold on. And in those 500 years, nothing. Silence. Oppression. Foreign rule. Rome. Generations had come and gone. Kings had risen and fallen. Empires had marched in and marched out. And still the promise to God’s people hung in the air. Hung in the air. Fear not. Oh, daughter of Zion.

Don’t worry, my people. I’m coming. And now here comes Jesus. Not on a war horse. Not with soldiers at his side. But on a borrowed donkey’s colt. And in that moment, Jesus, listen, finally reveals his identity. I am the king that the scriptures testify to. You remember up to this point, Jesus was very private concerning his identity. They keep asking him, who are you? I mean, in John chapter 10, we went over there. Say that the Pharisees just tell us plainly, man. Who are you? And for whatever reason, Jesus is like, chill.

Here he finally reveals himself. With the drama of the donkey. Here the silence is broken. Jesus is the king who has finally come to save his people. What God promised centuries before under the shadow of exile, he is now fulfilling in broad daylight in the middle of Passover week for all the world to see.

It’s also important to understand that throughout this reenactment, Jesus is not rejecting their praise. He’s receiving it, but he is reframing it. Yes, he is a king worthy of praise. Yes, he comes in the name of the Lord, worthy of praise. Yes, he brings salvation, worthy of praise.

But not the way they think. Not the way they think. Not through swords. Not through riots. Not through political power. But through submission and a bloody cross. And in so doing, Jesus is telling them and us something essential. He will not be the kind of king that we try to make him to be. He will not be hijacked by our hopes.

Or our organizations. He will not be used by our politicians. He will not be co-opted by the crowds or crowned on their terms. He will come as he is. Humble and holy and completely unlike any ruler we have ever known in our world. And this is so countercultural and so otherworldly that even his disciples don’t fully understand what’s happening in the moment. Verse 16 tells us his disciples did not understand these things at first. And that sounds crazy if you think about it. Because they were with Jesus this whole time. They’ve been walking with him, learning from him, asking him questions, kind of observing the kingdom unfolding with Jesus. And they’re clueless. They saw his kingship unfold before their eyes. And yet they didn’t fully grasp what was happening in that moment.

In fact, it wasn’t until after the resurrection of Jesus, after Jesus was glorified, where they finally began to put things together. Oh, that’s what Jesus was talking about. And family, this is an encouraging word for us, too. I mean, how many of you figured out Jesus completely and what he’s doing? Sometimes we don’t see clearly in the moment everything that the Lord is doing. Sometimes we misread what Jesus is doing, especially in difficult situations. We bring him our hopes. We bring him our assumptions. We bring our petitions and our expectations. And then only later, sometimes much later, do we realize he was doing something far better than what we expected in the moment. Something deeper, something more suitable to our specific needs and specifically for our sanctification. He wasn’t just giving us what we wanted in the moment, but he was giving us what we ultimately needed.

Politics and the Gospel

And that’s exactly what’s happening in John 12. Jesus is riding into a moment where the people are full of patriotic passion and longing for political freedom and saying, I am your king, but not the kind of king you think I am. I am the kind of king that you actually need. I have come to save, but not from the things that you want me to save you from. In fact, this whole drama and the fulfilling of prophecy was to reinterpret the political expectations of their time. And family, this same tension is still playing out in our world today. In our country and in our churches, we still have people who want Jesus as nothing more than a political king. And brothers and sisters, I want to say this carefully

because I think it’s important for us to understand this. And I think this is what the text is calling us to wrestle with. Listen, liberal politics or social justice is clearly not the gospel. But the same is true for conservatism or patriotism. That’s not the gospel. Now, maybe some of those political frameworks carry some echoes or faint traces of the kingdom of God, but neither one is actually the kingdom of God. And Jesus didn’t come to establish his reign on the back of either one of those. The political left, which often attempts to emphasize compassion, equality, liberation from oppression, and social justice. These are real and meaningful themes that I think resonate with the heart of Jesus. But when those things are pursued apart from Jesus, apart from his word, apart from the transforming power of the gospel, apart from complete submission to him,

well, then justice turns into judgmentalism. Sin gets redefined. Salvation becomes social progress, and the grace of God towards rebellious sinners gets left out entirely. And on the other side, the political right, which often champions personal responsibility, moral clarity, and traditional values, which are very good things. But when those things are untethered from humility, repentance, and the radical grace of Jesus, and without a complete submission to him and his word, it can turn into self-righteousness and moral superiority. And if we’re not careful, if we’re not clear, we can slowly and subtly start to believe that shifting someone’s political position is the same thing as saving their souls. We can start thinking that winning them to our side of the political aisle is the same thing as winning them to Christ, but it’s not. And it’s not even close.

Now, listen, you can vote the right way. You can champion the right causes. You can say all the right things, and you can still be lost, unconverted, still separated from God because of your sin. You can appear godly, be aligned with all the moral clarity necessary, but still reject the real Jesus when he calls you to lay down everything and follow him. Because at the end of the day, family, Jesus doesn’t just want your vote. He wants your entire life. And family, we also have to understand that reforming someone’s politics isn’t the same as proclaiming the gospel. You understand that? Proclaiming politics is not the same as proclaiming the gospel, and saving the culture isn’t the same thing as saving souls. Only Jesus does that. Only the gospel does that, and that’s why he came. He didn’t come to ride on your donkey or your elephant.

He came riding his own donkey, and he came humbly to lay his life down for sinners. Yes, he cares about justice. Absolutely. Yes, he confronts sin and provides moral clarity. And yes, he transforms culture, but he does it not through legislation or activism or cultural or political dominance. He does it through the cross, through his own body, broken for rebels on both sides of the aisle. Don’t hear me saying, well, Thomas thinks conservatism is bad. Or don’t hear me saying politics is bad. I’m not saying that at all. I’m saying this, those things are different things.

We need to be clear about the differences so we don’t create false assumptions, so we don’t create false expectations. And listen, just to frame this properly, God has established his kingdom, and in his perfect wisdom, he made the church the visible outpost of his kingdom, not a political party. Family, the New Testament never gives us a mandate that says reform the culture or take back the government or make society more moral. That’s just not the strategy that he’s given the church. Now, listen, that might be the byproduct,

but that’s not the mandate. God’s plan from the beginning has always been to plant his church in the middle of a broken world so that through the church, his light would shine in the darkness. Your very presence among this gathered people is shining light into our dark city. You’re doing more than just sitting here listening to some dude talk about these things.

You’re light in this dark world. That’s how God has determined this to work, that through the church, his heart for justice would be displayed properly, that through the church, his mercy would reach the needy, that through the church, his holiness would confront sin, that through the church, a unity of very diverse people would be made visible. In other words, we don’t watch our world fall apart and say, oh man, I hope that the government does something about that because it’s crazy.

No, God says you are the body of Christ. You are my people. You, child of God, are my ambassadors who will carry my gospel into this broken world. And if that plays out through God’s people pushing these realities into our world through political spheres, praise be to God.

But we should never expect the government to do what God has actually entrusted to the church. We should never expect politicians to fix what’s broken in our world because they can’t. It’s putting a band-aid on a gaping wound. What’s broken in our world is hell-bent sinners doing the things that hell-bent sinners do. They need Jesus to save them. They need new hearts like you and I needed new hearts. You remember what it was like before you were saved? For some of you, it’s a lot more clear than others. I definitely needed a new heart.

True freedom and liberation from the tyranny of sin comes only through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Listen, our goal in this world is not simply social improvement. It’s not even political order. It’s spiritual resurrection. And no politician can do that. No policy can accomplish that. because only when hearts are made new by the regenerating work of Jesus will anything else in our world be made right. That’s what we place our hope in, family.

I have to remind myself of that reality. It’s so easy for us to place our hope in the government or in the right policies to fix what is broken in this world. It won’t. It won’t do it. And listen, the reason this is so important to understand, family, is because we are living in a cultural moment that is completely divided politically. And in the wake of this political polarization, something surprisingly providential is happening. People who were once uninterested in Christianity are now starting to show up at church. I mean, this is happening with such frequency that it’s highly likely you’ve seen these things on your social media feeds. In fact, immediately after the tragic assassination of that CEO and the very public celebration of that wicked evil act, thousands of irreligious unchurched people on both sides of the aisle began flooding social media and saying,

man, I need to start going to church. Have you seen it? Have you seen it? I think it’s because when evil becomes that blatant, that public and that normalized, something deep in the human heart says, man, if something like that evil can exist in our world, then maybe the opposite is true. Maybe there really is a good and righteous God that exists. And in the wake of that reality, there are many people trying to decide which side of the fence are they standing on. It’s not a political side. It’s the side of evil and righteous. And in God’s providence, he has taken this evil tragedy.

In the sovereignty of God, he’s taken this evil tragedy that happened to this Christian man and he’s turned it into something beautiful. A cultural moment where some are walking into churches curious about Christianity who might never would have before. And it’s not just churches. They’re walking into conversations with Christian coworkers. They’re walking into the comment sections on social media. They’re walking into Christian homes with questions. And so family, we have to be clear about what these people are walking into. Do you understand what I’m saying? We must proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, not some sanitized version shaped by cultural conservatism. As if Christianity is nothing more than moral clarity and traditional values.

That means we don’t just welcome people into our morals and values. We introduce them to the king. A king who doesn’t fit into anyone’s political boxes but dies for all of our immorality and gives us new hearts so that they ultimately transform our values. If we want to be faithful, we must clarify the differences between Christ and conservatism. Because listen, Jesus didn’t come just to save America. I was just in Tokyo last week. I’m walking the streets of Tokyo and I see thousands of people who are dead in their sins with no hope. There is 0.8% Christians in Tokyo. God doesn’t just care about America.

He didn’t come to protect our political ideology. He came to save the world because the world’s greatest need, no matter what political climate they sit in, is the need for a savior who will die for their sins. He came to save sinners from both their unrighteousness and their self-righteousness. That includes my self-righteousness.

The World’s Reactions

So let’s be careful to not confuse the gospel with political reform. Let’s proclaim the king and let the king define his kingship properly. Amen? All right, let’s look at the third and final scene in our text. The reactions from the world. Verses 17 through 19. The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. So the Pharisee said to one another, you see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him. As we’ve seen that the triumphal entry didn’t unfold in a vacuum. It’s been watched, interpreted, and responded to in real time. And what we see here is a kind of collision of reactions, a clash of responses that in many ways still show up today.

So let’s just briefly walk through these three responses. First, the crowd that saw the miracle of Lazarus. John tells us that the original crowd, the ones who had seen with their own eyes Lazarus walk out of the grave, they were there that day. These people had witnessed the miracle and they couldn’t stop talking about it. They weren’t silent. They weren’t skeptical. They literally saw it. They weren’t calculating. They were testifying. That word John uses, testify, it’s actually a very interesting word. When he says they continue to bear witness, that’s what he means by testifying. John uses this all throughout his gospel. That word witness is not just about seeing something. It’s about saying something. They were saying what they saw. They saw resurrection life and they started telling everyone about it. And in so doing, this stirred the city with curiosity. It lit a fire of anticipation and hope.

And that tells us something crucial about how the kingdom of God spreads. It doesn’t spread through press releases. It doesn’t spread through branding campaigns. It doesn’t spread through mass mobilization of political machinery. The kingdom spreads through the overflow of testimony. Ordinary people like you and like me telling other people about resurrection life. That’s what happens when you’ve seen Jesus raise the dead. You can’t help but speak about it. And this is what happened when we experienced Jesus raising us from death to life. We shouldn’t help but testify. That’s what the crowd did. They spoke what they witnessed and their testimony sparked curiosity to the next group. And that brings us to the second group, the crowd that came with curiosity. These were the people who heard about Jesus secondhand. They didn’t see the miracle, but they heard the witness and they came. They joined the crowd out of curiosity.

Many of them probably waved palm branches and wanted to see this man for themselves. And this is often how it works. When the church proclaims the resurrection power of Jesus, some will come through those doors curious. And what these curious people need is the clarity concerning resurrection life. And the exclusivity of the one who provides it. So some in the crowd saw, some in the crowd heard, and some went out to see what Jesus was all about. But at least everyone, as far as we know, in the crowd was caught up in the moment. And yet, as we’ve seen over and over again in this gospel, not everyone in the crowd rejoiced. And this brings us to the third group, the leaders who saw a threat. The Pharisees were watching too, but they weren’t waving branches. They weren’t praising. They weren’t quoting scripture. They weren’t rejoicing.

Instead, they were panicking. Listen to what they say. You see that you’re gaining nothing, right? Look, the world has gone after him. There’s something ironic and almost tragic in those words. You’re gaining nothing. You’re gaining nothing. Meaning, their religious influence is waning. Their grip on morality is loosening. And they fundamentally saw Jesus as a threat. The miracle that proved his power, raising Lazarus, became the very reason they decided to destroy him. And so the celebration of the crowd only hardened the resolve of the religious elite. But notice their language. The world has gone after him. And of course, this was hyperbolic. They didn’t literally mean the whole world, at least not yet. But I think John, the gospel writer, is creatively emphasizing this here because what the Pharisees say in frustration, John affirms as truth. Yes, the world is going after him. That’s the plan.

That’s the trajectory. The king who comes humbly, the Messiah who reinterprets expectations, the savior who rides in to die, he will draw all men to himself. Jews and Gentiles, Pharisees and tax collectors, men and women, political zealots and Roman soldiers, liberals and conservatives, the world is going after him. And family, we still live in a world filled with these same kinds of responses. Some will testify with joy. Some will respond with curiosity compelled by what they’ve heard. And so they’ll come to church to try to figure it out. Some will resist. But listen, no matter what, everyone responds in some way. Jesus leaves no room for neutrality. So then if the world must respond to Jesus, let’s make sure they’re responding to the right Jesus, the true Jesus, the kind of king that the scripture reveals him to be, the kind of king he actually is.

And friend, if you’re here this morning, you’re curious about Christianity. Maybe the darkness in our world has caused for you to reckon with the brokenness around you. And you’re wondering, is there a God that exists who is good in the midst of all of this evil? Or who is this Jesus really?

Let me just say to you plainly this morning, he’s a humble king and he’s a saving king. And you can receive this king this morning by turning, crowning and trusting. And what I mean by that is turning from your old way of living, your old ways of thinking, turning from your sin patterns and turning to Jesus in faith, which simply means believing who he says he is, the son of God and the savior of the world. And then crown him as king of your life, which means live for him, obey him, do what he says, learn from him and love him. And then trust him to save you from your sins. The Bible says that your sin and my sin separates us from a holy God and that the payment for our sin is eternal separation from God. But for everyone who trusts and believes in him,

he will save you from the consequences of sin. This is why he came. He came to embrace sinners who would receive him. But hear me, the same Jesus who came humbly riding on a donkey, he will come again riding on a war horse. The Bible tells us in the book of Revelation chapter 19 what this will look like when Jesus returns, when our conquering king comes, heaven will open and Jesus will appear riding on a white horse. His name is faithful and true. His eyes will be like flames of fire. On his head are many crowns. His robe is dipped in blood and the armies of heaven will follow him. He comes to judge and to make war, to strike down the nations with righteousness and truth. This is the Jesus who will return as a conquering king. Not to be questioned or mocked by the people,

not to be ignored or avoided, but to reign, to crush evil, to rescue his people and to establish his kingdom finally and fully. And friend, this is the question for you this morning. Will you receive him now in mercy or will you face him then in judgment? The Bible beckons you, today is the day of salvation. Come to him now while there is still mercy. Don’t prolong because if you don’t receive him now, you will likely never come. The king is coming. The only safe place is in him. So come to him this morning. And if you have questions about that, you can talk to any member of this church. If you’re a member, just put your hand up. If you’re a member of this church, if you have questions, look around you. Find one of those people who raised their hand and talk to them.

A Heart for the City

They will help you. Family, in closing, I want to look briefly at this little section in Luke’s account in Luke’s account of this triumphal entry. In Luke’s gospel, in chapter 19, it tells us that as Jesus drew near to the city, seeing the crowds, hearing the cries of Hosanna, Jesus wept over Jerusalem.

He didn’t rage. He wept. And why did he weep? Because he knew that the people didn’t recognize him for who he is and what he’s actually come to do. And in missing him, they missed the peace and the salvation that he was offering. He looked on Jerusalem, a city full of lost people, and he wept.

This is the heart of Jesus, the one who weeps over lost sinners in the city. Both the religious morally upright and the irreligious morally bankrupt. And can I ask you this morning, dear Christian, when was the last time you wept over this city? When was the last time you prayed through tears for the lost, for the broken, for the blind? Or have you, like me, looked at the political climate and allowed that to cause you to grow cold towards this city? I’ve done this a thousand times.

Have you come to hate the city or disengage from its people? Do you see this city as a war zone? Or do you see it as a mission for you? Or do you see it as a battlefield? That, family, is the church’s mission. As dark as this city is, it’s our job to bring the good news to bear on this dark city. Jesus didn’t withdraw in disgust. He moved towards it and he did it with tears. He loved the city. He longed for it to repent. Family, my prayer for us is to pray for the people who do the same, not just for political reform in the city, but bringing the life-saving gospel to the city with tears in our eyes and the hope of the gospel in our hearts. Amen? May that be our prayer this week. May that be our encouragement this week

as we look at this city that is so completely divided and so desperately in need of Jesus. Let’s pray. Our Father and our God, we do thank You for sending us the Savior, the King of the world. And for all the ways in which we have conflated His kingship, God, we pray that You would forgive us. We pray that You would help us to spread the gospel in our city. We pray, O God, that through the testimony, through the witness of the resurrection power of Jesus, that those who are lost in our city would come to find peace and hope and salvation for their sin. And God, we pray that Your gospel would spread into the political spheres of our city. Would You save our political leaders? Would You regenerate their hearts? And would they begin to enact policies that correspond to their convictions to the gospel?

And we pray, O God, that by any means possible, the light of Your gospel would transfer over into this dark world. Save now, we pray, O God, and use Your church to be the beacon and the institution that causes change in our city and in our world. We pray these things in Christ’s name, our risen and exalted King who is coming again. Amen.