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The Centre Dural PodcastAuthor: The Centre
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Palm Sunday - Mitch Levingston
Episode 565
Sunday, 13 April, 2025
Luke 19:28-40 After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. As he approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it.’” Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” They replied, “The Lord needs it.” They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road. When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!” “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” ..... To find out more about The Centre visit; www.thecentredural.org.au/church/ We meet at 10am every Sunday in person and online at; www.youtube.com/@centredural Welcome to The Centre! We're a Church in Dural, Sydney who want to Make Jesus The Centre of our lives, community, and world. Join us for a time of worship, community and teaching. Remember to stay in contact with the church, especially if you or anyone you know is in need. Get Connected: https://www.thecentredural.org.au/church/new/ Prayer Requests: https://www.thecentredural.org.au/church/prayer/ Tithing Information: https://www.thecentredural.org.au/church/giving/ Follow "BANTER"; the podcast where we unpack each week's sermon with the pastoral team: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ReaCaCb6U7r4EjdJQdajy?si=11f44dcd078e4707 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-centre-dural-podcast/id1035454799 TRANSCRIPT Hey, welcome to the Centre podcast. We're a church based in general, Sydney, who loves Jesus. And so want to make him the centre of our lives, community and world. We pray that you, blessed by this word and that it reveals God's love for you in a new way. It's Palm Sunday. It's a day of excitement where we enter into Holy Week and actually on the screen there, it just has the days and the events of Holy Week. So obviously, being Palm Sunday, Jesus kicks off with his triumphant entrance. Then on the Monday, Jesus cleanses the temple on Tuesday, this time with Jesus gives more teaching. On the Wednesday he's betrayed by Judas, who just makes a decision that he's going to betray Judas. Thursday institutes communion for us. Friday is obviously his death and Sunday is his resurrection. And if you're doing the lent challenges, the lent fasting, actually, the readings for this week marry up with those days and try to help us reflected. Focus on this Holy Week about just the the events leading up to Jesus death and his resurrection. But our focus this morning is on the triumphant entrance. And as I like to do, we're going to spend a bit of time explaining the context behind the passage, what Luke is trying to achieve, because we have four different gospels and each gospel author has a different purpose. Then I'm going to give you guys some tools. So that's sort of our plan for this morning. Firstly, all the things that Luke does is he has this real central focus on the city of Jerusalem, Jerusalem focus from pretty much from chapter one to Luke's gospel. There's this big focus there. And scholars call Luke 951 the beginning, the beginning of what's what's known as the travel narrative that says in Luke 951, as the time approached for G. For him to be taken to heaven, Jesus resultantly set out for Jerusalem. Now you could translate these words as more literally, Jesus set his face to Jerusalem. This is sort of the whole focus of Jesus mission and Luke's gospel. This Jerusalem is the city of his destiny. It's what he's been called to do is go to Jerusalem to die and to be resurrected. And so, in many ways, the triumphant entrance is what's known as a literary hinge. So when traveling, traveling, traveling with Jesus throughout the past ten chapters and now we're here. We're here in the city of Jerusalem. And the whole focus that Luke has had on Jerusalem being the city of destiny is now coming to fruition. Now you might be there saying, go, well, okay. Who cares? Because Luke 951 to 1928 is this travel narrative? Because if Jerusalem is the focus of Luke's gospel. What's so important about that? Good question, my friends. Let me answer that for you. A triumphant entrance is a word that scholars use to describe the entry of a royal figure, or someone who's very, very important. And this was quite customary in the Greek Roman culture around that first century era. And at the entrance in of itself was quite straightforward. And as you can see there on the screen there, what would happen was the ruler would be met outside the city gate by the city citizens, and often, particularly in like Roman cities, the, the citizens of put on special garments, maybe like a wreath. They'd wear white robes to signify that there was something special about this person, actually. Next, I should say, at the city gates, the religious and political elite from the city, along with banners welcome us with would be there to welcome this ruler or this king into the city. And then they would begin to escort them back. And then once that ruler was there, the city's elite would give lots of speeches just to say how wonderful it was to have this ruler in the city, with sort of the hope of giving him lots and lots of price. That ruler, that ruler would bless the city with lots of abundance and lots of blessings. And then lastly, it's particularly put in a, I guess, more of a pagan culture. Was that that king or that ruler would then go to the city's temple and offer a sacrifice on behalf of the gods. That's what a triumphant entrance is. Now, Luke has been focusing all his gospel on the city of Jerusalem. That's the important city. Now he is structured this narrative and this entrance of Jesus to illustrate one thing Jesus is King. Jesus is King. Now, if you do pick up Luke chapter 19 and decide to read through it, you'll notice right before Jesus enters into Jerusalem, he gives a parable parable of ten minutes. Now the parable the ten minutes is really similar to the parable of the talents. Essentially the same thing a master goes away. And on that journey he gives three of the servants a bunch of bags. So the similar outcome happens is, you know, the first servant gets ten bags, second seven, five bags, and the last servant one bag. But what's different about Luke's parable is that Jesus describes this man of a noble birth who goes away to a distant land, to be appointed as king and to return, but his subjects hate him and don't want him to be king. Now, doesn't that sound a little bit familiar? Parable about a man who's appointed to be king. Do citizens hate him and don't want him to be king? It's what Luke is setting up here is that Jesus is going to enter into Jerusalem as a king, but he's going to be rejected. Now, if you do have Luke's gospel, you have Matthew, Mark, John, and Luke. You notice some differences, some differences here and Luke's gospel compared to others. But first and foremost, and while Luke doesn't mention this, the fact that Jesus gets on a donkey, it's a reference to Zechariah chapter nine verse nine, which said, let's say on the screen, rejoice greatly. Zion, shout door to Jerusalem! See, your King comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a cult. The fall of, donkey. The other allusion he's tapping into was when King Solomon became king. King Solomon, two or so we're told that he writes on, mule. So this is this idea here that that Luke is tapping into these Old Testament images of the king of Israel coming on, not a, animal of warfare. And most of us are probably familiar with this. Guys running a donkey, donkeys, an animal of peace, not of war, showing that that Jesus is a different type of king. Now, what I find really cool here, and perhaps you might not find so cool here, is that as you read through Luke's Gospel, and if you understand the video there, when when the disciples take the donkey, the owner of the donkey said, hey, like, what are you? What are you doing with that? Says, well, the Lord has made of it, and he will return it. In Luke's gospel, Luke doesn't mention that. You might notice that there just in the past. He just says, they replied, the Lord needs. Why would Luke take out the part which says, hey, he's going to take it, but return it? Why do you think he might do that? Does this what kings do? Kings take animals when they need them. Kings can take things and not give them back. So Luke is trying to highlight here. Hey, Jesus, King. He has the right to take this coat and do of it what he wants. Now, there's a tremendous irony here because this is Palm Sunday and this stage is covered in palm reading through Luke 19. But did anyone notice any references to palms? No. In fact, this is the only gospel where the word palm isn't used. For instance, in in Matthew. He makes reference to branches from trees being cut. Mark. He tells us the crowd spread branches that they had cut from the fields. John is the one who makes reference to the palm branches. But Luke, it's just cloaks. No palms. Why would he do that? Kenny, he's tapping into this Old Testament imagery of a king. And there was a king. King called Jehu. And in two Kings, chapter nine, we're told when J. Who became king, all the people got their cloaks and laid them on the ground, and they said, Jay, who is king? And sort of the last thing that Luke does, which is very interesting, is when the crowd is shouting, they're shouting out from Psalm 118 26 and Psalm 118 26 says its words, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Oh, wait a minute. What's it say on the screen there from verse at it. Blessed is the King that's not there in the original psalm. Regional Psalm doesn't say, blessed is the King. It's blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Why do you think liquid do that, guys? What's he trying to highlight? Jesus is King, Just one more thing. The other thing, too, that Luke does that's very unique. And so make that because I'd. What's that? Stories in the Bible quite a lot with my kids and sort of read the Gospels. They become a bit blurred. Only dawned on me this week. And that's quite horrifying. Horrifying realization. Oh my goodness, I've never noticed this before. This gospel is the only one to recount the Pharisees rebuke Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John done. And I was like, oh wow, okay, I can't never picked up on that before. And Jesus response to this rebuke for them to be quiet. Jesus, if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out. Now that statement is obvious. It's like, well, this event is so significant. They even the you, the creation will cry out if the crowds refuse to celebrate. Now, going back to that slide, before we had kind of the four steps of a triumphant entrance. Remember it was firstly the crowds might wear special clothes and meet the royal outside the city. They late from the city will come out and sort of welcome them. There will be this big parade back into the city. There's lots of speeches, and there's a sacrifice in the temple that is offered. As a reason why citizens did this in the ancient world. Because there were dire consequences if you failed to welcome a ruler properly. I came across some writings from, dear Cassius. He was a second century Roman historian, and he recounts a moment when Rufus, who was the governor of Germany at the time he set out to make war, and he reached the city. Oh, this this Leto. And he proceeded to besiege the city of this city. This city. And can you guess the reason why he might have besieged the city of the CTO? Reason was I didn't welcome him well enough. He was offended at the poor welcome they gave him. Now look here is writing to a predominantly gentile audience who would be familiar with this stuff, who'd be familiar that when a city welcomes a king, you pull out the red carpet. Best of the best. They knew that like a cave, if you don't welcome a king, a ruler, your city might be besieged, might be attacked. That's the warning that is happening there. That when Jesus making reference to the. The stones are crying out. Yeah, there's a reference to, I guess the idea of know co-creation is worshiping, but there's something a little bit deeper happening. In the video there and Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, we know there are lots of crowds there, but Luke does something different. Now, as you read through there, you'll notice here it says the whole host or many of the disciples who were there. The the implication here is that Luke is saying there wasn't a whole city here. And he structured his narrative in this way. Wasn't the whole city who was here, it was just Jesus's band of disciples, which we know there are 12 apostles, 72 he sent out. There are a bunch of women. Luke is trying to emphasize here that Jesus been traveling to Jerusalem. This has been his whole mission that he is King. But only those that follow him, only those that lay their cloaks down, are receiving him as king. The Pharisees, the elite, have rejected Jesus. And so because of that, the stones will cry out. Perhaps Jesus had this prophecy in mind when he said that Habakkuk 211 the stones of the wall will cry out, and the beams of the woodwork will echo it. But Habakkuk said this the idea that the stones are crying out because of the wickedness that they're saying. Now, while we won't read it today, the final part of a triumphant entrance is he would offer a sacrifice. And at the very next scene, and after verse 44, Jesus goes into the temple and does what he cleanses it. He's furious at the practices that are happening there. Luke is setting up this wonderfully crafted narrative to illustrate the importance of Jerusalem, the fact that Jesus is King, the fact that the whole city has rejected him, the fact that he has it all for a sacrifice in the temple, he's cleansed it, essentially placing a curse upon it. And Luke is unique too. He places this element of Jesus. And if you read through the lament, look, it's awful, awful stuff. He talks about dashing you on the ground and the armies encircling the cities is horrible, horrific stuff. This isn't stuff that's very nice. But if you read the end of it, this is verse 44, which is up there on the screen. You'll say, there they will not leave one stone on another because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to hear. And if you know your ancient history, the year 70 A.D. is really important in the life of Jerusalem and 70 A.D. that's when the Roman Empire did come and wipe out Jerusalem. I'll just finish up here with the quote, and then we'll we'll kind of end with some more practical stuff. And so there's a scholar by the name of Brant Kinsman. And so he spent his life researching this stuff, and this is the stuff that I got from his thesis. And he says here, Jerusalem's hardened spiritual condition is epitomized by its failure to recognize its king. He's not met by city officials nor honored by the leading citizens, nor escorted back to the city. The encounter with the Pharisees is a rejection, and the nonappearance of high priest, other officials and the citizens of Jerusalem is an affront. This rejection is made even clearer by the fact that Luke has gone to some lengths to stress that Jesus is King. Okay, all the explanation that how Luke structured his gospel boils down to this Jesus is King. Friends. And so now let's give you some tools that I love filling our heads with knowledge. It's great to understand this biblical stuff. We are to become better readers of the Bible. Well, let's take some tools to help us live out our weeks. And this week's wisdom comes from the seventh century church father sent Andrew of Crete, and in his lent, homilies he writes here on Palm Sunday. I says beautiful words. He says, so let us spread before his state, not garments or soul of all soulless olive branches, which delight the eyes for a few hours, and then wither. But ourselves, clothed in his grace, or rather clothed completely in him. Let our humble souls take the place of palm branches. Will you have been baptized into Christ? Must l cells be the garments that we spread before him? Let's not pop off stage for a just to get a prop. This is my favorite jacket. You've probably have seen me wear this in winter. It's pretty much just becomes a staple of mine, and my darling wife picked this up from the back there. I think she got it from Vinnies or the salvos here in general a few years back, so even better. I love getting things recycled. This garment speaks a lot about my I like it. It's functional but sort of stylish in many ways. Are clothes are reflection of who we are. And so there's something incredibly humbling. Friends, let's let's take this image of our favorite garment as representing a personality. Are you prepared to take that garment down, lay it on the ground and let Jesus walk over it? And since that's what Luke's been pointing to, all that kind of stuff, I was talking about the literary context that Jerusalem boils down to these friends, are you prepared to take off your garments and lay them down? As Saint Andrew of Crete says, let our humble souls take the place of palm branches. And on this Palm Sunday, it's such an important reminder. Yeah, the crowds are there celebrating. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. We know from the other gospels that all Jerusalem was there. The city is celebrating now. On the Friday that same crowd is saying crucify, crucify, crucify what Luke is pointing to and he's Gospels and and just really making the crowd just the many of his disciples that are following Jesus as only a few who are faithful, there are only a few there who are prepared to lay their garments, to humble themselves, and to let Jesus be king. So here's my tool for the toolbox this week. Go into your cupboards. Find your favorite garment, look at it and say, how does this garment speak about my personality and go, what parts of my personality am I prepared to lay down on the ground and let Jesus walk over them? Let Jesus be king over them? Or perhaps there are some parts I would kind of prefer. No, I don't want to put that on the ground. No, I'm not prepared for Jesus to be king over that. So as we enter into this Holy Week, as we prepare, prepare to reflect upon Jesus death and his eventual resurrection, I invite my friends just to take up that little spiritual challenge. Find that favorite garment, lay it on the ground and say, Jesus, you are my king. I lay myself down before you. I offer my life to you as a living sacrifice because I recognize that you are the one. You are King, blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. That's my invitation to all of us today, friends, what do you need to lay down? What do you need to take off and lay at the feet of King Jesus? Let's pray now. Jesus, you are King. We say that you are King. That works in such a different way. Riding on the donkey and not a war horse king who comes in peace. A king who came not to be served, but to serve and to give up his life as a ransom for many, each of us today, Lord, there will be something that our life we're willing to lay down some of our clothes. Oh, that garments we're going to put before your feet. But there are other things that we're not prepared to do for us today. This morning, Lord, as we enter into this Holy Week that you challenge us, Lord, I, what needs to be laid at the foot of King Jesus and submit our lives to you. So, Jesus, I pray this now. Ask for your help in this. We pray for your spirit to give us the strength and the empowerment. We ask this now. Amen. Thanks so much for joining us. Don't forget to write and subscribe to help others discover this channel. Check out the description if you want to find out more or get in touch with us at the center. But in the meantime, praying for God's hand over you as you continue to step into everything Jesus has in store for your life. Be blessed.
