By Pastor Lynn Sawyer Parks

Luke 19:28-44

We’ve been focusing during Lent on the theme “Blessed Hunger, Holy Feast” with the idea that we all stand in need and God generously provides for our needs. I’m going to make a confession to you all. I really wanted to preach last week’s sermon. The theme for last week, that God makes a way, really sparked my imagination. And Nes did a great job in bringing out that theme. But I’ve continued to think about it this week. God makes a way, when we don’t know the way or how to find the way – God makes a way. In Isaiah 43, God says He’s doing a new thing, not the same as He did before. Before, when the people of Israel were faced with the Red Sea in front and Pharaoh’s army behind, God made a way through the waters. But now the people are facing the wilderness. What worked to get them through the Sea won’t get them through the wilderness. They need a new work, a new way. And God makes a new way with streams in the desert, and as God brings His people through, even the wild animals of the desert give honor to God, it says in Isaiah 43. Don’t worry, I’m not going to re-preach Nes’ sermon. I just had to get that out, but keep it in mind because it will tie in to what I’m talking about today.

In Luke 19, the people are trying to make a way. They are throwing their coats on the ground, throwing palm branches on the ground to make a way for Jesus to ride into Jerusalem. They are celebrating. These people are pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover, the time when they remember how God made a way for their deliverance from slavery in Egypt. But this time, their celebration and their need is different. It’s not like it was at the original Passover. They stand in need of God’s deliverance as they are living under occupation by the Romans, but this time, the people are trying to make the way themselves. They think the way of deliverance is to proclaim Jesus as their King, their Messiah, the one who comes in the name of the Lord. And Jesus is all that. Yet at the end of the passage we see that Jesus weeps over Jerusalem saying that destruction awaits the city because it did not recognize the time of God’s coming.

You see the people were saying the right words. They had it right in proclaiming that Jesus is King and Messiah. But they had the wrong understanding of what that means. They thought Jesus would take the throne and overthrow the Roman oppressors with some mighty miracle. After all, Jesus has done amazing things – healing the sick, casting out demons, calming the storm, multiplying food to feed thousands, and even raising Lazarus from the dead after he had been in the grave for 4 days. Jesus has proven that he has authority like none other. Surely, he has come to re-establish David’s royal line and to take the throne and make Israel a sovereign nation once more. Surely he is going to do great things like Moses did and there will be plagues on the Romans like there were on the Egyptians. That’s what God did before in delivering His people and everything looks like its pointing to another great deliverance and so the celebration of Passover is different for the people this time. But God is doing a new thing now and Jesus weeps because the people did not recognize the time of God’s coming to them, but instead tried in their own strength to make a way.

We can be so close and yet still get it wrong. I see this in myself. I can catch a glimpse of what God is up to and then I’m off and running with my own ideas of how God should work. I can see the problem that needs fixing and think that I know the best way and so I’m off trying to make my own way through. Does anyone else have that problem or am I the only one? We rely so much on our own strength to get us through things that, even though we pray, and we believe and proclaim God’s promises, we still are not letting God take the lead and make the way, but are trying to figure it out on our own.

A few weeks ago, Church Council was meeting, and we were discussing a certain decision we needed to make, and some good and important points were being made both for and against the decision. Finally, Jen said, “Well let’s pray. I don’t know what we should do so let’s ask God.” And so we did. And God made a way. After we prayed, we came back to the discussion with a different awareness, that God’s Spirit could lead us because our own wisdom wasn’t making a way. And we were able to make a unanimous decision fairly quickly after that. We need to stop trying to make the way on our own and let God take the lead. We need to recognize the times when God is with us and stop acting like we are all on our own, with only our own wisdom, our own knowledge, our own credentials, our own strength to rely on.
When I was a kid, growing up in a rural area of North Carolina, I can remember sitting in my mom or my dad’s lap and driving the car. If we were on a back road somewhere, they would let one of us kids sit in their lap and steer while they controlled the accelerator and brake. And they could take the wheel at any time if we veered off the road or something. I remember taking it so seriously and trying to keep the car going straight but actually my parent was in control of the car. That’s how we need to view our lives with God. God is in control but He lets us steer. And anytime we start to go the wrong way, He’s capable of taking the wheel. The question is are we willing to surrender the wheel to him. We need to let God be God in our lives.

One of the problems the people in Luke 19 had was they weren’t letting Jesus be the King that he truly is. They wanted a king who would take care of their enemy Rome. They wanted a king who would overthrow their oppressor and free them. And Jesus was capable of doing that. But just overthrowing the oppressor and freeing the oppressed isn’t enough. The oppressors need to be freed as well. It’s not enough to just do a work of justice in righting the wrongs that have been done, there must be a work of salvation as well. There must be a way to heal and to change to such an extent that injustice doesn’t happen anymore. That is the work of salvation and new birth. It is work that changes the very heart and will. Jesus didn’t come just to be a political king of one nation, he came to be king of the whole world including being king of our hearts and our wills. And he weeps over Jerusalem because the people are not recognizing the time of God’s coming to them.
You see, God was doing a new thing, making a new way. He wasn’t going to deliver His people in the same way He did in the past. The old way wasn’t enough. The old way of bringing the people through the Sea was great for Israel, but what about Egypt? For Jesus to take the throne in Jerusalem and set up Israel as a sovereign nation would be great for Israel, but what about Rome? If we want to make it personal, for Jesus to be King of Israel is great for the Jews, but what about us? I am so grateful that God wanted to make a new way that includes me, that Jesus isn’t just King of one nation but is King of all.

One of the things that bothers me about our current political climate is when we hear that we have to do what’s best for the US even if it’s not good at all for others. And we’re not the only nation to do that. All around the world nations and people groups and individuals do what is best for themselves even when it can be very bad for others. But God is able to make a way that is good for all. We get glimpses in Isaiah 43 that God’s intent isn’t just to deliver one people but to deliver all when God talks about the wild animals, the jackals and the owls, honoring God because He provides water in the desert for His people. When God delivers His people, other nations see that and are drawn to God.
When Jesus died on the cross, the Roman centurion who was there, who most likely worshiped the Roman gods, praised Israel’s God and said, “Surely this man was the son of God.” The new way that God was making in Jesus Christ is a way that all can be saved and delivered, not just certain ones. God wants to make a way for the oppressed and the oppressor, for the Jews and the Gentiles. God, in Christ, was making a way for the whole world to be saved. How dare we think we are big enough to do that on our own?

The people of Jesus’ day had their own idea of the way they wanted things done but God was making a new way. We can get ideas of how we want God to work in our lives or how we want God to solve our problems or change other people or answer our prayers. But what if God is saying to us, “See, I’m making a new way. It’s springing up right now. Don’t you see it? It doesn’t look like the former things. It’s not like what I did yesterday or last year or 10 years ago because you are not in the same place you were then. It’s not like what I did for your friend, your family member, your co-worker because you don’t have the same need they had. I’m giving you fresh manna for today. I’m giving you living water for today so stop trying to make your own way.” Our God is the God of new life. He’s the God who gave His people fresh manna every morning. They didn’t have to store it up for the week because it was right there waiting for them every morning, fresh and new and enough for what they needed for that day. Their responsibility was to trust that God is who He says He is – the one who keeps all His promises and is faithful to His people. Our God is able to make the way for us. We don’t have to do it on our own.

The people in Luke 19 were saying all the right words about Jesus but with the wrong understanding. Jesus is so much more than just a political king. We can’t let our understanding of who Jesus is be too small. When our understanding of Jesus is too small, that’s when we get caught up in making our own way. That’s when we can get bogged down with anxiety and worry trying to make our own way. Or we can get worn out working so hard trying to make our own way. Or we can get caught up in success or popularity as we go our own way and do our own thing. Everyday we need to be reminding ourselves that Jesus is our King, our Savior, our Lord, and the one who makes a way for us. Every day Jesus has something fresh for us that is just what we need. Every day Jesus wants to teach us something new about Himself to expand our understanding of who He is. Every day Jesus wants to inspire us with His vision for the Kingdom of God to come on earth as it is in heaven. And every day Jesus wants to walk with us on the way that He is making for us because He never wants us to be alone.

This Palm Sunday, as we celebrate the great deliverance that our God has worked in Jesus Christ, let’s recognize the time of God’s coming to us. Let’s recognize that God’s got new things to reveal to us. Let’s not hold on to a vision of Jesus that is too small, but let’s seek to see Jesus as who He really is, to recognize Him as the Roman centurion at the cross did, to give Him praise and let Him make the way.

Paul writes in Philippians 2, “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Who will confess Jesus as Lord today?