Who Is My Savior?

Mark 11:1-11.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Palm Sunday, April 5, 2020.

This week, we are approaching the Passover celebration.  On this day, we celebrate what is typically called The Triumphal Entry.  One way of looking at this day is that we are celebrating this event as it should have been.  Jesus should have been received as the Messiah by his people.  This should have ushered in a time of peace in the world.  Instead, he was rejected and the world entered into a time that the Bible calls, “The Beginning of Sorrows,” and also, “The Birth Pains.”  Here, almost 2,000 years later, those pains are only increasing in intensity.

It is generally clear that mankind needs saving from its sins, though not all will use those words.  However, less clear to each of us is God’s contention in the Bible that all individuals are in need of saving, none excluded.  Christ came in such a way as to put the solution in front of each of us.  On that Sunday so many years ago, Jesus put the question before Israel as a whole, and yet also before each Israelite.  Who is my savior?  What is my choice?  Let’s look at our passage and work through these things.

The preparations of the Savior (vs. 1-6)

Our story opens with the arrival of Jesus in the Jerusalem district for his last time.  Within a week, he will be crucified on the cross.  He stops at this point to make some final preparations in order to enter the city.

However, we should take note that the previous 3 ½ years of the ministry of Jesus was all about preparing Israel for this day of choice.  Every miracle and every amazing teaching had been about preparing the hearts of Israel for a day of decision.  I don’t just mean the 24-hour period we call the Triumphal Entry.  I mean the whole week. 

Israel was being tested and they didn’t know it.  Most of them loved the idea of a Savior, a Messiah, but they did not love the idea of what Christ came to do.  He came to offer himself as a sacrificial lamb to deal with our sins, when they wanted a ferocious warrior to deal with their enemies.  Does that sound familiar?  Isn’t there a part in all of us that would rather have our enemies crushed than to expose and deal with our sins?  This is what this is all about.  It is about a choice that I must make regarding what I think can save me, or fix my life and my future.

Thus, it is important what we choose in the moment, but all momentary decisions will be tested.  You can make the right decision when it is easy, but your resolve to do the right thing will be tested.  Israel went from seemingly choosing Jesus to rejecting him in less than a week.  Their choice of Jesus was not nearly as strong as it may appear in our story today.  Ultimately, we are pulled away from faith in Jesus by the ways of this world, its power and prestige, its money and technology.  When you are fearful that the way of Jesus may not save you anymore, these are the things you will flail about and grasp tightly.  Yes, God had made great preparations leading up to that moment, just as He has made great preparations leading up to the moment that you were presented with the Gospel.  Yes, embrace Jesus, but also know that your embrace of him is going to be tested.

When Jesus stops near the Mt. of Olives, there are two villages that he stops at.  Their names are quite symbolic.  Bethphage means “House of green figs,” and Bethany means “House of my sorrow.”  Jesus had come to Israel expecting ripe fruit, but it was still green, inedible.  He came to those who were his own and should have embraced him with open arms, but they became to him a house of sorrow.  These things give more light on the whole incident following our passage today where Jesus curses a fig tree that had no ripe figs.  More on that at a different time.

The last preparation involves sending a couple of disciples out to secure a donkey’s colt.  From Matthew 21:7, we know that both the colt and the mother are involved.  Some details are left out or missing in Marks account, but it appears they were left out for the disciples too.  Jesus is not advocating stealing here.  Rather, he is telling them to get something and when they do exactly what he says, it goes exactly as he said it would.  A truism of life is that God often has us do things that do not make sense to us, like love our enemies, and forgive those who harm us.  However, he knows what he is doing.  He is preparing us to do what he has for us.  In these times, the lack of details regarding the benefit to these things often causes us to balk.  Yet, if we simply obey, we will eventually find that our Lord had everything figured out ahead of time, and we simply needed to trust his directions.  Whoever this owner is, he is willing to let the Lord borrow his donkeys, and Jesus knew that he would.  Now that the preparations have been made, Jesus is ready to head into Jerusalem.

The presentation of the Savior (vs. 7-10)

Up to this point, Jesus has resisted any attempt to present himself formally as a potential king for Israel.  However, on this day, he not only allows it, but he orchestrates it.  He is now forcing the issue and the question within Israel about the question of his identity.  Is he the Messiah or not?  This is a presentation event in which Jesus clearly presents himself to Israel; let me be your savior.

He purposefully sets up the imagery as one of a lowly person (humble) coming in peace.  He rides down the hillside of the Mt. of Olives, crosses the Kidron valley, and then up into the city on a donkey’s colt.  It is Matthew who connects this event to the prophecy in Zechariah 9:9. There it is said, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!  Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem!  Behold your King is coming to you; he is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, a foal of a donkey.”  Apparently, they didn’t make the connection when it was happening.  They just knew that Jesus was finally doing something that looked like he was ready to take control.  They are ready for the Kingdom of God to begin.

Now, the riding of a donkey is in contrast to riding on a horse.  A horse has connotations of war, power, and prestige, whereas a donkey has connotations of humility and peacefulness.  Zechariah had revealed to Israel that, when the Savior came, he would come in such a way.  When we contrast this image with the one of Jesus coming on the clouds of heaven and riding a white horse in Revelation 19, the message is clear.  He was not here for war all those years ago.  He had come to do a far dirtier job than Mike Rowe could ever conceive.  It would be like a boxing match where they are introducing the boxers.  “In this corner, we have…” (someone who does not look like they will win).  Though many of Israel were excited on that day, it is clear that Jesus is still a mystery to them.  What kind of Savior was he?

Let’s look at the crowds and their praise of Jesus.  There are two dynamics going on in this crowd.  In Mark, it only focuses on the disciples of Jesus (more than just the 12) excitedly running ahead of him, around him, and behind him.  They are rejoicing as Zechariah said they should, but for uninformed reasons.  They believe he is here to kick out the Romans, wicked priests, and Herod.  They think he is going to set all things right in society.  The second dynamic is that word had gone ahead into the city, and so, crowds were coming out from Jerusalem to meet him.  Among these crowds, there were some religious Pharisees who did not think Jesus was the Messiah at all.

In Luke 19:39, we are told that the Pharisees objected to the things that the disciples were hollering about Jesus.  They shout to Jesus that he should make them shut-up.  Jesus is very humble, but there comes a time when some things must be done.  Jesus had to present himself to Israel as a potential savior because it was the Father’s will.  It was the reason he had come.  Israel had to have a choice.  Thus, Jesus rebukes the Pharisees who are trying to rebuke him.  “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.”

The crowds can be right, but the crowds can also be wrong.  They are easily driven to shout with praise on one day and then shout with anger on another.  The point is not what the people around you are doing.  The point is always, what does God want me to do?  Just as God was presenting His Son Jesus to Israel during the week leading up to Passover, so He presents Jesus to us today.  He doesn’t look like we think that he should, and some people may be shouting his praises for all the wrong reasons.  The main point is what does God want you to do with Jesus.  He wants you to embrace him in faith, and rejoice in the fact that he has come to save you!

The phrases that these disciples are shouting out, are chosen purposefully.  They come from Psalm 118 and were understood by all to be referring to the Messiah.  Psalm 118:25 gives us the Hebrew phrase translated “Cause us to be saved, now!”  The Greek transliteration is Hosanna!  What a cry, that not only was on the lips of Israel that day, but is on the minds of people all across this world, today.  We want someone to rise up and save us from our problems and the problems of this world.

The second thing they are shouting comes from Psalm 118:26, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”  They are using biblical words from the prophecy that predicts his coming in order to praise him.  Oh Church, may we learn to take time just to stop and praise the Lord Jesus for what he has done and what he will do!  Sometimes we don’t know what words to use, but the Bible supplies us with many wonderful ways of praising the Lord Jesus.

The disciples and the crowds believe that Jesus has been sent from the Father and they are asking him to start saving them.  Some of these cries mention the kingdom of David.  In other words, they are ready for the Romans to be expelled and the Kingdom of David to be restored to the full promises that God gave to him.  Let’s look at verse 11 and bring this to a close.

The investigation of the Savior (vs. 11)

It may not have been quite so clear that day, but Jesus then takes time to investigate this place that is crying out for his salvation, both the city and its place of worship.  It is at this point that we sometimes forget that when we are making an investigation of Jesus as to his worthiness as a Savior, he also is making an investigation of us as to our worthiness as a disciple.

Luke 19:41-42 tells us that Jesus weeps as he approaches the city, but they are not tears of happiness.  He says, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace!  But now they are hidden from your eyes.”  We may not realize it, but there are things that would make for our peace, whether in America, or in our individual lives, but we have to have the wisdom to choose them.  Be careful that you are not manipulated into rashly supporting things that actually make for your own harm, or the harm of our nation.  Jesus goes on to use another phrase in Luke 19.  This was their “day of visitation,” not of a friend wanting to chat, but of our Lord coming to inspect.

Israel had waited for the Messiah to come for so long, and now he was here, but he had come to make an inspection, and they weren’t ready.  Always remember that choice is a saw that cuts both ways.  Jesus has presented himself to you to investigate and to choose, or not to choose, as your savior.  Yet, at the same time, he is investigating you.  What is really going on in that heart of yours?  You say you want righteousness and salvation, but what do you really want?  What will you really choose when put to the test?  They were not ready for their surprise inspection that day, and I dare say that the United States of America is not ready today if Jesus were to come and investigate us.  Friend, you had better make sure that you are ready to stand before the Lord, before he shows up.  Only repentance and faith in him can save us and bring us into his grace.

Jesus then enters the city and goes into the temple compound.  He simply looks around at everything.  It is fitting that he should not rashly judge the things that he is seeing there.  The next several days will be filled with him coming into the temple area and confronting the things that were wrong with Israel.  It may feel anticlimactic, but the true climax was coming at the end of the week, when he would hang on a cross for them and for us.

The day ends with Jesus simply going back to Bethany to stay the night.  In the morning, he will return to Jerusalem to teach in the Temple area.  He will do this several days in a row.  At the same time, the city will increase with people coming from all around the world for the Passover feast.  This dynamic forces the hands of the religious leaders.  Jesus is being too audacious.  They can’t let this continue, or at least that is what they think.

We can get lost dreaming about what the world would be like if they had simply embraced Jesus as Messiah that week.  It is similar to dreaming about what the world would be like if Adam and Eve hadn’t sinned, or if early American settlers had not used slavery.  We can look backwards and blame all our problems on those who sinned before us in a never ending “if only…”  However, you can’t unspill spilled milk.  You can only ask the Lord to help you clean up the mess and move forward.  Sin is a mess that we can’t clean up on our own, whether as a world or as an individual.  God has put the humble and peaceful Jesus in front of you, and asks you to choose him as your savior.  He doesn’t always lead in the way that we think he should lead, but follow him to the end, we must! 

The day is coming when Jesus will split the skies and return to this earth as a glorious, conquering king.  Whether I am alive on this earth on that day, or not, is immaterial.  I will still be held accountable for my choice.  Choose this day whom you will serve because not choosing Jesus is the same as choosing what this world is offering.  It is offering unending worthless things that eat up your life and leave you empty in the end.  Come to Jesus and let him be your savior today!

Who is my Savior audio