Palm Sunday

"The Way of the Donkey"

Pastor Brandon Hovey | 04.01.2012

The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, "Hosanna!"

"Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!",

"Blessed is the king of Israel!"

Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written: "Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey's colt." At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him. John 12:12-16 (NIV)

WHO IS JESUS?

John presents us with two different understandings of Jesus:

1. King on a Horse: A warring king, who would launch a revolution to liberate Israel from the oppressive Romans. This is the type of king the Jerusalem crowd thought Jesus was.

2. King on a Donkey: A peaceful king, who was coming to offer true salvation and different kind of kingdom to Israel and the world. This is who Jesus declared himself to be.

Like the Jerusalem crowd, we often have unholy expectations of who Jesus is and what he will do for us. Thankfully, Scripture reminds us of the way of the donkey, of what kind of king Jesus is.

I. Jesus is a humble King.

"Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey." (Zechariah 9:9)

II. Jesus is a peaceful King.

"I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the warhorses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth. (Zechariah 9:10)

III. Jesus is a couageous King.

"So from that day on they plotted to take his life...the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who found out where Jesus was should report it so that they might arrest him. (John 11:53, 57)

IV. Jesus is a personal King.

"As my Father has loved me, so I have loved you"... (John 15:13)

"Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends."

(John 15:13)

V. Jesus is King.

"If you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is [my] King', and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." (Romans 10:9)