Provoking a Crisis

I. Introduction
A. My first Lent series: on the final week of Jesus’ life
B. Matthew 21:1-6 Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” 4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, 5 “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’ ” 6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. 8 Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” 10 And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” 11 And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.” 12 And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.” 14 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, 16 and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, “ ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?”
C. It is the time of the Passover, so Jerusalem is flooded with Jewish pilgrims from all over the world.
1. And now, after three or so years of ministry, punctuated by descriptions of the horrors which would come upon Him in the end, in Jerusalem, Jesus is headed there for the last time.

II. Explanation
A. 1-3 Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Beth-phage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.”
1. Jesus gives no explanation, just strange instructions. Again, Jesus was up to something.
B. 4-6 This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, 5 “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’ ” 6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them.
1. His triumphal entry into Jerusalem was the fulfillment of the messianic prophecy of the Son of David found in Zechariah 9:9, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! 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.”
2. But this procession was a revelation not only that He was king, but what kind of king He was.
3. Many ancient texts describe the triumphant arrival of a ruler or military hero to a great city: the approach of the king, his entourage, the public celebration.
a. And these ancient texts are so helpful because when we lay them side-by-side with the account of Christ’s triumphal entry, they show us how Jesus’ entry was so different from other triumphant entries of the time.
b. The horse and chariot are the emblems of a conqueror, but Jesus “came mounted on a donkey,” signifying His meekness, patience, humility & gentleness. He was coming as the prince of peace.
c. His attendants are not warriors bearing swords but peasants bearing palm branches.
d. And the announcers do not sound trumpets but shouted hosannas.
C. 7-8 “They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. 8 Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.”
1. Spreading cloaks on the road symbolized submission to authority. Garments represent people. Laying down your garment for someone to walk on signifies putting yourself under them.
a. We see this in 2Kings 9:13: Then in haste every man of them took his garment and put it under him on the bare steps, and they blew the trumpet and proclaimed, “Jehu is king.”
2. And branches are like extensions of human arms, lifted high in praise of God.
a. Leviticus 23:40 “Now on the first day you shall take for yourselves the foliage of beautiful trees, palm branches and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days.”
D. 9 And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
1. The messiah was the promised Son of David (2Sam.7:12-14; Ps.89:3-4, 132:11-12).
2. Hosanna means “Save us!” It came to be an expression used to hail a savior.
E. 10-11 And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” 11 And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”
1. “The whole city was stirred up.” His relatively obscure ministry was now anything but.
F. 12–13 And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”
1. It’s pretty clear from Mark 11 that the cleansing of the temple happened the next day. But Matthew lays it out as if it happened immediately after the triumphal entry – for a reason.
2. Two kinds of business were done in the temple.
a. Animal-selling — “those who sold pigeons”
b. Money-changing — “the money-changers”
3. Two kinds of sin were taking place in association with these.
a. Marketplace corruption: taking advantage of vulnerable out-of-towners, using unequal weights, selling defective goods
b. Corrupt motivation: profit-driven instead of worship/love-driven (analogy: every year at GA)
4. And so Jesus drove them all out, overturning their tables and saying, “My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers!” And I don’t think He said it calmly.
5. This is so uncharacteristic of Jesus! Why did He do this?
a. To expose the corruption of Israel’s worship
b. To fulfill messianic prophecy from Malachi 3:1-2 “The Lord...will suddenly come to His temple... But who can endure the day of His coming, and who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap.”
c. It was also a final warning of the coming destruction of the temple and city by Rome in 70AD.
d. It also foreshadowed the coming day of His vengeance at the end of history.
e. One more which we’ll talk about in a minute: to provoke the reaction which led to the cross.
G. 14 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.
1. In the past, He kept most of His healings quiet, but now He’s doing it repeatedly and right out in the open before the temple leaders. It was hard for anyone not to notice.
H. 15-16a But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, 16 and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?”
1. I love Matthew’s irony here: They “saw the wonderful things He did...and they were indignant.”
2. The Jewish leaders boiled with anger after seeing Him coming into Jerusalem like a king, with the crowds praising Him as Messiah.
3. But instead of lying low and letting things cool down, Jesus heads straight for the temple and begins turning over the tables. And then He starts healing people out in the open.
4. And then those little kids! You know how kids learn a song or a line from a movie one day and they go around saying it for days and weeks afterward? So, after the triumphal entry little kids were running around the temple area crying out, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”
5. The leaders were fit to be tied. And their anger was raw. Their actions here are not carefully crafted, like so many other times. They were beside themselves – out of control.
a. And this was just the beginning. It lasted for 4-5 days, culminating in the crucifixion.
6. And it doesn’t seem like Jesus is trying to appease their anger. He is provoking it – purposely. It was almost like He had a death wish – a death wish driven by love.
7. But why were the Jewish leaders so disturbed? Weren’t they waiting for the messiah?
a. It’s always hard to get the victims of oppression to see their own sinfulness. They are so absorbed in the way they’re being mistreated, that they can’t even think about their own failings.
b. The Jewish leaders were eagerly expecting the Messiah to come and conquer Rome, but instead Jesus came confronting them, the righteous ones (or so they thought). They didn’t like that.
I. 16b-17 And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, “ ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?”
1. Instead of sharing their concern, He is acknowledging that He is worthy of praise, He is acknowledging that He is God.

III. My time has come
A. Many times during His ministry, Jesus told people not to tell about His miracles, and tried to keep His identity under wraps.
1. In Matthew 9:30 we read about two blind men Jesus healed. And Jesus sternly warned them, “See that no one knows about it.”
2. In Mark 1:43-44 Jesus heals a leper and then sternly charges him, “See that you say nothing to anyone” (except the priests).
3. When Jesus raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead in Mk.5:43, her parents were astonished, but he “strictly charged them that no one should know” about it.
4. When Jesus healed a deaf and mute man in Mk.7:36, He charged the entire crowd to tell no one.
B. People didn’t always follow His guidance, of course.
1. “The more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.” (Mk.7:36)
2. And we can understand their excitement and gratitude! But there’s also something strange here.
3. Jesus frequently rebuked His followers when they did not follow His teachings. But though Jesus repeatedly warned people sternly not to publicize His miraculous work, He never once rebuked anyone for doing so.
4. They were directly disobeying Jesus, and yet there was no accountability and no correction. Jesus never uttered a word of criticism.
5. He also never explains why He wanted it kept quiet, nor why He didn’t rebuke those who didn’t.
C. Why did He try to keep His miracles quiet? There are a number of hints in the gospels.
1. It was a distraction from His greater works/words, which was a real problem with His miracles.
2. When the leper who was cleansed in Mark 1:43-45, even though he was told not to mention it to anyone, “he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in desolate places, and people were coming to him from every quarter.” Ask any celebrity, and they’ll tell you how it makes life difficult. (And if you think it’s hard to act inconspicuous as a celebrity, imagine how hard it is to act inconspicuous when you’re the Son of God?)
3. You see, Jesus wasn’t after short-term fame. He wanted to build an eternal kingdom. And in order for that to happen, there had to be an inspired record of His teachings and works.
4. But that couldn’t happen if His days were taken up dealing with the mass hysteria produced by short-time fame. That threatened to prevent Him from spending time with His disciples and dealing with individual ordinary people and small groups – like His life after His arrest.
5. The reason we are able to have the NT is because Jesus worked hard to remain inconspicuous.
D. So why now, all of a sudden, does Jesus go public?
1. Jesus’ life was carefully choreographed. Every step, every action, every word, every pause was perfectly planned and timed. Just as He was morally and spiritually perfect, so He was perfect in this as well.
2. Several times Jesus said, “It is not yet My time.” (John 2:4, 7:6; Luke 9:51)
3. If He had let loose earlier, it would have led to His death, and it wasn’t yet time for Him to die.
4. As it was, He averted death several times with a little burst of divine power – because it wasn’t yet the right time (Luke 4:29-30; John 7:30, 8:59, 10:30-31, 11:8).
5. Now that foundation has been laid, the time has come. It is time to dive in. It is time to precipitate the crisis.
6. You know, right now in our society, one of the great idols we worship is the idol of painlessness. Not eternal pain, mind you. Eternal pain is worth avoiding at all costs. We’re desperately trying to avoid all earthly pain.
7. But earthly pain is the crucial ingredient in God’s remedy for eternal pain. That’s why Jesus precipitated this crisis, and opened the floodgates. And, sure enough, conflict exploded and pain resulted.
8. But you see, He was going to die not when THEY wanted to kill Him. He was going to die when it was time to die. It wasn’t their decision; it was His.
9. “No one takes My life from me. I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority from my Father to lay it down, and to take it up again.” John 10:18
10. In Ac.4:27-28 the Christians prayed, “In this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod & Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Your hand and Your plan had predestined to take place.”
11. Just as things looked most out-of-control, things were actually so perfectly choreographed that we’re still in awe 2000 years later.

IV. Our great choreographer
A. Do you not think that the great choreographer of the life of Jesus is also the choreographer of your life? Was it not for your sake that the life of Christ was choreographed? God steers history.
B. But one of the perpetual problems of sinful people is that, instead of trusting Jesus’ timing, we want to be the choreographers. We think we see deficiencies in God’s choreography and we think we can do it better. But you can’t do any better than God’s choreography, can you?
1. In the old movie Jesus of Nazareth, there is a scene where the crowd is yelling at Pilate, “Free Barrabas! Crucify Jesus!” but Mary Magdalene is frantically screaming, “No! No! Free Jesus!”
2. But in the end, Mary Magdalene was glad that God didn’t answer her prayers, wasn’t she? She had actually been praying against her own salvation! And so it is with us!
3. So many times we are railing at some disappointment or pining over some lost opportunity when in reality, we just dodged a bullet and God is preparing us for something far greater.
a. You might have heard the disappointment our pastor search committee experienced when a promised candidate withdrew his name from consideration. And it’s so easy to be discouraged.
b. But the fact is, only God knows where that path would have led. And if He says it’s not the path to go down, we have to trust that He knows best. None of us want the wrong man.
c. And if God wants us to wait, and spend even more time on this, we have to trust that that is best.
C. And God often doesn’t have any sense of urgency about clarifying why He’s doing what He’s doing. He just asks us to trust Him. And that means not thinking it could be choreographed better.
1. Sometimes our Lord gives instructions without explanations.
2. “Go into the village in front of you, and you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me.”
3. He's made arrangements He hasn’t told us about.
4. Let God make the arrangements for your life! Trust Him to do it well.
D. Right now in my life, my mind wants to run in a million directions.
1. Will we be able to sell our house?
2. Will we find a new house that meets our needs? What will retired life be like?
3. Will the church find a new pastor who can do the job well?
4. What will my relationship with the church be like going into the future?
5. Will we have enough money for retirement? How much longer do we have to live?
E. But God has been proving Himself to us over and over again for the last 70 years.
1. His timing and His provision have always been exquisite! Why should we doubt Him now?
2. And yet, we are almost 70 years old, and we’re still fighting the battle with worry. God, forgive.
3. The Lord keeps reminding me of 1Peter 5:6-9: “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, and at the proper time he will exalt you. Cast all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded and watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, stand firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brothers and sisters around the world.”
F. How about you? What are the directions your thoughts want to run? May God teach us all to trust the great Choreographer of life – and wait upon Him.