Take your Bibles with me and turn to Luke 19. Luke 19.
We're going to take a little break today from our regular study of the book of Luke and we're going to fast forward a little bit and look at a passage of scripture that tells the story of what we would call Palm Sunday. As you're turning there, let me kind of lay the groundwork for you, try to help you picture this scene.
Jesus has been on a very slow journey to Jerusalem, a journey that's taken him about nine months as he slowly meandered his way through Galilee and then Samaria and then the regions around Jerusalem. Finally he's getting close to the scene. He's timed this whole thing so that he is going to come in right before the Passover.
Now by modern standards the city of Jerusalem would not have been that big, about 40 to maybe 60 thousand people. Really Champaign-Urbana is bigger than the city of Jerusalem was population-wise in the time of Christ. But during Passover it would swell to over a million people as Jews from all over Israel and even from all over the world came to visit for their holiest of weeks.
Now getting there, the way that Jesus and the disciples would travel is not for the faint of heart. They came through the city of Jericho. Jericho is the lowest city on earth. It is 846 feet below sea level.
Jerusalem is only 15 miles away from Jericho. It's not that far as the crow flies. I mean most of us could walk 15 miles. We could walk from here to Charleston. It would take us all day but we'd be sore but we could do it.
But Jericho to Jerusalem wasn't like Mattoon to Charleston. There's pretty much zero rise from here to there. It's a very flat walk. To go from Jericho to Jerusalem in that 15 miles, they go from 846 feet below sea level to 2,500 feet above sea level. That’s a 3,400 ft climb in elevation. That's not a walk. That is a grueling hike.
Do this sometime. Get on a treadmill and set the grade to 4% and walk for 15 miles. Bonus points if you put a giant backpack on your back with like 30 lb in it, carrying your provisions for a long journey. Double bonus points if the sun is beating down on you and it's like 90 degrees. That's what these people were doing.
So you are picturing this road from Jerusalem to Jericho, teeming with people, just thousands and thousands of people. It would have been like shoulder to shoulder as people were trying to get to the city.
Now as you get close to the city of Jerusalem, you actually have to go to a higher mountain first. There's a mountain that is taller than the one that Jerusalem is on, called the Mount of Olives. You don't see the city until you get to the top of the Mount of Olives. It's not a gradual reveal. You're climbing. You can't see anything and then boom there's the city and it's basically downhill and then quickly back up hill and you're there.
So in our story today, Jesus and his disciples and thousands of other people are in the middle of this grueling hike up the Mount of Olives towards the city of Jerusalem. They're there to celebrate the Passover.
And all these people are talking, whispering, there is excitement in the air because they have all heard about Jesus and what he's done. They've heard about how he recently rose Lazarus from the dead. They've heard of his miracles and they think this is the Messiah, this is gonna be the King that releases us from Roman rule. It's possible that as he got closer to Jerusalem and people heard that he was coming, more people came out and joined from the city of Jerusalem. The crowd is getting bigger and bigger as they get closer and closer to the city.
And this is the scene for what we call Palm Sunday or the triumphal entry of Christ. That's what we're going to talk about today.
Luke 19 and we are going to read verses 28-44.
> [28](#) And when he had thus spoken, he went before, ascending up to Jerusalem.
> [29](#) And it came to pass, when he was come nigh to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount called the mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples,
> [30](#) Saying, Go ye into the village over against you; in the which at your entering ye shall find a colt tied, whereon yet never man sat: loose him, and bring him hither.
> [31](#) And if any man ask you, Why do ye loose him? thus shall ye say unto him, Because the Lord hath need of him.
> [32](#) And they that were sent went their way, and found even as he had said unto them.
> [33](#) And as they were loosing the colt, the owners thereof said unto them, Why loose ye the colt?
> [34](#) And they said, The Lord hath need of him.
> [35](#) And they brought him to Jesus: and they cast their garments upon the colt, and they set Jesus thereon.
> [36](#) And as he went, they spread their clothes in the way.
> [37](#) And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen;
> [38](#) Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.
> [39](#) And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples.
> [40](#) And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.
> [41](#) And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it,
> [42](#) Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.
> [43](#) For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side,
> [44](#) And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.
Luke 19:28-44 (KJV)
There are three things in this story that stand out to me about our Lord that I want to talk about today. As I read this story the three things that stand out to me are:
1. The Lord's control
2. The Lord's foresight
3. The Lord's heart
And so those are the three things we're going to talk about this morning as we consider this famous story.
Let's pray and we'll jump right into the first point.
First thing we're going to talk about today is…
# 1. The Lord’s Control
The Lord's control is on full display in this story. Everything about this story shows that Jesus was completely in control of this situation.
The famous writer Albert Schweitzer, who was a heretic, said in his book "The Search for the Historical Christ" that Jesus was caught in the wheels of history. That's not what I see in this story. I see Jesus firmly gripping the wheel of history and turning it like a steering wheel. Jesus is in full control here.
Jesus knew that he was going to Jerusalem to be crucified. Jesus worked it out so that crucifixion happened right during the Passover. Passover was when Jews celebrated how God had freed them from slavery in Egypt. This was just a picture of what Jesus would do at Calvary as he freed us from sin. So the timing had to be precise and it had to be important.
Jesus wasn't just in control of the timeline here; he was also in control of this colt. The book of Zechariah, chapter 9, verse 9, prophesied this about the Lord:
> [9](#) Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.
Zechariah 9:9 (KJV)
The king was going to come into Jerusalem riding on an ass, riding on a donkey, and it had to be a colt. It had to be one that had never been ridden on before.
Now Jesus and his followers didn't have one of these colts just lying around but Jesus had this whole thing under control. He just told the disciples, "Hey go into that town over there, go into Bethpage. You're going to find a colt that's tied up that nobody's ever ridden on. Just untie it and bring it to me. If anybody asks, 'Hey what are you doing?' just say, 'Hey the Lord needs this' and they'll let you do it." That's exactly what happened.
Any of you have any experience with donkeys? I remember watching in college once they had a fundraiser and it was a donkey soccer game or basketball game where they had all these donkeys in the gym and they were playing some kind of sport. I think it was students versus the teachers. Those animals don't do what you want them to do. They basically are extremely stubborn and do what they want.
And those are the trained ones. They're the ones that have been trained to be ridden and trained to accept direction from a rider. This donkey had never been ridden. It was young. It was probably unused to the crowd. It was probably terrified. Everything in nature would have kept that donkey from being calmly ridden but when Jesus the Lord sat upon it, it did exactly what it was supposed to do.
The donkey was a symbol of royalty that tied back to The house of David. When Solomon, the prince of peace, was enthroned, they put him on David's donkey. So Jesus was identifying as a son of David here by riding into Jerusalem in this way on this donkey but it's also a symbol of his humility.
At this point the kings of the world would have rode on a chariot, being driven by a bunch of very impressive looking horses, stallions pulling the king in. There would have been captors in his wake as he tried to show his strength.
But the King of Kings and Lord of Lords rode into the city on a humble donkey completely in control of this situation.
As he rode the people started to make a big deal about Jesus. They started to shout out to him. There was a common greeting on these journeys to the Passover where people would quote one of the psalms, one of the Passover psalms, and say, "Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord." But here they're saying, "Blessed is the King that's coming in the name of the Lord."
Other gospels tell us that they were shouting "Hosanna," which means "save us now."
John 12:13 sums it up pretty well:
> [13](#) Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.
John 12:13 (KJV)
You know in all of Jesus' ministry he never allowed there to be a display that was about Him. Jesus was not ever seeking attention. But here Jesus allows it.
So Jesus was in control of the timing and Jesus was in control of the animals and Jesus had orchestrated this whole thing with the crowd. I want to show you something: Jesus was even in control of his enemies.
The Pharisees say, "Master, Teacher, are you going to do something about this? Are you going to let them call you your king?" And Jesus said, "Well if I stop them, the rocks will cry out."
The Pharisees and the leaders in Jerusalem had already decided they were going to kill Jesus but their plan was to do it after the Passover. Because of this display they had to put their plan into overdrive. They had to kill Jesus faster. They couldn't allow these giant crowds to call Jesus their king and do nothing about it. They had to do that during the Passover, which of course is what Jesus wanted.
So you see how Jesus orchestrated this whole thing? Every part of this was meticulously planned by the Lord to lead to the crucifixion.
So you're picturing this with me. You're picturing the Lord's control of this situation as he's climbing up the Mount of Olives towards the city, towards the peak of that hill. All these people are laying their coats down in front of this donkey that he's walking. There are people laying palm branches down, which for them was a nationalistic symbol. It came from the Maccabee Revolt. It was a symbol that he was going to come and do a revolution and they're saying, "Hosanna, save us now." They're calling him the King of Israel that's coming in the name of the Lord. This is a great moment of excitement as the King is entering the city, as he's coming up the hill to see the city of Jerusalem over the top of the Mount of Olives and then he sees it.
Peaks that hill. He sees the shining city in an incredibly anti-climactic fashion. He starts crying. Not tears of joy. He's weeping.
Folks the Bible doesn't tell us what the crowd thought of this but I don't imagine they were super happy about it. I mean you don't want your champion to be a weeping baby. You don't want him to be somebody that's depressed like this but Jesus, looking at the city, he starts to weep.
So we've talked about the master's control. Let's talk about the second thing…
# 2. The Lord’s Foresight
I want you to look at verses 41 to 44 with me again.
> [41](#) And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it,
> [42](#) Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.
> [43](#) For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side,
> [44](#) And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.
Luke 19:41-44 (KJV)
Jesus is in the middle of this incredible moment. He crests the Mount of Olives, He sees the city of Jerusalem, and He starts to weep. The reason He wept is because He could see what other people couldn't see.
Warren Wiersbe had a wonderful way of explaining this passage and I'm going to quote it at length here.
—
No matter where Jesus looked he found cause for weeping.
- If you look back he saw how the nation had wasted its opportunities and been ignorant of their time of visitation.
- If he looked within he saw spiritual ignorance and blindness in the hearts of the people. They should have known who he was for God had given them his word and sent his messengers to prepare the way.
- If he looked around Jesus saw religious activity that accomplished very little. The temple had become a den of thieves and religious leaders were out to kill him.
- The city was filled with pilgrims celebrating a festival but the hearts of the people were heavy with sin and life's burdens.
- If he looked ahead he wept as he saw the terrible judgment that was coming to the nation, the city, and the temple.
—
So Jesus wept because he saw what other people didn't see. He's looking at Jerusalem with this great crowd of people. They're looking at their capital city with nationalistic pride. He's looking at the near future. He's seeing the people of that city rejecting him and God bringing judgment to that city.
In verses 43 and 44 Jesus foretells what's going to happen to the city. This would have been fulfilled by the Roman general Titus when Rome finally had enough of the rebellion of Israel in 70ad.
Titus encircled the city and built a big siege wall around it so nothing could come in and nothing could come out. He destroyed all of the walls. He destroyed the temple. The only thing left is just a western retaining wall of the temple of what used to be there. He burned the whole city to the ground. He killed all the people that were in it. He absolutely leveled the great city of Jerusalem.
Destroyed. He destroyed the temple; he burned their genealogical records . He essentially ended Israel as a nation from that point until the 1940s.
And Jesus foresaw it all.
So we've talked about the Lord's control and we've talked about the Lord's foresight. I want to wrap this message up today by talking about…
# 3. The Lord’s Heart
The heart of the Lord is on full display in this story. Jesus, looking over the city of Jerusalem, looking over Israel and weeping.
I think the thing that stands out to me here is that everybody else is seeing this wonderful moment, where they're seeing the king coming into the city, and Jesus is seeing missed opportunities, rejection, and coming destruction and he’s weeping.
Listen to me folks. Jesus did not look at the destruction of Jerusalem with joy. Jesus did not look at the rejection of the people of Israel with joy. He knew what was coming to these people because they rejected Christ and it brought him great sadness.
Sometimes we think about the enemies of the Lord being destroyed and we think, "Oh yeah this is so good." That's not the heart of God. God looks at it with weeping. With sadness. Ours is a God that has compassion even on those that are coming into his judgment.
Ezekiel 33 tells us the heart of God when it says in verse 11:
> [11](#) Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?
Ezekiel 33:11 (KJV)
God loves people and doesn't want to see them destroyed. God is merciful. God is patient. God has a heart to see people turn to Him, come to Him, to repent and to be healed of their sin and their evil ways.
That's the heart of Christ and that heart of Christ would take Jesus all the way to the cross, where Jesus would die on that cross for the sins of his enemies. There he would stand there on the cross and look at the people that were mocking him and hating him and say, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." Jesus on the cross took the sins of the world upon him and he paid for them and then he rose again three days later, showing that God accepted that payment.
God's heart for people is that they'd be saved. God's heart for people is that they'd come to him.
But we know most of the people, most of the Jews, did not trust Christ. Most of them rejected Christ and continue to reject Christ after his death, burial, and resurrection. We see a little bit of the heart of Jesus in the very last phrase of verse 44, where Jesus says this: 'This is the reason he's crying as he looks out over Jerusalem.' because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.
Jesus is saying, "You had me in your midst. I was here and you missed it. I was here. You had a time where I was here for you and you rejected me. You didn't even see it.” and this brought great sadness to the Lord.
Folks as we close the message today, I want to close with an impassioned plea to you. Don't miss the time of your visitation. Don't miss your opportunity to follow the Lord, to accept His salvation.
Don't be like the Jewish people in this story. On the outside we're praising Jesus as their King; on the outside we're saying, "Save us," but ultimately they rejected the Lord. Too many people come to church week in and week out. They make a show of it. On the outside they say, "Hosanna, blessed is the King," but ultimately they've rejected him. They've never trusted Christ as their Savior.
I think the Lord looks at people like you that reject the Lord, that reject him with sadness because he knows what's coming if you don't trust him. Don't miss the time of your visitation. Don't miss your opportunity to trust in Christ and follow him. Let's stand together and pray.
