Location, Location, Location

It would seem that the more important the message the greater the means of advertising it. When the Second World War ended, allied bombers dropped millions upon millions of leaflets into cities, jungles and war zones proclaiming that a peace had been reached and that the war was over. In a similar yet greater way God declared His peace plan to the world on a day which we still call, ‘Palm Sunday’. It was referred to as the Triumphal Entry of Christ into Jerusalem , the beginning of the Passion Week, yet in reality it was perhaps the greatest case of mistaken identity in the history of mankind. Though the crowds perceived this as the forerunner to an actual triumph of power, nothing could have been further from the truth. They surrounded Jesus that day hailing Him as the new political hero, a national Messiah. Within just a few days they would be calling for the crucifixion of this Jesus, so it was not the triumphal entry they thought it was, and yet… it was very much a triumphal entry in God’s eyes. This was a day that He had planned for since before the world was created. It was on His calendar, it was foreordained, appointed in time to take place and it’s significance was enormous. In the words of a real estate agent it was all about Location, Location, Location. When an agent says that they mean that the setting of a house on a particular street is often more important than if it has new rugs or fresh paint. The location is the . . .

I. Located at a Point in Time, the Events of the Day Were Unavoidable.

For the last two years Jesus had been avoiding crowds, He’d instructed the disciples to be quiet about what they had seen and about who He was. The Pharisees were trying to draw Him out but He was always staying at a distance, that is, until this moment. As you read these verses you see Jesus giving what looks like insignificant instruction to the disciples to go and get this donkey’s colt that was just ahead of them. How Jesus knew it would be there, who it belonged to, these were details that are insignificant in comparison to the response that Jesus directed the disciples to give to any who would challenge them. It was to reply with the phrase, “The Lord has need of it.” We know that the need wasn’t just to make the trip easier, the need that Jesus had was to use this colt as a statement. Reading parallel accounts in Matthew and Mark and John, we see that there was a prophecy made over 500 years earlier in Zechariah 9:9 about this colt… “Behold your King is coming to you, gentle and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.” What was the significance of this colt, what was the picture it helped portray?

First of all it introduced a paradox. It was meant to trigger a question, ‘Why is this King not on some majestic steed?” It would be like George Bush coming to Blackfalds and the crowds line the street and there’s the motorcade, the secret service guys jogging along, but look what comes next, the president of the United States is riding in a rusted out 1991 Ford Escort. It doesn’t fit the situation, it’s a paradox that’s meant to catch your attention.

Secondly, as their attention is awakened, there is the recognition of this very fragile scene. The colt moves slowly, anyone could walk faster than it, anyone could stand beside it and be at eyelevel with it’s rider, anyone could approach it. That’s it, that’s the message the colt was meant to convey. This King Jesus was not coming to dominate the people, He was coming close to the people that any could come close to Him. His mission was like that of the colt, it was to bear a great burden in obedience, to serve through subjection.

Thirdly, could the Lord ever really ‘need’ anything, yet that is exactly what Jesus said. Look at verse 31. Perhaps it refers to the way that God has preset things in place and now calls those things into play. Is there anything that God needs from you and I? I think in the same way that as the colt was, God has preset many details about our lives. Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” God calls His good works into action at His appointed points in time. Had the disciples not found the colt, had the owners been away somewhere with the colt, God would have had a wild colt from the desert if necessary come prancing in to fill the role. In other words this particular event of the Triumphal entry was so set in time that if the reasonable means of carrying it out should fail, then God in His sovereignty would still have accomplished it. The Pharisees try to quiet the disciples in their praise of Christ, yet look what Jesus said… “I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out.” Why? Because this was a moment that was to be, it was the unveiling of the Christ, it was the undoing of Satan, it was the unraveling of sin, the unimaginable restoration of mankind to righteousness. Rocks would indeed cry out! The events of this day were indeed unavoidable.

II. Located at a Junction of Circumstances, God Overrules Plans.

God has an amazing way of changing up the plans of man. The crowd planned to be in on the ground floor of a political uprising that would make life easier for them. They came to see miracles, they came for the power of God but missed the person of God. The crowd and the cross had opposite goals. The disciples were in the midst of planning where they would sit in authority now that their spiritual leader was on top. They put their coats on the colt for padding, God used that action to prompt the people to lay their coats down for pavement. The Pharisees were planning on dealing with Jesus in a much more sophisticated way, a quiet extraction behind the scenes, but now their hand was being forced and they were made to make their move. God comes into our lives in very unexpected ways sometimes, He changes what we had planned and introduces a door to life. Watch for the times of His ‘visitation’, to ignore them is to invite ruin.

III. Located in Purpose, God Causes the Plan of Redemption to Unfold.

Was the Triumphal Entry of Christ a misnomer, what was really triumphant about it? The answer lies in the Sunday of Palm Sunday, it was four days before the Passover, the 10^th day of the month on the Jewish calendar. In Exodus 12:3 this was the day prescribed by Law for the Passover lamb to be selected and set aside. The Passover meal reminded the people of God’s deliverance in Egypt though the death of the first born in Egypt , even Pharaoh’s son. It pictured what Jesus Christ would one day do as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The Triumphal Entry was the Lamb of God being presented for the sacrifice of redeeming mankind from sin, it would be Jesus’ perfect life as the Son of God being exchanged for the sinful life of all mankind. The triumph of this moment lay not in the pomp of the parade but in the perfection of obedience of God incarnate, obedience even to the point of death on a cross for those who would spit in His face and mock His grace. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”(Rom.5:8). The triumph of this day was that it set in motion, in an irrevocable way, the actions that led up to the crucifixion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, wherein God purchased by His own Son’s blood, mankind from sin. This triumph would have repercussion for the next two millennium or until Christ comes again. It would forever challenge the foolishness of the crowd proclaiming the faithfulness of the cross which God has located in time, circumstance and purpose. His triumph became our entry point to eternal grace. Rev. Spence Laycock pastors at Church of the Open Bible, Ponoka, Alberta, Canada.
www.churchoftheopenbible.ab.ca