Bible Text: Matthew 21:1-11 | Pastor: Eric Danielson | When Jesus entered Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday, he stirred things up in the whole city. He brought things to the surface that needed to change and exposed flaws in their beliefs and thinking about God. What has Jesus been stirring up in your life?

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Stirring Things Up
Matthew 21:1-11

Today is Palm Sunday and is one of the Sundays during the year that stands out for us because it corresponds with a very memorable day in Jesus’ life and ministry. We usually have the kids march around the sanctuary waving palm branches today to help us remember what happened, but there aren’t going to be any palm branches today for obvious reasons.

Back in Jesus’ time Palm Sunday was actually on the first day of the work week, so it would have felt more like a Monday does for us. But it would have kind of been like the Monday before Christmas, because for them there was a huge celebration coming up. It was the week of Passover when tens of thousands of Jews came to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices at the Temple and celebrate the Passover feast. Each family would prepare and eat the Passover meal on Thursday night to remember the night in Egypt when the angel of death passed over the homes of their ancestors that were covered by the blood of the Passover Lamb. So on that Sunday the streets of Jerusalem were already beginning to swell with thousands of visitors.

Jesus and his disciples were also heading to Jerusalem for the celebration, but they had other reasons as well. Jesus knew that this would be the week when his blood would be shed on the cross to cover the sins of his people. He and his disciples were approaching Jerusalem from Jericho where he had done many amazing miracles in the past few days and there was a large crowd traveling with them. For them, this wasn’t going to be just another Passover celebration, the Messiah had come and it was going to be a once in a lifetime celebration that they had been praying and longing for their whole lives. And as they approached Jerusalem, Matthew, one of Jesus’ disciples recorded what happened.

Read Matthew 21:1-11.
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.”

This account is known as the Triumphal Entry. The people that had been traveling with Jesus believed him to be the long-awaited Messiah that the prophets had foretold would come. He was to be the fulfillment of the promise given to King David that one of his descendants would sit on the throne forever. He was going to be the one who would establish an everlasting kingdom and they believed that meant he would overthrow the Romans and set them free from their oppression and control. So as they approached Jerusalem they went on ahead of Jesus and lined the street, laying down their cloaks and palm branches before him, shouting “Hosanna!” and treating him as their king. They made a huge commotion that drew the attention of everyone in the city. Verse 10 says, “And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?””

Jesus stirred things up. He did it then and he did it throughout that week. But it wasn’t in a way that gained him a lot of popularity and convinced everyone to join his team. It wasn’t like a high school pep rally. When Jesus stirred things up that week it actually became quite uncomfortable for a lot of people. It brought things to the surface that needed to change. It exposed flaws in their beliefs and thinking about God. He stirred things up with the crowds of people when they tried to make him king and he didn’t let them. They didn’t know what to think. He stirred things up with the religious leaders when he exposed their hypocrisy for all the people to see. They wanted to kill him. He stirred things up with his disciples when instead of rising to power to overthrow the Romans he told them he was going to have to die. They hated that idea. When Jesus stirred things up it made things really uncomfortable because it exposed the problems with their faith that had previously been hidden underneath.

It reminded me of something I found while doing a house project. Every year we make some repairs to our house and a couple years ago, replacing the garage windows was on top of the list. I wanted to replace them because they were single-pane and letting a lot of cold air into our heated garage in the winter. Well on the day I replaced one of those windows, I ran into some big surprises. As I pulled the trim and siding off, I found out that the windowsill was so rotten that it fell apart in my hands. Not only that, but the 2×4 framing and sheeting underneath were also so rotten, they did the same thing. There was basically a rotten hole in the wall that I knew nothing about. It made me glad I decided to replace that window because stirring things up in that way exposed some major problems that were hidden underneath.

That’s the same thing Jesus did when he was in Jerusalem that week. He was exposing all kinds of problems with people’s faith that had been hidden underneath. For most people, this led them to reject him altogether – the went from shouting “hosanna” to condemning him to die. They didn’t want the truth he had to offer. But for others, like his disciples, it brought them through a refinement process that helped purify their faith. All of us need to go through times like that to help purify our faith.

Many of us have some form of gold jewelry – I’m wearing a gold wedding ring. The gold in this ring is very pure and in order to get that way it had to go through quite a process. I studied this process a few years ago. Gold particles are found in large stones underground and have to be extracted from the rock through a complex process at a gold mill. The process includes crushing, leaching, filtering, electro winning, and smelting and after all this you end up with a low-purity gold bar which is then sent to a refinery. At the refinery the gold bars are superheated and liquefied. Borax and soda ash are added to separate the gold from the impurities, which are then removed. So this little gold ring I’m wearing on my finger had to go through a major refinement process in order to become the pure gold it is today.

That’s the kind of thing that needs to happen with our faith. All of us have hidden problems with our faith that we are not aware of and there are times in our lives when Jesus stirs things up and leads us through a refinement process in order to purify our faith. 1 Peter 1:6-7 says, “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Jesus stirs things up in our lives through various trials to test and purify our faith so that in the end it will result in praise and glory and honor when we stand before Christ.

What is Jesus stirring up in your life today? Most of us look at what’s going on in our lives and world today and see it as only a negative thing because a lot of bad things are happening. People are dying, loved ones are torn up with grief. People’s lives have been turned upside down and will never be the same. People are losing their jobs and unable to meet their family’s needs. People are stuck in isolation and struggling with fear. It can be easy to see only the negative and nothing else. Yet somehow in all of this, Jesus is at work in every situation, stirring things up for each of us, doing what he’s always done to reveal things in our lives that need to change to make us more like him. What is Jesus stirring up in your life?

As I look back at my life, the times where I’ve experienced some of the greatest spiritual growth were in times of greatest suffering and though I wouldn’t want to go through them again I can see how Jesus used it to uproot some deep-rooted problems in my spiritual life that I otherwise would have never seen.

What’s he doing in your life? Two weeks ago we looked at how all this turmoil has helped us to see the blessing of Christian community and how some of us may need to pay much closer attention to that in our lives. Last week we looked at how sometimes we end up treasuring the things of earth more than our relationship with God and we need something like this to show us what’s most important again. Maybe this current crisis has shown you that your faith in God is not where it should be and you need to become more devoted to spending time with him, connecting in a personal way so that you experience Jesus as your good shepherd who loves you and will take care of you. Maybe all this turmoil has shown you that you care more about your own wants and interests than about Jesus’ calling for you to be carrying out his mission and telling people about him.

Some of you may be watching or listening to this and you recognize that the crisis we’re going through has totally upended your life because didn’t have faith in Jesus at all. You didn’t have a foundation to stand on and now you’re beginning to see. Jesus loves you and wants you to trust in him so that your sins will be forgiven and you will be reconciled to God. He willingly died for you and rose again and because he lives he alone can give you an anchor that cannot be shaken. Put your faith in him and find the hope that you need!

Let’s take a moment right now in the quietness of our own homes to let Jesus show us the things he wants us to see. Maybe it’s an area of your faith that needs his refinement or maybe it’s that you need to begin to trust and follow him for the first time…