Well Palm Monday...I mean Sunday must've been fun...My paser gave yet another riviting sermon on it...Did you know at least three prohpesies were fufilled with that one event, with the exact date even mentioned in the OT (Not using the gregorian calendar of course)? Well if you are a scholar keep in mind there are still 7 years left to fufill in that prophesy... the countdown stopped on His death & Burial and restarts in the Relevation....Well his first point as I recall (He started with Luke 19) Was how Jesus sent his desciples to get a colt...bear in mind the desciples were in their teens so you can understand when the owner (this is for Dean) sees a buch of kids taking off with their coat; of course he'd be like...you tryn to steal my donkey? I'm gonna kick your donkey!...:P Ok it's always funnier when the origional guy is saying it I know...(actually I don't know why that rule is stated too often)...but the fun part starts here:Note that the word there is "colt." That's right...a baby donkey. One that's probably never been ridden on before...you know how good Christ is with nature though...but if he was my father's height even he'd probably have his feet dragging on the ground...pretty silly looking for a "Triumphal Entry..."While the Religuous leaders did see what was being fufilled here and were complety ticked off by it..the normal crowd didn't seem to care how humble Christ came in...See it was passover feast, and Jerusalem's capital has swollen to 5 times it's normal size...Imaging the entire population of New York cramped in the city of....Berkeley (minus the campus it's really small)...On top of that they were there to celebrate the events thousands of years ago....when Chaleton Heston; I mean MOSES came into Pharoh's palace and said "Thus Sayth the Lord, let my people go!" Pharoh wasn't impressed and tol him "who is this Lord that I should do what he says?" Well, God decided to take him up on that question with 'Ten Lil' Motivators...' and you know how the story goes...basically the Romans were always a little edgy at this time and sent 10 times the normal amount of Guards to Jerusalem in case an uprising occured....That's exactly what the Jews wanted to happen...They wanted Jesus, whom they were offering ther total allengence by waiving olive branches and throwing down their only change of clothing for Christ to walk over and the colt to do...what colt's do on them (my pastor can make the Bible too real sometimes)....because they wanted a messiah not to come an cleanse their hearts and forgive their sins, but overthrow the Roman Empire and rescue Isreal. They quoted from Psalms even...which also fufilled that prophesy and that's also why the Religuous leaders got so offended and were saying...Hey! Cut it out with all this Daniel (or was it Zacharia) 9:9 and etc...Naturally Christ answeres, and I paraphrase, if humans won't worship their creator...than the rest of creation can (Note John 1...most take "His Own Recieved him Not," to just mean Isreal, but it 's really referring to Humanity, as we are the only ones in his Creation to not choose to worship him)...There's something even more bizarre with this entrance...While all of Jerusalem is celebrating his entry to take on the Romans Chuck Norris style, Christ starts in literal translation convulsing in tears over their plight ! He saw in their hearts they had missed it...and all the hyprocrasy and sinfullness that overpowered them...and he was filled with so much grief over that, not becuse he wanted to judge them, because he was fearfull for where they were headed...Jesus not only came in peace (If a King came into a city not to conquer or to celebrate a conquest he'd ride a donkey instead of a stallion in the tradition of Alaxendar the Great), he came with such a morunful heart...and it wasn't even for what was coming to him one week later...when the Jews all realize that He didn't come to liberate them from Rome, but to judge and to forgive others...and in stead of crying "Hossannah" they go "Crucify Him! We do not want him leading over us! He is not fit even to live!"What's the climax to this electrifying day...Well the Path Crist was riding on could take him in two directions...one was to the temple, the other was to a roman fortress where scores of guards stood in fear of a revolt...which was where they expected Jesus to go to land a smack-down on their oppressors...Naturally Christ doesn't go there. Instead he goes to the temple to do what many in some churches should be doing. I'll use direct quotes this time:45 Then Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the people selling animals for sacrifices. 46 He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be a house of prayer,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves.”I don't need to talk about the televangelists taking advantage of people's gullibality and all the mass marketing and commercialization of Christianity that goes on in America...I'm not even on to talk and I try not to get sucked in on it, no matter how many t-shirts like 'abredcrumbandfish' my mom buys for me...really many people need to repent of this and stop these thieves and these secular companies trying to profit from another franchise from exploiting us! Another lession here is...judgement starts with God's own people. Colorado Springs will go up in smoke long before San Francisco does...or I should probably say if it does go up in smoke we in San Francisco should really start worrying! I have to ask though: Why are the ones who try so hard at being righteous the ones God speaks harshest to and judges the most? Why are the ones who are sincere at them not being sinful and not wishing other were sinful knock down by God so badly by the mere sin of them for saying words of condemnation to another for their sins, even if both parties are misguided? Is he saying even if Adam hadn't eaten the fruit to try to become God, he was supposed to act like in such an animalistic, much less un-Godly behavior?There is a good ending even here:14 The blind and the lame came to him in the Temple, and he healed them. 15 The leading priests and the teachers of religious law saw these wonderful miracles and heard even the children in the Temple shouting, “Praise God for the Son of David.”But the leaders were indignant. 16 They asked Jesus, “Do you hear what these children are saying?”“Yes,” Jesus replied. “Haven’t you ever read the Scriptures? For they say, ‘You have taught children and infants to give you praise.’[g]”Once there is repentance and cleansing and regeneration in a ministry...it's a beautiful thing as many of you have witnessed. People come to the lord or return to them. They get healed from their addictions...healed from their wounds...they forget their bitterness as they make amends with their brothers and sisters and even their relatives and friends...its a wonderful time...Again there go the leaders again going hey, cut that out...don't let them say you're the messiah...don't you love how Christ is all "You get a clue!"17 Then he returned to Bethany, where he stayed overnight.All that expectation and excitement from God's people-wasted...it was only a matter of time...Christ continunes his jugement against his Religuous Leaders while they in turn try to get him to slip up in anyway...just like they examed a sacrifical lamb for any blemish...
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A commonly overlooked fact is that when he rode in on the donkey it was Sukkot (tabernacles) not passover. They where waving the Lulavim (4 speices) the palm, mrytle, the willow, and the etrog. they were crying out Hossanah as part of an anicent ritual that prophecied the future king (son of David) there was as much shock in the crowd as awe. He stayed in Jerusalem through the winter that season (through channukah (john 12) taught in the courtyard of the temple up in til passover on which he was crucified. Traditions weither christian or jewish need to tested against the facts. These watered down myths only weaken the faith of those who know not the scriptures, the culture and history. Digging into the scriptures for truth and you'll find gold. I'd recommend the book "The seven festivals of Messiah" by Eddie Chumney commonly available at most Christian book stores. for a truer understand of events timelines and prophetic fullfillment.
Be blessed Dman
My pastor went through the historical/cultural dissections much more thuroughly than I did, so I'm not worried about that right now. I'd rather y'all answer the question I had made in bold in my post up there: Would sin/wickedness still be considered wickness if humans hadn't strived to become God in the Garden of Eden? If so why does God punish more harshly the ones who want strive for righteousness as earnestly as the Religous leaders of Christ's time or any time in Isreal before that had?
P.S., you can only buy this sermon of Pastor Todd's, but many good ones like these are for free and rather long though at http://recastweb.com/home.php
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Be blessed Dman