Honoring Christ

Today’s lesson, which takes place as Jesus is beginning His final foray into the Holy City, even with its grand-scale events even by modern standards, never the less yields three points that appear small, but in actuality are as grand as the scale of Jesus triumphal display for in them we see the microcosm of Jesus gospel.

Once, Jesus was tested by a Pharisee (Matt. 22:37) who asked, “what is the greatest Commandment?” As we all remember, Jesus replied by quoting the Shema (Deut. 6:5) known and recited by all Jews every day, “thou shalt love the Lord, thy God with all thy heart and all thy soul and all thy strength.” But He adds to it, “. . . and thy neighbor as thyself.” He states that on these two, hand “all the Law and the Prophets,” IE. the totality of God’s commandments.

These two principles run through today’s lesson, which if followed lead to Jesus’ promised “abundant life.”

• We honor Christ as Lord by Obeying His Word. Luke 19:28-32.
• We honor Christ as King by praise. Vv. 35-40.
• We honor Christ by loving our fellow man. Vv. 41-44.

Honor Christ as Lord by obeying His Word. In the passage, Jesus tells certain unnamed disciples to go “over yonder” to the village and get the colt of a donkey and if asked, they are to say, “the Master has need of this.” Two questions come to mind: which village and was this planned in advance or did Jesus, with Godly omniscience just know the donkey was there?

The text of Luke doesn’t really answer either question for us. However, Matthew, recording the same incident says that they were going between Bethphage and Bethany and that they were to go into Bethphage to get to donkey. OK, what’s up with this? Bethany was a small village on the southeastern slope of the Mount of Olives, less than two miles from Jerusalem. It is on the road from Jericho from where Jesus started this trip to Jerusalem, where He will end it. Bethany is a significant little village.

See the following from: Andersen, H.G. "Bethany" The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible. Ed. Merrill C. Tenney. 5 vols. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1976; Gregory, Stewart. Israel, the Holy Land: The Concise Biblical Study & Travel Guide. Jerusalem: Bibleland Workshops, 1987; and Rousseau, John J. and Rami Arav. Jesus and His World: An Archaeological and Cultural Dictionary. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1995.

Scholars tell us:

Bethany was the home of Jesus’ special friends, Martha, Mary and Lazarus. Apparently, He and His disciples often visited in their home, probably when they came to Jerusalem for feast days. It is there where Jesus tells Martha, “Martha, Martha (indicating their close friendship), you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only a few things are necessary, really only one: for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her" (Luke 10:39-42). This is the same Bethany where Lazarus is raised from the dead. (John 11:47-51). It was this event that confirmed and accelerated the Sanhedrin’s plan to put Jesus to death (John 11:45-54).

On another occasion, a week before the crucifixion, Mary anointed Jesus’ feet in the home of Simon the leper in Bethany (Matt 26:6-13; Mark 14:3-9; John 12:2-11). When it became known that Jesus was in Bethany, a "great multitude" came to the village, not only to see Jesus who had raised Lazarus, but also to see Lazarus himself who was, no doubt, the object of much speculation and wonder! This flow of people to Bethany, and the increasing numbers of them who, as result of this sign miracle, believed in Jesus, incensed the religious leaders in Jerusalem. So violent was their reaction that they "took counsel that they might put Lazarus to death also" (John 12:9-11). Again, it was the proximity of Bethany to Jerusalem that accentuated this climaxing confrontation between the Sanhedrin and Jesus.

On the Sunday before the Friday of His crucifixion, Jesus made His formal entrance into Jerusalem, apparently starting at Bethany. Passing near Bethphage, an adjacent village on the Mount of Olives, He requisitioned a donkey for His prophecy-fulfilling approach to the city (Zech 9:9; Matt 21:1-11; Mark 11:1-11; Luke 19:29-44; John 12:12-19.

After His official entry into Jerusalem (the "triumphal entry"), Jesus returned to Bethany with His disciples (Matt 21:17; Mark 11:11,12).

Finally, when Jesus was about to return to His Father from the Mount of Olives, "He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. And it came about, that while He was blessing them, He departed from them" (Luke 24:50,52). This home in Bethany, so often opened to Jesus, now became the place from which He would leave the earth to return to His Father’s "home


Bethphage is only about a mile from Bethany and less than a mile from Jerusalem. While some will assert that Jesus used some miraculous power to acquire the donkey, I choose to follow “Occam’s Razor” which is a principle that states, in essence that given the choice between two competing answers, “the simplest answer is the best.” The simplest answer is that Jesus had some unnamed co-conspirator in the Bethany-Bethphage area with whom He had a pre-arrangement for the donkey with the password being, “the Master is in need of it.” It could be that this unnamed disciple and “co-conspirator” knew much of Jesus plan to enter the city as the Messiah. What an honor for that person to be “in on” Jesus’ great plan!

Be all that scholarly stuff as it may, the most important point is that He told the disciples to do it and they, though obviously not “in on the plan” did it. They could have asked, “why,” but they didn’t. That’s the lesson for us. God has plans, big plans, plans for the world and plans for us. Sometimes He takes us into His confidence and some sometimes He takes other people into His confidence. Sometimes, He takes no one into his confidence. The blessing, though is being in on the execution.

Oh, a small point on this – these disciples knew what Jesus was telling them because they heard it from His lips. We don’t have that privilege any more. What are we to do? We have the broader scope of hearing from God through the Holy Spirit unlimited by our ears and eyes. Henry Blackaby tells us that God speaks to us, “through the Holy Spirit by the Bible, prayer, circumstance and the Church to reveal Himself, His purposes and His ways.” All we have to do is hone our listening skills and listen for the Word – then do it and be blessed.

We honor Christ as King by praising Him. As alluded to in the previous section, Jesus was planning a triumphal assault on Jerusalem. He had over three years revealed more and more of “Himself, His purposes and His ways” to the people, first hinting and now finally stating clearly and openly that He is the Messiah, the promised one, the God in Man.

He gives them increasing and now final opportunity to accept that – but they refuse. In aid of that plan, he uses a time-honored technique of the prophets. When the people would not heard the mere words, the prophet, under God’s leadership, would do some dramatic act to get their attention. Remember, Hosea marrying the harlot and Jeremiah breaking the bowls in the Valley of Hinnon and wearing the stocks? Likewise, Jesus fulfills, in intricate detail and clearly by design, the prophesies about the Messiah – in this case the triumphal entry foretold in Zachariah, supra.

Here, Jesus proclaims Himself “King of the Jews.” The disciples respond appropriately by spreading the cloaks on His saddle and on the path ahead of Him (remember Sir Walter Raleigh, where do you think he got that poetic idea?) In so doing, they proclaim Him as king. To do so, is not merely to partake of a display, to acknowledge a king, one must recognize that He is greater than you are. It is that recognition of His greatness, IE. praise, that is vital to our ability to follow his instructions without question. We must “lose ourselves” in His greatness. To the extent that we are able to do that, we can receive the blessing of the promised “abundant life.”

We honor Christ by loving our fellow man. On the way in, Jesus stops and weeps over Jerusalem. We see here a clear picture of how God feels when we disobey Him. This is not because He is offended or has hurt feelings, this is because he knows how much suffering and disappointment we will bring on ourselves by our disobedience and He is sad about that. Thus, in Matthew’s simple but poignant words, “Jesus wept.”

Jesus said that if we truly love God, we will love our fellow man. I would submit that one who does not love his fellow man does not really love God. If that is the case, then we are back at the beginning which is that if you don’t do what He says, you don’t love Him. And if you don’t love Him, you rob yourself of the blessing that He promised –abundant life. To illustrate the point, I close this piece with one of my favorite poems: “Abu Ben Adam” by James Leigh Hunt.

Abu Ben Adam, may his tribe increase, Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace.
And saw, within the moonlight of his room Making it rich, like a lily in bloom,
An angel writing in a book of gold. Exceeding peace had made Abu Ben Adam bold
And to the presence in his room he said, ' What writest thou?' The vision raised its head, And with a look of all sweet accord Answered: 'The names of those who love the Lord. 'And is mine one?' said Abu. 'Nay not so' Replied the Angel. Abu spoke more low, But cheerily still and said, 'I pray thee then Write me as one that loves his fellow-men.'

The angel wrote and vanished.
The next night it came again with awaking light, And showed the names of whom love of God had blessed. And lo! Ben Adam's name led all the rest.