KING FOR A DAY

          It was the summer of 1957 and my mother traveled with a friend to Southern California. There she was interviewed for a popular television program, hosted by Jack Bailey. The show opened with host Jack Bailey asking the audience—mostly women—

"Would YOU like to be Queen for a day?"

After this, the contestants were introduced and interviewed, one at a time, with commercials and fashion commentary interspersed between each contestant.

          Using the classic "applause meter", as did many game and hit-parade style shows of the time, Queen for a Day had its own special twist: each contestant had to talk publicly about the recent financial and emotional hard times she had been through.

          The interview would climax with Bailey asking the contestant what she needed most and why she wanted to win the title of Queen for a Day. Often the request was for medical care or therapeutic equipment to help a chronically ill child, but sometimes it was as simple as the need for a hearing aid, a new washing machine, or a refrigerator. Many women broke down sobbing as they described their plights, and Bailey was always quick to comfort them and offer a clean white handkerchief to dry their eyes.

          My mother was chosen to be interviewed on the air. She listed on her application for the show.

"If I were queen for a day, I'd get a Chandler and Price Paper cutter for my 12 and 14 year old sons' printshop. They are listen by the local chamber of commerce as "The Youngest Businessmen in Texas."

          My mother made runner-up, but Jack Bailey assured the audience that he'd see that mom's sons got a brand-new Chandler and Price paper cutter! Mom was ALMOST Queen for a Day!

That summer, while she was in Southern California, my mother wed her second husband and we moved from West Texas to Manhattan Beach, California.         
          That sounds like what happened to Jesus, doesn’t it? Jesus was crowned "King for a Day" on that first Palm Sunday. He was truly in the minds of the common people an "Almost King."

April 17, 2011 / Palm Sunday

Pastor Phil Roland - Sheepfold Ministries

 

KING FOR A DAY

Matthew 21:1-11 - Zechariah 9:9-14

 “The last week of Jesus life began with a parade and ended at His Cross. The agony of Christ’s sufferings challenges us to a deeper commitment and walk with Him.  We will follow Him wherever He leads.”  Pastor Phil

 

I.  The Paradoxes of Kingship - Matthew verses 1-5

            A. Roman Triumph Generals rode white horses

                        1. Armor - Plumed Headdress - Metal/Leather Breastplate

                        2. Army of Men in polished array - Dress Attire

                        3. Spoils of War

                        4. Captives soon-to-become slaves

                        5. Captives doomed for death in the arena

 

            B. Roman Triumph was a display of Pride and Power

                        1. Romans ruled with a heavy hand

                        2. Arrogant and Vain

                        3. Considered themselves above others

                        4. Crushed their enemies with might and with the sword

 

            C. Contrast: Jesus Humble Entry - Zechariah 9:9-10

            “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem!          Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly   and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.”

                        1. Jesus was not physically attractive – Isaiah 53:2b

              ”He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,

nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.”

                        2. IRONY: God’s Salvation is through Humility - 1 Samuel 22:28

            “You will save the humble people; But Your eyes are on the     haughty, that You may bring them down.”

                        3. God’s Messiah and His followers will be humble - Zeph. 3:12

                        “But I will leave within you the meek and humble, who trust in the

                        name of the LORD.”

 

            D. Jesus is a King and He is a Sacrificial Lamb

                        1. Jesus is the King above all Kings

                        2. He is the Lamb of God  - John 1:35,36

                  Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples.

                  And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, "Behold the Lamb of God!"

                        3. The Palm Sunday Parade didn't know it, but they were                               choosing their Passover Lamb

                        4. This was the day Jewish households chose their Passover                                 Lamb for their Seder Five days later

           

 

KING FOR A DAY, cont.

 

            E. Jesus Becomes Judah's Sacrificial Lamb

                        1. David Prophetically Predicted it - Psalm 22:7       

                        “All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads:”

                        2. Accolade one day and Contempt the next - Isaiah 53

      "He was despised and rejected--a man of sorrows, acquainted with   bitterest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way        when he went by. He was despised, and we did not care.” NLT

      3. They Prepared Him for the Slaughter - Matt. 27:28,29

           "They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and twisting                                    together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head.... And kneeling

            before him, they mocked him, saying, 'Hail, King of the Jews!' And

            they spit on him"

            4. Isaiah Predicts this humiliating Time in Jesus' Life - Isa. 53:7               "Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before

            its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth"

 

II.  FICKLE CROWD FROM ACCOLADE TO CONTEMPT - vs. 6-11

          A. Who was in the Palm Sunday Crowd?

                        1. Sycophants - Dumb, Blind Followers

                        2. Watchers, Spectators - Unwilling to Commit, just Observe

                        3. New Messiah Leader in Town

                   4. Expected to lead the Jews in Revolt against Roman Rule

                                    a. Political Solutions to Issues of the Heart

                                    b. Looking for the same thing the Romans wanted:

                                         Free Bread and Circuses

                        5. We have the same crowd around today

 

          B. Jesus' Scourging the Temple turned His popularity - Isaiah 56:7
            "these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of

            prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for

            my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations."

                        1. Prophets Predicted Jesus Fall from Popularity - Jere. 9:9-11

                        "Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn

                        incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known,

                        10 and then come and stand before me in this house, which

                        bears my Name, and say, "We are safe"--safe to do all these

                        detestable things? 11 Has this house, which bears my Name,

                        become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching!

                        declares the LORD."

                        2. Jewish Sanhedrin used the Temple Purging to plot His

                            Death on the Cross

ANNOUNCEMENT

You are invited next Thursday to attend our Annual Maunday Thursday Seder at the Sheepfold. Please eat your evening meal before coming. We will present Jewish ceremonial Passover Symbolic foods and show you how Jesus introduced the Lord’s Supper at His Last Meal with His disciples. Come at 7 pm.

KING FOR A DAY

Zechariah 9:9-14 (NIV)
9 Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
10 I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the war-horses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth.
11 As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit.
12 Return to your fortress, O prisoners of hope; even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you.
13 I will bend Judah as I bend my bow and fill it with Ephraim. I will rouse your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece, and make you like a warrior's sword.
14 Then the LORD will appear over them; his arrow will flash like lightning. The Sovereign LORD will sound the trumpet; he will march in the storms of the south,

 

 

 

 

Matthew 21:1-11 (NIV)
1 As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples,
2 saying to them, "Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me.
3 If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away."
4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:
5 "Say to the Daughter of Zion, 'See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.'"
6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them.
7 They brought the donkey and the colt, placed their cloaks on them, and Jesus sat on them.
8 A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.
9 The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" "Hosanna in the highest!"
10 When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, "Who is this?"
11 The crowds answered, "This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee."

 

 

KING FOR A DAY

Some years ago a book was written by Gene Smith, a noted American historian. The title was "When The Cheering Stopped." It was the story of President Woodrow Wilson and the events leading up to and following WWI. When that war was over Wilson was an international hero. There was a great spirit of optimism abroad, and people actually believed that the last war had been fought and the world had been made safe for democracy.

On his first visit to Paris after the war Wilson was greeted by cheering mobs. He was actually more popular than their own heroes. The same thing was true in England and Italy. In a Vienna hospital a Red Cross worker had to tell the children that there would be no Christmas presents because of the war and the hard times. The children didn't believe her. They said that President Wilson was coming and they knew that everything would be all right.

The cheering lasted about a year. Then it gradually began to stop. It turned out that the political leaders in Europe were more concerned with their own agendas than they were a lasting peace. At home, Woodrow Wilson ran into opposition in the United States Senate and his League of Nations was not ratified. Under the strain of it all the President's health began to break. In the next election his party was defeated. So it was that Woodrow Wilson, a man who barely a year or two earlier had been heralded as the new world Messiah, came to the end of his days a broken and defeated man.

 

 

A PALM SUNDAY QUIZ

By Rev. Keith Thompson

Living Hope Assembly of God

 

Palm Sunday celebrates the day Jesus made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Test your knowledge of that day’s events, recorded in all four Gospels, with these true or false statements.

 

1. According to the Gospels, the people waved palm branches when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.

 

2. The date of Jesus’ triumphal entry – five days before Passover – was a special holiday in his time.

 

3. By their actions, the people were publicly proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah.

 

4. The fact that Jesus rode a donkey portrayed him as a warrior king.

 

5. The shouts of “Hosanna!” meant “Praise the Lord!”

 

6. The route Jesus chose for his triumphal entry was down the side of Mount Zion.

 

7. When the people spread branches and garments in Jesus’ path it was to pay him honor.

 

8. The shouts of “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” were words of a Jewish hymn.

A PALM SUNDAY QUIZ

ANSWERS

 

1. False (Matt. 21:6, Mark 11:8, Luke 19:36, John 12:13). None of the four Gospels say the people “waved” branches but that they spread garments and branches in Jesus’ path. Only John mentions palm branches, a tree not native to Jerusalem.

 

2. True. It wasn’t called Palm Sunday in Jesus’ day, but each Israelite family chose the lamb they would sacrifice for Passover on the tenth day of the month. As the people shouted “Hosanna,” they didn’t realize they were choosing the Lamb of God as their sacrifice.

 

3. True. When Solomon was anointed king, he rode into the city on a mule, to the shouts and praises of the people (1 Kings 1:43-45). Zechariah prophesied the Messiah would arrive the same way “gentle and riding on a donkey” (Zech. 9:9).

 

4. False. Conquering kings would ride war horses; the donkey symbolized peace and humility (Zech. 9:9, 10). Jesus’ entry was a stark contrast to the war-like Romans, whose military presence was very visible.

 

5. False. The Hebrew word Halleluia means “praise the Lord;” Hosanna means “save us.” or “save.” The Palm Sunday crowd falsely assumed that Jesus would bring political liberation.

 

6. False. Jesus rode down the Mount of Olives, offering him an excellent view of Jerusalem, which is built on Mount Zion. According to Zechariah 14:4, Jesus will again stand on the Mount of Olives at his second coming.

 

7. True. The people were boldly declaring that Jesus was their king, an accusation eventually written in condemnation above his cross. It was common in Bible times to spread garments in the path of princes and kings, especially at their coronation (see 2 Kings 9:13).

 

8. True. The phrases “Hosanna” and “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” both come from Psalm 118: 25-26, one of the “Hallel” or praise psalms (113-118) used every Passover. These Jewish hymns would be as familiar to the Jewish people as Christmas carols are to Christians.

 

Reprinted by permission. Article by Lynn Austin Copyright © 2000 by the author or Christianity Today International/Today’s Christian magazine (formerly Christian Reader). March/April 2000, Vol. 38, No. 2, Page 39