Jesus is King l Luke 19:28-40 l Chapel Hill Church Gig Harbor
On May 6 this year, Operation Golden Orb will commence. It has been planned for decades and draws upon a millennium of tradition. It will be executed with absolute precision, and viewed publicly by billions around the world. What is it? The coronation of King Charles III. This will be the moment when the crown is placed upon his head, the transfer of title and powers will be complete, and he will formally assume the role of head of the Church of England.
However, it is not necessary for a monarch to be crowned to be King. Edward VIII, Queen Elizabeth’s uncle, reigned for almost 11 months as King without ever being crowned, before he then abdicated the throne. And Charles has been King since September 8, when his mother passed away. But King Charles III will not be crowned King for another 34 days. He is currently the King of the United Kingdom, but he has not yet been crowned. That will not happen until the procession which will begin at Buckingham Palace on May 6, reaches Westminster Abbey, and the King sits on his throne and has the crown placed upon his head.
This morning, as we continue our journey through the gospel of Luke—his account of the life of Jesus—we will reach a climactic moment in the story of Jesus. A moment where Jesus, the King of Kings, processes, not into Westminster Abbey in London, but into the Temple in Jerusalem, and a crowd of people will declare that he is the true King. He has always been King, but this is the moment when people emphatically declare it to be so. We refer to this as Jesus’ triumphal entry, and we remember it every year on this, Palm Sunday.
My name is Ellis and I’m one of the pastors here, and I want to join my welcome with the others you have heard. We’re really glad that you have chosen to worship with us on this Palm Sunday. We’re going to look at Luke’s account of that momentous day, and ironically, Luke’s account contains no palm branches, nor an actual entry into Jerusalem, nor any shouts of “Hosanna.” But it does contain a definitive case for why Jesus is the King that God’s people had been waiting for.
We’re in Luke 19, beginning in verse 28, and I invite you to turn to that passage in your Bibles, and you’ll probably benefit from having the Bible open in front of you, since we’ll work our way slowly through this passage. So, it’s Luke 19:28ff. and you’ll find it on page 878 of the pew Bibles. I want to share with you five covert ways—five almost hidden ways—that this passage shows us that Jesus is King. And I’m indebted to the work of former Whitworth professor James Edwards for helping me to discover these five points. So, let’s read, Luke 19, verses 28-34:
‘And when he had said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. When he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of the disciples, saying, “Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say this: ‘The Lord has need of it.’” So those who were sent went away and found it just as he had told them. And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?” And they said, “The Lord has need of it.”’ Luke 19:28–34
This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
In the city of London, much of the property that can be purchased on the housing market is what is called “leasehold.” When purchasing this type of property, you do not become the full owner. You own the building – the property itself, but the land upon which that property is built belongs to the true owner. And more than that, you only own the property for a set period of time, often around one hundred years. Once that time has elapsed, the property returns to its original owner. Now, I’m sure to many of us this sounds unbelievable! We live in a place where the thought of not being the true owner of your own property is crazy. But, yet, this is very common in London, where more than one third of all property is leasehold.
The owners of the colt in our passage were leaseholders. The passage says they were its owners, but when you dig a little deeper, you come to realize that the real owner of the colt, its true master was Jesus. And this is the first of the 5 covert ways that this passage shows us that Jesus is King. Jesus is Creation’s King.