Who is this guy? Wanted By: the FDA for turning water into wine without a license, the EPA for killing fig trees, the AMA for practicing medicine without a license, the Dept. of Health for asking people to open graves, for raising the dead and for feeding 5,000 people in the wilderness, the NEA for teaching without a certificate, OSHA for walking on water without a lifejacket and for flying without an airplane, the SPCA for driving hogs into the sea, the National Board of Psychiatrists for giving advice on how to live a guilt-free life, the NOW for not choosing a woman apostle, the ABORTION RIGHTS LEAGUE for saying that whoever harms children, it is better that they had never been born, the INTERFAITH MOVEMENT for condemning all other religions, and by the ZONING DEPT for building mansions without a permit.  Guess Who?  Who is this guy?

Some 1100 years before Palm Sunday, David wrote a psalm foretelling this day.  He gave the people of God reason to lift up their heads in hope that one day their King, their Saviour, would come marching into the gates of Jerusalem: “Lift up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.  Who is this King of glory?...Who is he, this King of glory?  The Lord Almighty – he is the King of glory.” (Ps.24:7-10).

And 1100 years later, this King of glory came clopping into the ancient city of Jerusalem on a donkey.  In Matthew’s account, verse 10 says: “When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, ‘Who is this?’”  The whole city was stirred up – actually “shaken,” to be more precise.  Like an earthquake had hit!  And just as had been prophesied, they asked: Who IS this?  Who is this King of glory?  Or in today’s vernacular: “Who IS this guy?”

That’s an important question, don’t you think?  It was an important question for the people in Jerusalem that day –for the ones waving the palm branches, for the Jewish teachers of the Law, and for the Roman officials trying to keep peace in the city.  It is also a very important question – actually the key question in life – for you and me.  Who is this guy?

Who is this guy?  First of all, He was DETERMINED, wasn’t He?  Jesus knew very well that this was his last trip into Jerusalem.  He knew the week would end with Him on the cross.  He had predicted this to his disciples.  It was his Father’s will.  And He was determined to carry it out.  He knew what awful things lay in the road ahead for Him.  But He was determined to march on. Why?  Apparently, to save people who hated Him.  Who is this guy?

He was DIVINE, too, wasn’t He?  He did things only God could do.  Did you notice how He sent his disciples ahead, telling them they would find the donkey with her colt exactly where they found her?  And the response of the donkey’s owner was exactly as Jesus said it would be? Who is this guy?  He knows everything. He sees everything.  As only God can!

And when He got on that donkey to ride it into Jerusalem, He fulfilled a 500 year old prophecy from Zechariah: “See your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”  This is one of over 300 Old Testament prophesies, made hundreds of years earlier, that were fulfilled to the detail by Jesus of Nazareth.  Coincidence?  Peter Stoner, a mathematician, rules that out.  He says the odds of one man fulfilling just 8 prophesies would be 1 in 10 to the 17th power.  1 with 17 zeros.  To understand those odds, if you took that many Loonies, and lay them out over the province of Ontario, they would cover the entire province roughly two feet deep.  Now mark one of those loonies, stir the whole mass up, blindfold a man and tell him he can travel wherever he wants, but he must pick up one coin, and say it was the marked one.  What chance would he have of getting the right one?  The same chance that the prophets would have had in writing 8 prophesies and having them come true in one man!

Odds of getting 48 prophesies right?  1 in 10 to the 157th power.  157 zeros.  Odds of getting 60 prophesies fulfilled by the only person who claimed to be the Son of God and who died on a “tree” on Calvary, and rose on the third day?  1 in 10 to the 895th power!  895 zeros!  Anyone want to venture a guess on the odds for fulfilling over 300 prophesies?  And yet that is what Jesus did!  Who IS this guy?

He is DESERVING OF HONOUR, isn’t He?  Throwing out a carpet of one’s cloaks to cover the path for a person to travel over was a sign of royal homage dating back at least to the time of King Jehu. The palm branches and shouting harked back at least 150 years to the triumph of the Maccabbees over the brutal dictator Antiochus Epiphanes.  When the Jewish people reentered Jerusalem, the celebrated with praise and palm branches and music - a story as well known to the crowd in Jerusalem that on Palm Sunday as George Washington and the defeat of the British would be known to Americans today.  Who is this guy coming into Jerusalem on a donkey?  There is no doubt the people were honouring Him as a King!

The words of the crowd that day also show they were honouring Him as the Messiah.  Hosanna!  Please save us!  Son of David was definitely a name for the promised Messiah.  Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!  Even though they now had a different expectation for their Messiah, the Palm Sunday crowd was using the very words of Scripture to praise Jesus as the promised Messiah-King who had come to carry out God’s plan of salvation!

But who is this guy?  Because He was DIFFERENT.  He didn’t act like a king.  He didn’t act like a Messiah.  He was gentle and riding on a donkey.  He was humble.  Gracious.  Pretty different, as far as kings go.  Who is this guy?

Robert was an advertising executive, a big wig, who every Tuesday night, volunteered at the church foot clinic for homeless people. He was always sharply dressed. He knelt down and washed homeless people’s feet. He applied ointment to their sores. Then gave them a clean white pair of socks. As he slipped the socks on, the homeless people often brushed tears from their cheeks. The pastor once asked Robert why he came to the foot clinic every week. He said, "I figure I have a better chance of running into Jesus here than most places." The pastor later said, “I realized as I watched him that I was seeing Christ in the stranger that he served. But I was also seeing Christ in the one who was finding deep meaning in his life through serving others.”

Friends, does that help us understand who Jesus is?  Willing to serve?  Willing to do whatever it takes?  One who puts you before Himself?  And does He not make you want to do the same?  Does his love for you not fill you with the desire to serve others humbly with your lives the same way He humbly served you with his?  Look at Him on that donkey.  Who is this guy?

He is One who saves.  Hosanna – please save us!  He has saved us from all the times we failed Him and his Father.  Saved us by willingly suffering for us what we deserved.  Saved you and me by being the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  He saved you.  He saved me.  And He was coming to save everyone there in Jerusalem that day.

Then why, by the end of the week, did they find Him to be so DISAPPOINTING?  Why did the cheering stop? After WWI, U.S. President Woodrow 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. 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 nurse had to tell the children that there would be no Christmas presents because of the war and hard times. The children didn’t believe her. They said that President Wilson was coming and 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 U.S. Senate and his League of Nations was not ratified. In the next election his party was defeated. So Woodrow Wilson, a man who barely a year earlier had been heralded as the new world Messiah, came to be a disappointment for most people.

Why did the cheering stop for Jesus?  Could it be because people found the actual answer to the question: “Who is this guy?” to be a little disappointing?  They had their own agendas in mind – the ousting of the Romans and the liberation of the Jewish nation.  A society of abundance and peace on earth.  They had long since stopped caring about a Saviour for their sins – someone to make them right with God.

So the question today is:  “Who is this guy for you and me?”  Who is this guy who entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday?  Who is this King of glory?  Just a good man?  Someone who gave us some pretty practical teachings to live by?  Someone whom it is nice to come and sing about on Sunday mornings?  Maybe even study about once a week?  Someone to refer to when I need Him?  Someone whose ways of living might be helpful when I am struggling?  Someone whom you are disappointed in when He doesn’t help you the way you think he should?

OR – is He really DIVINE?  The DETERMINED Son of God following his Father’s will to save me?  DESERVING of my honour as the Messiah?  DIFFERENT than any other king, than any other anyone, because He came here to serve you and me with his undeserved love and forgiveness?  Who is this King of glory?  The LORD Almighty – He is the King of glory!  Friends, how you answer the question: “Who is this guy?” is the most important question you’ll ever answer!  And the way you answer is by what you believe and how you live.

In his classic novel, The Robe, Lloyd C. Douglas has a character called Marcellus, who had become enamored of Jesus. He wrote letters to his fiancée, Diana, in Rome. He told her about Jesus' teachings, about his miracles, then about his crucifixion, and then about his resurrection. Finally he informed her that he had become a disciple of Jesus. In her letter of response, Diana said, “What I feared was that it might affect you. It is a beautiful story.  Let it remain so.  We don't have to do anything about it, do we?”

Oh yes, we do, Diana.  Who is Jesus?  Who is this guy?  He is the Son of God who came to take away the sins of the world and give us new life!  Believing in Him and following Him means our life will never be the same!  Far from disappointing, this King is DESTINATION GIVING!  We have life with God forever to look forward to!  And we have life right now to live in the way He lived.  Let’s get out the palm branches of our lives and shout our hosannas to Jesus in the way that we live and believe in Him!  Because He has saved us!  That’s who this guy is!   Amen.