Palm Sunday and the Prophetic Office

Introduction

When the Lord entered Jerusalem in His triumphal entry, He was walking steadily toward a triumph that only He really understood. His followers knew that it was a triumph, certainly, but they did not yet know what kind of triumph it was going to be. They thought it was going to be an ordinary sort of triumph. But the Lord knew what the Scriptures foretold. He knew He was going to die on a cross, and that is why He set His face to go to Jerusalem (Luke 9:51). And this is why, as Chesterton once observed, the cross can never be defeated. It can never be defeated because it is defeat.

The Text

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Matthew 23:37–39).

Summary of the Text

The Lord Jesus enters Jerusalem in triumph, and He is met by an enthusiastic crowd of disciples (Matt. 21:1-17). That entry culminated in the second cleansing of the Temple (vv. 12-17). Remember that Jesus had cleansed the Temple once before, at the very beginning of His ministry (John 2:13-17). Remember also how in the Old Testament, the priest would inspect a leprous house two times before it was condemned (Lev. 14:39). And remember that Jerusalem contained three main factions—the disciples of Christ, who knew and loved Him (Matt 21:9), the Jesus mobs who were greatly impressed by Him and that the rulers feared (Matt. 21:26, 46), and then the establishment Jews, the rulers who hated Him (Matt. 12:14).

After the triumphal entry, Jesus told a few parables (not to mention the cursing of the fig tree) that indicated the coming cataclysmic judgment on Jerusalem. Not only so, but in chapter 22, He has a series of doctrinal collisions with the Pharisees, Herodians, and Sadducees, again with pending judgment in view. And then in chapter 23, the Lord launches into an extended diatribe against the hypocrisy of the religious establishment, and that chapter concludes with our text. Jerusalem! Jerusalem! How often they killed prophets and stoned messengers sent to them! How often Christ wanted to gather the children of that doomed and fated city under His wings, but their leaders wouldn’t have it (v. 37). Their house is therefore left to them desolate (v. 38). But the one who comes in the name of the Lord is blessed (v. 39).

The Prophetic Vocation

We know that Jesus Christ is our prophet, our priest, and our king. Our purpose in this message is to consider His role as a prophet, the supreme prophet. Moses foretold the fact that a prophet like Moses would eventually arise (Dt. 18:15), and Jesus is that prophet. But because He is that prophet, He fulfills the prophetic vocation perfectly.

But what is that vocation? What is a prophet called to do? This is almost entirely neglected in our day, and when we do pay attention to it, we often understand just the first half of the prophet’s task. We think the prophet is supposed to denounce the sins of the people. Very few do even that in our day, and so when it happens at all, we think we are done. But it is not nearly so simple.

1. We begin with shalom, with peace between God and His people. 2. But tragically, second, the people become faithless, and they do so in two directions. They are faithless toward God in their worship (vertical) and as a result they grow faithless toward one another (horizontal). 3. Then third, God gets angry with them. This happens because He is a jealous husband (vertical), and because He cares for the downtrodden and oppressed (horizontal). 4. At the penultimate fourth stage, God’s righteous anger is poured out on the people. 5. And last, God calms down, and balance is restored.

This is the full prophetic cycle. So the prophet’s role is two-fold. When the people start to veer off, he is to warn them about the destructive path they are on. This is the part of the prophetic ministry that we still understand. A prophet denounces the sins of the people. But when the people don’t turn away from sin in repentance, and God’s anger is aroused, the prophet’s calling is to turn back to Jehovah and “demand” that He turn away from His wrath.

The Hebrew word shuv means to turn, and it refers to a change in behavior. The people are called to turn (shuv), and then God is called upon to turn (shuv). For those who understand who God actually is, this is audacity without boundaries. But this is what Abraham does (Gen. 18:22-25). This is what prophets do—Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, and numerous others—this is their calling. This second part is what Jonah was so reluctant to do. Jonah’s problem, as the book bearing his name reveals, is that he was only taking up the first half of the office. But what does the king of Nineveh say?

This is the pattern Moses follows. Look closely at this exchange between God and Moses. God says, in effect, “Let me at them . . .”

And how does Moses talk back?

We need to remember these things. A prophetic ministry does not just argue with the people about God. There is also the audacious element, the one in which the prophet argues with God about the people. The prophet does not argue about the righteousness of the unfolding judgment, but rather about the fitness of the judgment. They seize on various arguments. Abraham argues on the basis of any righteous ones in Sodom. Moses argues on the basis of what the heathen nations will say about it. Amos argues that Israel is so small.

The Reckoning at Gethsemane

So the prophets of old are all types of the coming one, some very clear types (Jeremiah), and others not so much (Jonah). But all of them establish the pattern and all are types. Jehovah wants a prophet to arise, and come before Him to do this. He wants a prophet to fulfill the complete prophetic ministry.

Jesus is the one who entered Jerusalem with a message to the people from God. He delivered that message. But then He turned back perfectly in order to stand in the gap, and in order to stand before His Father. He did this in order to represent the case of the people to God, to argue for the people. And in doing this, He made the choice that led straight to our salvation. In doing this, He offered up the ultimate argument, which was the cup that He drank.

I need no other argument,
I need no other plea,
It is enough that Jesus died,
And that He died for me.