The traditional Palm Sunday victory procession has a big flaw; Jesus weeping over the city in the middle of it. Looking to Zechariah 9 for the source, we find answers in Luke 19 to the question: What did they actually see? Was it, as Jesus said, 'hidden from their eyes'?
There are plenty of instances of things in plain sight that even observant eyes can easily miss. We might give ourselves a dope-slap when the thing we've been searching for is right in front of our eyes.
However, we can scale it much further. The victims of Hurricane Michael in the Florida Panhandle are still awaiting federal disaster assistance six months after being devastated. They wonder if they've been forgotten, neglected, or ignored as a new season of storm activity is on the horizon and they have hardly begun to re-build from last season's tragedy.
God has had this problem with the human creation not seeing or perceiving God's will from the beginning. God continually seeks to address it as the scriptures reveal, but to little avail as message and messenger are always getting corrupted by the human agenda.
The vision of Zechariah 9 seems to have conflicting imagery, but in fact it announces God's Kingdom of peace as the King comes to them on a small donkey, not a heroic warrior on a war horse. But is that what the people see in this King, or do they have their own agenda that is totally different from God's?
That question of what did the people actually see and believe gets answered in Luke 19 as Jesus also comes into Jerusalem riding a small donkey, a direct illustration of Zechariah 9.
God's Kingdom remains hidden for most, but not due to God or Jesus making any secret of it. View the sermon video below and access the downloads below the video panel.
There are plenty of instances of things in plain sight that even observant eyes can easily miss. We might give ourselves a dope-slap when the thing we've been searching for is right in front of our eyes.
However, we can scale it much further. The victims of Hurricane Michael in the Florida Panhandle are still awaiting federal disaster assistance six months after being devastated. They wonder if they've been forgotten, neglected, or ignored as a new season of storm activity is on the horizon and they have hardly begun to re-build from last season's tragedy.
God has had this problem with the human creation not seeing or perceiving God's will from the beginning. God continually seeks to address it as the scriptures reveal, but to little avail as message and messenger are always getting corrupted by the human agenda.
The vision of Zechariah 9 seems to have conflicting imagery, but in fact it announces God's Kingdom of peace as the King comes to them on a small donkey, not a heroic warrior on a war horse. But is that what the people see in this King, or do they have their own agenda that is totally different from God's?
That question of what did the people actually see and believe gets answered in Luke 19 as Jesus also comes into Jerusalem riding a small donkey, a direct illustration of Zechariah 9.
God's Kingdom remains hidden for most, but not due to God or Jesus making any secret of it. View the sermon video below and access the downloads below the video panel.
| 04-14-19-sermon.mp3 |
| 04-14-19-ff-answers.pdf |
| 04-14-19-hidden_from_your_eyes.pdf |