Rev. Hyuntae Kim; 4/5/20

“The King on the donkey” (John 12:12-19)

Be grace and peace of God with all of you, the members of Worcester Korean United Methodist Church, no matter where you’re having a service. To prevent further spread of COVID-19, the Bishop of The New England Conference of the United Methodist Church advised us not to have any kind of gathering, even of the pastor and the praise team members to produce a live video clip of the Sunday morning service. So, the service video clip from this week may seem to go a little less smoothly since it is edited and combined from the praise and sermon video files recorded individually as you see now. You may feel glad to see some old members of WKUMC of the old WKUMC choir team from the recording added to the service clip today. We believe that God always dwells among us especially when we worship Him with all our heart, regardless of the format and quality of the recording.

Today is called “Palm Sunday”, which we commemorate Jesus’ entry to Jerusalem to be crucified. Going back to the time before Jesus’ crucifixion, we see that Jesus on a donkey is entering Jerusalem in a hearty welcome from the people there crowded for Passover commemoration. The latest written gospel, the book of John, introduces this event from the middle of the entire book and skips many details from time to time (ex. The owner of the donkey permitting Jesus to use it) to focus only on His accomplishment of the prophecy about Him, described as “the King on the donkey” in Zechariah 9:9. The synoptic* gospels, which refer to the other gospels such as the book of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, are written earlier than the book of John and introduce the gospel in perspective of the disciples who had seen Jesus’ ministry together. It is important to remember that He headed to Jerusalem of His own accord, even though He already knew that He was under arrest and will undergo the ultimate humiliation and pain a few days later.

Since Jesus performed the miracle of bringing Lazarus back to life in addition to Five Loaves and Two Fish, He had become a hero of the Israelites and the king who will save them from Roman domination. Many Jewish people followed Him (~2.7 million according to Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus, 37 AD-100 AD) and tried their best to mount Him to the throne with ardor (John 6:14-15) to the point that the jealous Pharisees almost gave up to pull Him down and kill Him under a charge of blasphemy (John 12:19). Such an ardor of the Jewish people at the moment is something that we can’t easily empathize with, but we can imagine how much they were shocked as someone who saw the miracles firsthand. Since Jesus was under arrest, many people didn’t expect Him to show up at Jerusalem but were surprised and gave Him a hearty welcome when He showed up in expectation of His throne (John 12:17-18). However, nobody, even Jesus’ disciples (John 12:16), knew His real purpose of His entry to Jerusalem on a donkey instead of a fancy and robust horse, which symbolized humbleness of the King who came to the earth to give the people a peace, not a forceful domination. 

Jesus was lonely and heartbreaking to see the people at Jerusalem whose hospitality will turn into a cold cynicism and terrible rioting a few days later. He knew that the people will be disappointed to see Him constantly turning down their support and offering to overthrow Roman domination and eventually become angry enough to let Him be crucified instead of a terrible murderer, Barabbas. However, Jesus silently goes on His way, carrying on with Him a great love and plan of God to save the world through His blood. His disciples and many people realize the true meaning of Jesus becoming the King of “heaven and earth” after accomplishing the history of the Great Salvation. 

We can learn two lessons from today’s Scripture. Firstly, the way Jesus works – through love, humbleness, and peace – is very different from what we think because our values – wealth, power, and force – are toward opposite side of His nature. Even in the midst of the current tragic period of COVID-19, we see some “miracle seeds” planted on some people’s spiritual ground, including Iulian Urban, an Italian doctor introduced last week. He met God and began to rely on His care and help since he experienced the love and peace of God through the pastor who comforted and evangelized other patients before passing away. There are other examples of such miracle seeds, including an infected elder woman in Belgium who gave up her life, yielding the respirator to younger patients, and a restaurant in Daegu and Oriental Medicine Society in Incheon supported with foods and oriental medicine for those medical staffs who are currently struggling to stop and cure the disease in Daegu, South Korea. We should do our best not to blind ourselves with some problem or crisis physically “seen” but to look for Jesus’ “unseen” will inside of it and empathize with Him, not leaving Him alone by being spiritually dull. I pray that you overcome the upcoming Passion Week in the name of Jesus carrying His will inside your heart. Amen.