Who Is This?
Matthew 21:1-11
Palm Sunday, March 20 2005
First Baptist Church, Wilson, NC

"Who is this?" asked the whole city. That was the whole point of this parade. Jesus was secure in his identity. With the simple act of riding into town on a donkey, he communicated who he was and shook a whole city. It was an unforgettable act of self-definition.

Young people sometimes struggle with self-definition. Every now and then you’ll hear one say, "I’m going away to find myself." He’ll pack his bag and take his guitar and head to Colorado to find himself. (Why is it always Colorado?) He wants to get away from everybody who knows him, and go to where no one knows him, and make his own way. He wants to peel away all his roles and relationships that are layered one on top of the other like the layers of an onion. He wants to peel all of that away until he comes to the core of his being. Let’s hope he doesn’t discover that…he’s an onion! (Told by Tony Campolo at the Convocation of Wake Forest University a few years ago.)

Psychologists tell us that our identity is made up of four different selves. There is the public self: the self you know and others around you know. But there is also the hidden self: the self you know but others don’t know. Then there is the clueless self; that is the self you don’t know, but others do! And finally there is the unknown self: the part of you that is so deep that neither you nor anyone else knows, but God knows.

How much of Jesus was the public self, or the hidden self, or the clueless self, or the unknown self? I submit to you that Jesus knew himself very well. He knew himself well because he had a very close relationship with his heavenly Father. When he was baptized, the Father told him "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased." (Matthew 3:17) When he was transfigured on a high mountain, God said "This is my Son, the Beloved; with whom I am well pleased." From his baptism to his transfiguration and beyond, Jesus spent hours and hours in prayer with his heavenly Father. Through that relationship, Jesus’ own role in his Father’s kingdom was very well defined. He knew who he was. All that remained was to reveal who he was to the world.

The Gospel of Mark, which Matthew follows closely, does a curious thing with the question of Jesus’ identity. It handles his identity like a secret to be kept. In Mark any time anyone gets an inkling of who Jesus is, Jesus shushes them. Someone will be healed and will then say to Jesus, "You are the Messiah!" But Jesus tells them, "Tell no one." Someone else is possessed by a spirit, who can see who Jesus is, and starts to say so, but Jesus says, "Shhh." Why all the secrecy around his messianic identity? Maybe people would misunderstand. Maybe his time, as he liked to say, had not yet come.

But one day after praying with the Father, Jesus sensed that his time had come, so he set his face like a flint toward Jerusalem, toward the very people who wanted him dead. His disciples looked at each other, their eyes got wide, and then they looked at Jesus leaving them behind, and they started following. Jesus was going to go public with his identity. For the last six weeks you and I have been following Jesus on that journey to the cross, watching him reveal more and more of his identity to others, learning some things not even we had known about him.

And then today the day came. Jesus came to Jerusalem. He sent two disciples ahead to get a donkey. "If anyone says anything to you, just say this, ‘The Lord needs them.’ And he will send them immediately." What do you think about that? Do you think Jesus had already pre-positioned someone’s donkey by mutual agreement? Or was there this miraculous openness to the Lord? Either way, Jesus was preparing a purposeful act of self-revelation. He was staging a living parable that would declare: "This is who I am."

Centuries before Zechariah had prophesied,

Now Jesus was making this happen in the sight of the whole city. Not only that, Jesus was following in the tradition of King Solomon, Son of David, who had also come into Jerusalem on a donkey. So also had other great leaders and liberators of the people. To ride into Jerusalem on a donkey was an act of high drama with a great history. So Jesus rode into town like a king. Yet he rode not on a war horse, but on a donkey. Not to lay siege to the fortress, but to lay claim on their hearts.

The people followed his lead. They knew this drama and they did their part. Just as had been done for Solomon and other heroes, they laid down their cloaks for him, they spread out branches for him, and they shouted to him "Hosanna to the Son of David."

The crowd of Passover pilgrims called out to the city, "Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!"

The city called back to the crowd, "Who is this?"

The crowd answered the city, "This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee."

That was what the crowd said at the beginning of the week. Of course we all know what the crowd said at the end of the week. How could one go from "Hosanna" to "Crucify him" in one week? It was because the crowd had all of the notes, and none of the music. They used all the right words: Hosanna, son of David, the one who comes in the name of the Lord. But they still missed the point. "Knowing the truth is not the same thing as doing the truth. It is possible to make an A+ in the course on ethics and still flunk life." (Eugene Boring, New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume VIII, p. 402ff)

When Jesus rode into town, he was under no illusions. He knew he would be tested. But the crowd that was praising him had no idea that they would be tested too. That’s the part that sends a shiver up my spine. Holy Week is not just the trial of Jesus. It is the trial of me.

The more Jesus was tested that week, the more his identity came out.

• He was tested in the garden, and he said, "Not my will but thine."

• He was tested by every slap and by every snap of the whip, and he did not strike back.

• He was tested before Pilate, and he said, "My kingdom is not of this world."

• He was tested on the cross, and he said, "Father, forgive them…"

"Who is this?" asked the city. The more Jesus was tested, the more his identity came out for all to see, until even a centurion saw it and said, "Truly this man was God’s Son!" (Matthew 27:54)

And who are we? The more we are tested, the more our true identity comes out. Here is one story about testing. We continue to pray for soldiers in Iraq and the people of Iraq. The soldiers are very determined to stand up to whatever ways they are tested. Some of them are tested in ways they never expected, namely some of them go home missing a foot, or a leg, or an arm. The path of recovery is a trial they hoped they would never have to go through. Their doctors and therapists will tell you that they are great patients. They take orders well. They are very goal oriented. They are willing to do what it takes. They have great heart. In the testing, their true character and identity shines through.

Sometimes we sing about being soldiers of the cross. Being a soldier of the cross means that sometimes we have to go through things we never thought we would have to go through and yet go through it as Christ would have us go. This weekend our community has been remembering Brittany Willis and Julia Briggs. Their friends and family are going through an ordeal that will reveal their true character. In fact, this ordeal will reveal the true character of the whole Wilson community. Julia’s mother showed her Christ-like character when she sought out the mother of Julia’s shooter. When the time of testing came, Julia’s mother did not deny Christ and seek vengeance. When the time of testing came she demonstrated her true identity as a follower of Christ.

Jesus rode into Jerusalem, and the city asked "Who is this?

Jesus faced the hour of testing, and revealed who he was.

The crowd cried "Hosanna" to Jesus and the city asked "Who is this?"

The crowd faced its hour of testing, and revealed who they were.

Now it is the hour of testing for us. Now we will reveal who we are, too.

-- Douglas E. Murray