In opening up this illustration, I'm going to
have to jump into a little bit of my nerdiness
over here. And I have to talk a little bit about
a book called The Hobbit. You heard of The Hobbit,
a few of you? See, some of you may have heard
of it. Maybe a few of you have not. Have you
heard of it? No. But it's not a movie. You should
know this one. There we go. And I'm going to
give you a short version. It's about a very small,
very comfortable guy named Bilbo Baggins. and
it gets pulled into an adventure with a group
of dwarves, and they're trying to reclaim a mountain
full of treasure from a dragon. And along the
way, they face all kinds of dangers. But the
real problem doesn't actually show up until the
dragon has been killed. Because once the treasure
is finally within reach, everybody starts to
change. The dwarves want it, the men want it,
the elves want it. and what they thought would
fix everything, once they actually had it within
reach, it almost tears them apart. There's even
this moment when the smallest person in the story,
Bilbo, he takes the most important treasure at
the time, a stone called the Arkenstone, and
he gives it away, because by doing so, he's trying
to stop a war from happening. But it raises this
question. What if the thing that we think will
fix everything isn't actually the thing that
we need the most? Because when we come to Palm
Sunday, that's exactly what we see happening.
The people see Jesus coming into Jerusalem, and
many of them are thinking this is it. This is
the moment that everything gets fixed. Our nation
finally becomes what we always wanted it to be.
We can finally live these lives that we have
always wanted. But what they're expecting and
what Jesus is actually bringing are not the same
thing. But to understand this, we need to step
back for a moment. Because Palm Sunday, it's
not just this one moment that we're looking at.
It's the climax of a pattern. that runs all throughout
Scripture. A pattern that begins to repeat itself
step by step. And it starts with Abraham about
4 ,000 years ago. With Abraham, there was almost
nothing built among the people of God yet because
it was just Abraham. There was no nation. There
was no law. There was no temple. Just a promise
from God and a calling. Go to the land that I
will show you. That's it. Faith is simple. It's
portable. It's a relationship between God and
the person He has called. There's a tent. There's
a voice. But none of the rest of the trappings
that we might have been expecting. But then comes
Moses around five centuries later, and there's
structure now. There are laws. There's a tabernacle.
There's a priesthood. The faith that they have
in God, it has bones to it. It's something that
you can teach. It's something you can organize.
It's something that you can preserve. And then
comes David, another five centuries after that.
And there's a kingdom. There's kings. There's
now the temple. There is a capital. There's a
sense of permanence. This is the moment where
it feels like everything is finally established
with His Son Solomon. Here's the key. None of
these things are actually bad. God gave all of
them to the people because of what He saw that
they seemed to need at that time. See, God gives
His people ways to live with Him. And those ways
are good. But over time, something begins to
happen. You see, people begin to lean on the
gifts of God instead of the God who has given
them. You see, the temple, it became for them
a sense of security. Their identity became a
sense of pride that didn't look to God Himself.
Their worship wasn't about what was inside as
much as what they were doing on the outside.
And what was meant to point us to God became
something that we started to depend on instead
of Him. And if we're honest, we don't just live
in systems that do this. We do it inside our
own hearts. You see, this is where the first
part of the book of Isaiah was speaking. See,
we've been spending the last several months looking
at Isaiah and realizing the three main sections
of how it is split up. The first 39 chapters.
On the surface, everything still looks like it's
intact. The temple is there. The kings are there.
The rituals, they're still happening. But underneath
the surface, there is injustice. There is idolatry.
There is hollow worship, like a mountain full
of treasure. From the outside, it looks glorious.
But on the inside, something is already going
wrong. Then what we see is about five centuries
after David, everything collapses. The people...
are exiled into another land. The temple is destroyed.
The king is gone. The land is lost. Everything
they trusted is gone. You see, here's the hard
truth that Scripture is showing us. Sometimes
God allows the things that we rely on, He allows
them to be shaken. Not because He's trying to
destroy us. but to bring us back to Him. Because
we keep trusting things that cannot hold us,
and God keeps bringing us back to Himself through
the servant who can. And right there, in our
moment of collapse, comes a new voice. You see,
as we look at the second section of Isaiah, it
says, comfort, comfort my people. You see, this
is not meant to be the shallow kind of comfort
that we give to each other because someone's
going through a rough time and we don't know
what else to say. The times whenever I will be
praying for you, well, I wish you the best. Well,
let's go figure out some coffee, but rather something
deeper that can only come from God. God is saying
this did not just happen because I failed. This
happened because you trusted the wrong things.
And then God reveals something new. What He shows
is that salvation does not come through kings.
It does not come through systems. It does not
come through power. He shows that it will come
through His servant. And that is where we are
with chapter 50 today. It says, This isn't just
an idea that we might get from a book. Not just
an idea that we heard on the news. Not just an
idea that we swiped through and saw on an Instagram
vid. Morning by morning. This is a life shaped
by listening. Morning by morning. Step by step.
I did not turn back. I gave my back to those
who strike. This servant has been prepared for
years at the feet of the Father. king on a throne
acting as if everything is about pomp and circumstance,
but rather this is someone who stays faithful
even when it costs everything. Because here is
what's happening. This servant is doing what
Israel was supposed to do, but couldn't. This
is the one who is listening, trusting, obeying,
enduring. perfectly when none of the people of
Israel ever did. If we want to understand what's
happening inside the servant, Philippians today
gives us a window into this. It says, have this
mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ
Jesus, who though he was in very nature God did
not consider equality with God something to be
grasped. but emptied himself, taking the form
of a servant, becoming obedient to the point
of death, even death on a cross. Do you hear
that? Jesus, He doesn't grasp. This is not something
that you cling to. as if it's something that
you are going to use for somehow your own benefit
or to try to get the things that you want. He
doesn't seize what is already His. He lets go.
It's the exact opposite of what we do. We are
constantly grasping for control. I have to have
things the way I want it. We cling to what we
think. will secure us. Give me what it is that
makes me feel safe. We reach for the treasure
that we are looking for. But Jesus, who already
had everything from the beginning of the world,
releases it. He humbles Himself. He becomes a
servant. He walks the path of obedience all the
way down. Because all the way down, as He does,
God lifts Him up. For God has highly exalted
Him. The pattern of the true Kingdom. Not grasping,
but surrender. Not climbing, but humbling. Not
seizing, but trusting. And that's the King who
rides into Jerusalem. The crowd shouting, Hosanna,
blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.
They think that the system that they had in mind
is about to be restored. The kingdom is coming
back. The power is returning. Everything will
be fixed. But Jesus is not coming to restore
what they expect. He's coming as a servant. He
doesn't seize power. He doesn't secure control.
He doesn't even protect Himself. He rides in,
knowing exactly where this is going to lead.
To suffering, to rejection, to the cross. And
within days, the same voices shouting, Hosanna,
will shout, crucify Him. How often we keep trying
to convince ourselves that all those people must
have been different from day one. to day seven.
Why? Because He is not giving them the treasure
they wanted. He is giving them something deeper.
Here's what's striking. Jesus doesn't just fix
the system. He re -centers everything around
Himself. It's not come back to the structure
that you liked so much. It's follow Me. Just
like Abraham. Go trust walk with me the temple
fulfilled in Jesus the law fulfilled in Jesus
the identity of God's people once again centered
in him and after him The early church doesn't
rebuild one central system it spreads to homes
to relationships to communities faith becomes
Portable again, relational, spirit -led. And
this is where we have to see what our own history
is. Because we see the pattern happening all
over again. The Roman Empire fell while the church
took its position of power. The church strengthened
its authority as a place of learning and knowledge.
The Reformation showed flaws within the church.
as people began to question its authority. And
then postmodernism now means that people do not
believe in anything outside their own views and
personalized meanings. Things get built, people
trust them, they begin to replace God, and eventually
they shake. And if we're honest, it feels like
some things are shaking in our world right now.
Institutions feel less stable. Certainties feel
less certain. Things people used to rely on do
not feel as solid. And that's unsettling, as
it looks more and more like we are approaching
another major shift in how the world works. But
Scripture gives us a lens. Maybe this is not
the end of faith. Maybe this is actually the
moment where God re -centers us back on His Son
and His Son alone. Not to what we controlled,
but to the One who holds us. Because here's the
truth, everything the servant did in Isaiah 50,
we do not follow it. We don't always listen.
We turn back when it's hard. We try to avoid
suffering. We grasp for control. Jesus did not.
He listened perfectly. He obeyed completely.
He did not turn back. He endured suffering all
the way to the cross where He carried everything
we could not. He became the servant we were meant
to be for us. not just as an example. This is
salvation. You are not saved by how well you
follow. You are saved because He followed perfectly.
And because of that, when everything else shakes,
He is not something that gets shaken. He is the
One holding you. And now because of Him, we are
invited back into that life. Not perfectly, but
truly. To listen, to trust, to follow morning
by morning. Because here's something simple for
this week. Morning by morning, could we ask,
where am I leaning on something that isn't you,
God? And what am I holding onto that I think
is going to fix everything? And then could we...
Take one step. Just one. To listen. To trust.
To follow. And to remember that even when our
grip is weak, He is not. Because here's the truth.
We are not that different from the people in
Jerusalem. We still look for things that are
going to fix everything. We still reach for treasure
that we think should be ours. that we think is
the point. And sometimes, even when we think
we've won, there's still something underneath
the mountain, something that could undo us. But
Jesus, He doesn't lead us deeper into that. He
leads us out of it. Not by giving us what we
expect, but by giving us what we truly need,
Himself. So this week, may we notice what we've
been holding. May we lay it down and may we follow
the servants morning by morning because that
is where the real treasure truly lies. Thanks
be to God.