Today is Palm Sunday; the day of the triumphal entry, and there is a paradox present as Jesus comes into Jerusalem and we read these two texts and consider them together. It cannot be denied—nor should it be denied.
As we have already read, and remembered, Jesus rides into the Holy City for the final time in His earthly life. You and I know this story. We know that the rocks would cry out if the disciples were silent—and we can see Jesus’ reassuring smile as he says these words to his detractors.
You and I also know that Jesus rides right through the middle of life for us—through the crowds, through those who will plot to betray him, right through those who confess him as Lord and Savior.
Move 1- The servant song introduced
But today, let’s first cast our mind back some 600 years earlier; back to time when Isaiah wrote chapter 40-55, back to when the exiles heard these words and hope grew in them. Isaiah 50 is the second of the three Servant Songs, and we believe that it references Jesus. And while the Savior’s name, or His station, is not referenced directly, that conclusion is not hard to see.
There are two themes in this passage that we read together, and those themes were also with us throughout Lent. They are: listening for God and listening to God. As I said, those two themes were also with us, whether we saw it or not, throughout our Lenten journey and they culminate together as Jesus enters the City this week.
As you finish observing a Holy Lent, I wonder how God is asking you to continue listening for His voice and listening to that voice? For as Jesus rode into the Holy City as Matthew talked about, he was both listening for God and listening to God as well.
For although Lent ends this week, the work of Lent, the work of being the Church and testifying to what Jesus does for us, is not done—in fact it is never done. So again, what is your response, or how do you plan to live this out in your life?
Move 1- Listening for God
Let’s start with listening for God and see how that takes shape in our texts… Picking up Isaiah’s words in verse 4, God is blessing his servant with wisdom first as a gift. For the servant of the Lord is trusted with the instruction that will benefit others. The instruction that God has given His servant comes directly from God: an inspired tongue and “that I am know how to teach.”
This is very similar to what Jesus has done throughout his earthly time teaching the gospel.
We see this idea continued in the phrase ‘morning by morning he wakes me. . . to listen.’ For Jesus did not teach us the gospel one time and leave it there. But he repeatedly went back and gave us, and his followers, what we needed to learn and know so that we could teach others.
God’s servant being taught directly by the revelation of God, and further God’s servant is being taught because He listened. There is a relational investment taking place here between God and His servant and from the servant to the people who are the recipients of the care. In our text, the weary receive the care from the Servant which also defines how Jesus cared for the people of his day and how we are called to care for the people of our day.
Now going back into our history here at Bethesda, I know that Lent was six weeks long but notice which of our stories and texts that we read together indicate the need to listen for God—and no, this not a blanket “everyone moment.”
From our time together in Lent, we might hear echoes of this in Samuel’s story in this act of listening for God: waiting as the sons of Jesse pass before him in order to hear and then learn from God how the Lord will move among His people. This required patience on the part of Samuel as he had to slow down and listen to what God was doing not only in his life but in the life of God’ world.
Also in Lent did Jesus not spend 40 days listening for God’s movement, I wonder, as he was in the desert 40 days dealing with his own temptations? I wonder if those temptations happened all 40 days or were they coming at a certain time? Jesus waiting and trusting in His Father to care for Him.
Today the disciples needed to listen for God as they took steps to go get the colt, repeat back what Jesus wished for them to state, which you and I know is the Word of the Lord.
And finally listening for God’s Word and will leads our Lord to his cross later this week.
There are so many instances that at the time might not seem significant to us but as we look back through time and have faith, we see that God was asking each of us to listen for how God moved around us and asked us to practice our faith.
Move 2- Listening to God
But there is a second aspect to this: listening to God. It is all fine and well to listen to the voice of God and claim that, but we have to take the next step. We have to respond.
This is the moment, and the place, where we obey. This is the second half of our text where the servant of Isaiah 50 ‘set his face like flint’ and will not be moved. He is obedient because the depth of his relationship with God gives him something to hold onto that is far greater than words can put together. There is almost a quiet dignity that is happening here.
For although you and I know how this week will end, the Servant of the Lord still abides where God sent him. He listens to God and follows.
This is where Jesus climbs onto that colt, rides obediently into the city as the gospel tells us, and gives us the words that we know so well. He listens to His Father’s words.
The one who could re-direct the course of human history with a snap of his fingers, or a thought in his mind, he does not. And He will not. He chooses to ride into the Holy City, chooses to face the very same people who will condemn him and shout for his blood soon, and he rides right into their midst, and He stays there without hesitation or doubt or worry.
This is the message of Holy Week for us.
And here is where we find ourselves back in the valley of dry bones with Ezekiel listening to God tell us to prophesy from last week. To speak life into places that we think are hopeless and lifeless, but as we listen to God and share what God has placed upon our hearts, miracles happen.
This is the place, as we listen to God, where we take the step of faith as Abram did with Sarai by his side and we leave Haran and go to the place that God will show him/us. Finishing the journey that God began with our whole family. Trusting that if God began the journey with us, God will see us through to the end for we have faith and trust the vision. For will not leave us and we listen to that voice, feel that presence and we go.
Knowing that if God sent us into the desert to be tempted then he will send his angels to give us food when we need it.
Move 3-
For no matter how badly each of us want to listen for God and listen to God, one thing remains absolutely constant. It was constant with our characters in the stories that we read in Lent, and it is constant in your lives of faith now.
As I said earlier, seldom do we see that through line, the path forward in the moment and so in that place we must exercise faith all the more. We know what we are looking for, and at the end we see the path the entire time behind us, but in the moment, there is often so ambiguity, some confusion, some hesitation about following along.
And that makes following the will of God and listening God’s plan even more challenging for us.
From Abram and Sarai leaving home, to Samuel sneaking off to anoint to a new king, to Ezekiel having to prophesy to life into a place of hopelessness and death, and even all the back to the beginning of Lent where Jesus was tempted in a way that was unique to Him, listening to God and listening for God is not as easy as it sounds. Everyone says that they want to do it, everyone confess that they can do, but when the moment comes, it takes an amount of bold faith to accomplish this work.
And that is why their stories are recorded for us—as a lesson that we can follow and take heart in.
Conclusion
And we will take heart that even as we read this joyful story of our savior riding into the Holy City this last time, and we foreshadowed the suffering servant, we see the need for our faith yet again.
For like the heroes of our faith, here we will listen for God and we will listen to God.
Dm
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