Let me bring you up to date with the story of Jesus to this point.
Gospel Reading Luke 19:28-40 (audio) Audio Sermon
Jesus was descended from King David, the greatest king of Israel and Jordan, both on his mother Mary’s side of the family and his stepfather Joseph’s side. As such, He fulfilled a prophecy that the rightful descendant of the House of David would become the King of Israel and Judah, restoring the country to glory after centuries of foreign rule, most recently by the Romans.
Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29; Luke 19:28-40
Approximately three years ago in our story, probably in the year 30 AD, Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. At that time, several of John’s followers, young men named John, Andrew, and Simon, met with Jesus and talked with Him for several hours. Jesus then walked off into the wilderness where He fasted and was tested by the devil.
Jesus’ mother Mary was catering a wedding in Cana near the Sea of Galilee, a large freshwater lake in what is today northern Israel. The wedding was running out of wine – Mary had Jesus fix the problem, which Jesus did by turning several 40 gallon containers of water into wine, very good wine.
Jesus then walked down to the lake shore and called John, his brother James, and the two brothers Andrew and Simon to follow Him as disciples. They were all commercial lake fishermen. Soon, Jesus had called an additional eight men to follow Him, including a tax collector, a would-be revolutionary, a possible assassin, a Greek-speaking Jew and several others.
They began traveling together and picked up an entourage of over a hundred people. Jesus healed people, drove out demons, and scandalously ate and drank with all sorts of people of rough and low-class nature. He taught a different sort of Jewishness, He taught differently about God, stating that God was not waiting to destroy the people who broke His Law, but instead wanted followers who would try their best to follow His Son – Jesus. Yes, Jesus repeatedly claimed and showed god-like powers and claimed to be God walking upon the earth, as in “I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30)
Jesus called for two of the disciples and said, “Go into the village ahead of you. As you enter it, you will find a young donkey tied there, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ say this: ‘The Lord needs it.’”
So those who were sent left and found it just as He had told them. As they were untying the young donkey, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the donkey?”
“The Lord needs it,” they said.
If Jesus had listened to the Pharisees, the doomsayers, quieting the crowd, if Jesus had turned around and left town with His disciples, He would not have been killed on the cross. But our lives would be hopeless, for Jesus’ death is what made salvation possible for us. No human could have worked this out. Only God had the wisdom, and God’s Son the love for us to go into Jerusalem that day.
The wise person, the person who truly is following Christ, understands when to follow the crowd, and when to walk against the crowd and leave town. Not of his own understanding. But instead, the wise Christian is always asking, “Lord, what shall I do today?” and listening for the Lord’s voice. Will He ask me today to find a donkey’s colt? Will He ask me to sing "Hosanna!" so the stones don’t have to? Or will He ask me to help Him climb on that donkey’s colt, so I can see Him beaten and whipped and killed by those He loved?
The wise Christian disciple, you see, is always listening for His Lord’s voice in the crowd. The wise Christian disciple is asking the Lord for guidance. The wise disciple of Christ is more concerned with what our Lord wants … than with what the crowd says. And when that happens to you, my friend, when you are steadily more concerned with what our Lord wants than with what the crowd or the Pharisees say…you have arrived!
Jesus was descended from King David, the greatest king of Israel and Jordan, both on his mother Mary’s side of the family and his stepfather Joseph’s side. As such, He fulfilled a prophecy that the rightful descendant of the House of David would become the King of Israel and Judah, restoring the country to glory after centuries of foreign rule, most recently by the Romans.
Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29; Luke 19:28-40
Approximately three years ago in our story, probably in the year 30 AD, Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. At that time, several of John’s followers, young men named John, Andrew, and Simon, met with Jesus and talked with Him for several hours. Jesus then walked off into the wilderness where He fasted and was tested by the devil.
Jesus’ mother Mary was catering a wedding in Cana near the Sea of Galilee, a large freshwater lake in what is today northern Israel. The wedding was running out of wine – Mary had Jesus fix the problem, which Jesus did by turning several 40 gallon containers of water into wine, very good wine.
Jesus then walked down to the lake shore and called John, his brother James, and the two brothers Andrew and Simon to follow Him as disciples. They were all commercial lake fishermen. Soon, Jesus had called an additional eight men to follow Him, including a tax collector, a would-be revolutionary, a possible assassin, a Greek-speaking Jew and several others.
They began traveling together and picked up an entourage of over a hundred people. Jesus healed people, drove out demons, and scandalously ate and drank with all sorts of people of rough and low-class nature. He taught a different sort of Jewishness, He taught differently about God, stating that God was not waiting to destroy the people who broke His Law, but instead wanted followers who would try their best to follow His Son – Jesus. Yes, Jesus repeatedly claimed and showed god-like powers and claimed to be God walking upon the earth, as in “I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30)
[See particularly the "I am" constructions in the Gospel of John. These refer back to YHWH, "I am that I am", the name of God that God supplied to Moses at the burning bush. Each usage of "I am" was in implicit claim to be God in the flesh in that culture at that time.]
He skillfully debated representatives from the Pharisee group of Jews who focused upon following the Law of Moses and debated representatives from the Sadducee group who controlled the Temple about the importance of the Temple. And the crowds loved Him for His comments and answers.
Early that year, Jesus had taken James, John, and Simon up to the top of tall mountain. Jesus had given Simon the nickname "Cephas", which means "Rock", which in Greek is translated as Petros, and in English Peter. Peter the Rock watched that day when Jesus suddenly transformed into a brilliant white Being and spoke with Moses and Elijah, the two greatest prophets of the Old Testament, about his coming departure from Jerusalem. And it shook Peter deeply.
A few weeks after this, a messenger came from two sisters, Mary and Martha, who managed an inn with their brother Lazarus in Bethany, only three miles from Jerusalem where Jesus and His disciples usually stayed for the festivals. Lazarus was deathly ill – could Jesus come quickly to heal him? But Jesus delayed, finally arriving after Lazarus had been dead in the tomb for four days.
The sisters were upset and told Him, “If you’d only been here, our brother would have lived!” They understood His power to heal; they didn’t realize how deep was His control over life and death. For Jesus then raised Lazarus from the dead in front of dozens of mourners.
Jesus and his disciples then withdrew to a small village in the hill country for a week or so, only returning on Saturday evening, yesterday, to be the guest of honor at a banquet catered by Martha at Simon the Leper's house. They ate in a leper's house! Lazarus was sitting the beside Jesus during the dinner, very much alive again. During the banquet, Mary poured a pint of very expensive perfume, worth the equivalent of twenty or thirty thousand dollars over Jesus’ feet, anointing Him as the ancient Kings of Israel had been anointed to indicate that He would be king.
And many people came out from Jerusalem that night to see Lazarus and Jesus. And the rumors flew – was Jesus the Messiah, the long-predicted savior of Israel? Was He ready to take over the city from the Romans and become the rightful King of Israel?
Early this morning, Jesus and His disciples awoke and began the three-mile walk from Bethany to Jerusalem, followed by several hundred people. The walk takes you up the east side of the Mount of Olives, named for the olive trees that grow on it. Near the top is the tiny village of Bethphage, the “House of un-ripe figs”.
Luke 19:28-40
He skillfully debated representatives from the Pharisee group of Jews who focused upon following the Law of Moses and debated representatives from the Sadducee group who controlled the Temple about the importance of the Temple. And the crowds loved Him for His comments and answers.
Early that year, Jesus had taken James, John, and Simon up to the top of tall mountain. Jesus had given Simon the nickname "Cephas", which means "Rock", which in Greek is translated as Petros, and in English Peter. Peter the Rock watched that day when Jesus suddenly transformed into a brilliant white Being and spoke with Moses and Elijah, the two greatest prophets of the Old Testament, about his coming departure from Jerusalem. And it shook Peter deeply.
A few weeks after this, a messenger came from two sisters, Mary and Martha, who managed an inn with their brother Lazarus in Bethany, only three miles from Jerusalem where Jesus and His disciples usually stayed for the festivals. Lazarus was deathly ill – could Jesus come quickly to heal him? But Jesus delayed, finally arriving after Lazarus had been dead in the tomb for four days.
The sisters were upset and told Him, “If you’d only been here, our brother would have lived!” They understood His power to heal; they didn’t realize how deep was His control over life and death. For Jesus then raised Lazarus from the dead in front of dozens of mourners.
Jesus and his disciples then withdrew to a small village in the hill country for a week or so, only returning on Saturday evening, yesterday, to be the guest of honor at a banquet catered by Martha at Simon the Leper's house. They ate in a leper's house! Lazarus was sitting the beside Jesus during the dinner, very much alive again. During the banquet, Mary poured a pint of very expensive perfume, worth the equivalent of twenty or thirty thousand dollars over Jesus’ feet, anointing Him as the ancient Kings of Israel had been anointed to indicate that He would be king.
And many people came out from Jerusalem that night to see Lazarus and Jesus. And the rumors flew – was Jesus the Messiah, the long-predicted savior of Israel? Was He ready to take over the city from the Romans and become the rightful King of Israel?
Early this morning, Jesus and His disciples awoke and began the three-mile walk from Bethany to Jerusalem, followed by several hundred people. The walk takes you up the east side of the Mount of Olives, named for the olive trees that grow on it. Near the top is the tiny village of Bethphage, the “House of un-ripe figs”.
Luke 19:28-40
Jesus called for two of the disciples and said, “Go into the village ahead of you. As you enter it, you will find a young donkey tied there, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ say this: ‘The Lord needs it.’”
So those who were sent left and found it just as He had told them. As they were untying the young donkey, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the donkey?”
“The Lord needs it,” they said.
And just like that, the owners let them have the donkey!
Then they brought it to Jesus, and after throwing their robes on the donkey, they helped Jesus get on it.
As He was going along, they were spreading their robes on the road. Now He came near the path down the Mount of Olives, and the whole crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles they had seen:
The King who comes
in the name of the Lord
is the blessed One.
Peace in heaven
and glory in the highest heaven!
Some of the Pharisees from the crowd told Him, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.”
He answered, “I tell you, if they were to keep silent, the stones would cry out!”
And once again, it may help us understand a few things about this.
Over 500 years earlier, in 518 BC, the prophet Zechariah had written a prophecy which looked to the destruction of Israel’s neighbors and rivals, from the Phoenicians of Lebanon to the Philistines of Gaza. Zechariah 9:6 even mentions a mixed people who live in the Philistine city of Ashdod, which by the time of Christ had changed its name to Azotus and become occupied by Romans and Greeks, as well as Jews and a few remaining Philistines. There had been so much intermarriage that the city spoke its own dialect.
But the most important part of the prophecy of Zechariah begins in verse 9.
Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!
Shout in triumph, Daughter Jerusalem!
Look, your King is coming to you;
He is righteous and victorious,[c]
humble and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
and the horse from Jerusalem.
The bow of war will be removed,
and He will proclaim peace to the nations.
His dominion will extend from sea to sea,
from the Euphrates River
to the ends of the earth.
And that morning, this morning on the Mount of Olives, the King of Jerusalem was returning to her, “Righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
And so the people of Jerusalem gathered together that morning to welcome “The King who comes in the name of the Lord, who is the blessed One.” And they gave thanks, for the chariot and the horse and the bow – all those articles of warfare – would be removed from Jerusalem and the surrounding territories, for the King riding down the hill would both proclaim peace to all the peoples and expand Israel’s territory to where it was when King David, Jesus’ ancestor ruled – from the Euphrates River in Syria to the coast. And the LORD, Yahwah Himself, would defend Israel as in the olden days when God fought for Israel with Moses and Joshua and Gideon and Deborah and Samson and David and Solomon.
No more worries. Peace. Prosperity. The end of the hated Roman occupiers. And so the people loudly chanted, “Hosanna! Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna!” The fans of the new King were ready for the game, they were ready to cheer and fight, they were ready to face the evil Romans who were on the other side!
What would you have been doing that Sunday morning? Would you have been yelling and celebrating and chanting with the fans as your savior came riding down the hill on the donkey? If you could go back in time, would you put your cloak in the mud for Jesus’ donkey to walk over? Would you have tried to shake His hand? Would you look with joy at His arrival?
Or, knowing the whole story, would you have urged Him to get out of town before He was betrayed? Or would you have looked on in tears, knowing that what He was doing had to be done, but knowing the pain that He had to face on Thursday night and Friday, trying not to think about the terrible task that He had to accomplish so that you and I and all of us could live once more, reconciled to God not by our actions, but by His choice of action?
As He was going along, they were spreading their robes on the road. Now He came near the path down the Mount of Olives, and the whole crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles they had seen:
The King who comes
in the name of the Lord
is the blessed One.
Peace in heaven
and glory in the highest heaven!
Some of the Pharisees from the crowd told Him, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.”
He answered, “I tell you, if they were to keep silent, the stones would cry out!”
And once again, it may help us understand a few things about this.
Over 500 years earlier, in 518 BC, the prophet Zechariah had written a prophecy which looked to the destruction of Israel’s neighbors and rivals, from the Phoenicians of Lebanon to the Philistines of Gaza. Zechariah 9:6 even mentions a mixed people who live in the Philistine city of Ashdod, which by the time of Christ had changed its name to Azotus and become occupied by Romans and Greeks, as well as Jews and a few remaining Philistines. There had been so much intermarriage that the city spoke its own dialect.
But the most important part of the prophecy of Zechariah begins in verse 9.
Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!
Shout in triumph, Daughter Jerusalem!
Look, your King is coming to you;
He is righteous and victorious,[c]
humble and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
and the horse from Jerusalem.
The bow of war will be removed,
and He will proclaim peace to the nations.
His dominion will extend from sea to sea,
from the Euphrates River
to the ends of the earth.
And that morning, this morning on the Mount of Olives, the King of Jerusalem was returning to her, “Righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
And so the people of Jerusalem gathered together that morning to welcome “The King who comes in the name of the Lord, who is the blessed One.” And they gave thanks, for the chariot and the horse and the bow – all those articles of warfare – would be removed from Jerusalem and the surrounding territories, for the King riding down the hill would both proclaim peace to all the peoples and expand Israel’s territory to where it was when King David, Jesus’ ancestor ruled – from the Euphrates River in Syria to the coast. And the LORD, Yahwah Himself, would defend Israel as in the olden days when God fought for Israel with Moses and Joshua and Gideon and Deborah and Samson and David and Solomon.
No more worries. Peace. Prosperity. The end of the hated Roman occupiers. And so the people loudly chanted, “Hosanna! Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna!” The fans of the new King were ready for the game, they were ready to cheer and fight, they were ready to face the evil Romans who were on the other side!
What would you have been doing that Sunday morning? Would you have been yelling and celebrating and chanting with the fans as your savior came riding down the hill on the donkey? If you could go back in time, would you put your cloak in the mud for Jesus’ donkey to walk over? Would you have tried to shake His hand? Would you look with joy at His arrival?
Or, knowing the whole story, would you have urged Him to get out of town before He was betrayed? Or would you have looked on in tears, knowing that what He was doing had to be done, but knowing the pain that He had to face on Thursday night and Friday, trying not to think about the terrible task that He had to accomplish so that you and I and all of us could live once more, reconciled to God not by our actions, but by His choice of action?
Do you want to yell from the sidelines “Run! Leave town! Save yourself!”? And you see Him look towards you and mouth the words, “I must do this for you!” And then you turn your face from Him, tears welling up, as you realize that it is because of what you have done that He will be beaten, hung on the cross, and die?
There were some in the crowd who were not happy, some Pharisees. It is easy to look at the Pharisees and look at them as out of touch, but this is unfair. There were some of the wiser Pharisees in the crowd who understood how nervous the festivals always made the Romans. There were some cautious Pharisees who felt that this loud procession proclaiming a new King might get out of hand – remember that this was in a time when the Romans had swords, yes, but a man with a sword could be handled by twenty men throwing rocks and swinging clubs and each Roman soldier knew this. The Roman garrison might get nervous and then there would be bloodshed. And although a rioting crowd might successfully kill the Roman garrison, the Romans would return with legions of soldiers, three or four legions, each legion having five thousand swordsmen, the most highly trained soldiers in the world. And they would not leave Jerusalem free to flaunt their freedom in front of the world, for the Roman Empire depended upon the single idea that the Romans always conquered, the Romans always won. The Romans could not afford a successful rebellion, even in the remote corner of the Empire that was Jerusalem.
Those Pharisees also saw the joy in the celebration, but they understood the evil that could be unleashed if the celebration got out of hand, if the Romans became too nervous about this new King and reacted. Jerusalem could lose everything. (As the town did in when the Temple was destroyed in 70 AD - and the Jews were exiled in 136 AD after the Bar Kokba revolt.)
No, these Pharisees did not want the celebration to get out of hand. And so they said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell your disciples to calm down! Rebuke them!” But Jesus, probably referring to Isaiah 55:12 – which says
“You will indeed go out with joy
and be peacefully guided;
the mountains and the hills will break into singing before you,
and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.”
Jesus responded, “If they were to keep silent, the stones would cry out!”
There were some in the crowd who were not happy, some Pharisees. It is easy to look at the Pharisees and look at them as out of touch, but this is unfair. There were some of the wiser Pharisees in the crowd who understood how nervous the festivals always made the Romans. There were some cautious Pharisees who felt that this loud procession proclaiming a new King might get out of hand – remember that this was in a time when the Romans had swords, yes, but a man with a sword could be handled by twenty men throwing rocks and swinging clubs and each Roman soldier knew this. The Roman garrison might get nervous and then there would be bloodshed. And although a rioting crowd might successfully kill the Roman garrison, the Romans would return with legions of soldiers, three or four legions, each legion having five thousand swordsmen, the most highly trained soldiers in the world. And they would not leave Jerusalem free to flaunt their freedom in front of the world, for the Roman Empire depended upon the single idea that the Romans always conquered, the Romans always won. The Romans could not afford a successful rebellion, even in the remote corner of the Empire that was Jerusalem.
Those Pharisees also saw the joy in the celebration, but they understood the evil that could be unleashed if the celebration got out of hand, if the Romans became too nervous about this new King and reacted. Jerusalem could lose everything. (As the town did in when the Temple was destroyed in 70 AD - and the Jews were exiled in 136 AD after the Bar Kokba revolt.)
No, these Pharisees did not want the celebration to get out of hand. And so they said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell your disciples to calm down! Rebuke them!” But Jesus, probably referring to Isaiah 55:12 – which says
“You will indeed go out with joy
and be peacefully guided;
the mountains and the hills will break into singing before you,
and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.”
Jesus responded, “If they were to keep silent, the stones would cry out!”
And you know, I find it amazing that one or more of the disciples was listening closely enough to Jesus that that disciple heard the exchange in the noise of the crowd. But, then again, that’s the difference between a fan of Christ – and a disciple of Christ. Disciples are always listening to Christ, not to the crowd.
And so the grand procession entered into the city, into Jerusalem, the “city of peace”, as Jesus rode into the city that never has known peace, the gentle man on the little donkey who would be violently killed that week to bring us peace with God. And the celebrations continued throughout the day all over the city.
But here today, 2000 years later, what is the meaning of this day for us? Is it just a fun day, a day to begin the celebration that leads up to Easter Sunday? Is it a day for remembering joy?
I have a few thoughts for you. Please bear with me.
Everybody loves a winner. On this day, almost everybody was joyful and celebrating the arrival of Jesus and his followers into the city. Everybody pinned their hopes on him, that perhaps even this week there would be a great movement of freedom, that the Romans would be overthrown, that the burden that the Romans brought, the feeling of impending doom that was always there when ordinary people thought of the Romans would be lifted. We want to feel happy, don’t we? But when we look at the world around us, we cannot help but feel impending doom, don’t we?
I probably read the news more than most people. I try to balance my sources – I get a liberal view from NPR and I get a conservative view from the Drudge Report. And I see things happening in the world which, in a vacuum, would lead me to assume the next few years will be terrible. Our competition with the Russians is back, the Chinese are beginning to push at us around the world, the North Korean and Iranian rulers are a threat. Here at home, politicians that years ago behaved more like professional wrestlers – enemies as long as the cameras were on and then they’d go out to eat dinner together – today’s politicians seem almost mortal enemies of each other – and I’m talking on both sides. Even here in this state, there is a loss of the civility in Charleston that used to be there twenty years ago. We have mostly chosen to join sides as fans in the ballgame of politics.
It is all well and good to be excited when “our side” is winning the political battles, whichever side “our side” is. But when everyone chooses up sides and no one stands in the center helping arrange compromises, the history of the world shows that riots happen and people die. Sometimes it goes beyond riots and more people die. We need more people in the center looking for compromises, for moderation in change, for civility in conversation. With politics, there is much more at stake than in football or basketball games. Remember this before you post on Facebook.
Additionally, our technology is advancing very quickly, and, as always, technology can and will be a double-edged sword. Technology has become seen as our modern day savior and is entering our lives like that Palm Sunday procession entered the city. Robots can allow people to be removed from dirty, dangerous, repetitive jobs. But like the Pharisees, a few people stand by and look at the evil that could be unleashed if there is too much, too soon. Those same robots and artificial intelligence software can completely eliminate jobs, putting millions out of work.
We’ve already seen it happen – we just didn’t call vending machines “robots” as they helped eliminate the corner groceries. We didn’t worry about the pay-at-the-pump technology that eliminated a million jobs at gas stations across the country. We walk into Kroger or Walmart or Sam’s and can check out without an employee. Or pick out our groceries online and when we get to Kroger, someone puts them in the car while we wait. Amazon has even developed a physical store which doesn’t even have a check-out counter – just cameras that see what you pick up and take with you. How much longer will we have retail check-out clerks?
We didn’t complain when personal computers and printers and copiers replaced millions of typists who used to use carbon paper – Do you realize that the Pentagon was built mainly to accommodate the number of typists that were necessary to type the form letters and form orders for the army in World War II? Do you realize that typist was the most common job title for women in 1960?
We can order a pizza from Little Caesar’s on our cell phone and pick it up, not even talking to a person. With the push of a couple buttons, a machine fills our drink order at McDonald's, even accounting for whether or not we want regular ice or “light ice”.
Today’s technology is even rapidly replacing jobs we used to think of as highly skilled.
Last spring, from my home, I wrote a book, designed the cover, laid out the text, and had printed 60 copies of my book without ever talking to anyone. The books arrived ten days later. They could have arrived in two if I’d paid for the express shipping. I can do this with a book of sermons that brings life – or the next generation’s Hitler or Marx can do this with a book that brings death.
It used to be that lawyers and legal secretaries were needed for every will – now you can answer a few questions online and a will is automatically generated for you.
I have seen missiles made in a factory in Texas where humans never touch the parts, with the materials being put automatically into a warehouse, taken out of the warehouse automatically, machined completely without a human present, assembled, and just await a single fork truck driver to load them on the truck. I know of a hydroelectric generating plant in Georgia that has no one on site, it is controlled from the desk of a man in Cincinnati and only visited when there are problems.
In the same way, I have been in an industrial egg farm in Georgia where the eggs roll down padded chutes from the cages which hold the one million hens. The eggs move along a padded conveyor, are individually washed, inspected by a machine vision system for embryos or cracks, automatically put in a carton, the cartons are put into boxes, the boxes on a pallet and then, finally, a single fork truck driver loads them on the truck. There are a couple of maintenance men, an FDA inspector, an accountant, a shift supervisor, and in each of the ten hen houses are two women per shift, 60 altogether, who do nothing except check all the hundred thousand hens in their houses for dead chickens and throw them away. They haven’t been able to automate that part. Yet.
Self-driving trucks are being tested – no need for a truck driver, which cuts the costs and probably improves safety. But truck driver is the most common job for American men today. Ninety percent could be replaced in fifteen years. Self-driving taxi’s, delivery drones, even smart computer-controlled submarines that lie in wait for the enemy, just waiting for a signal from the fleet command to become active – they are all in development. And we remember that coal mining used to be done with pick and shovel – now one man can mine in a day what used to take 20 men to do.
On the medical front, everyone has a friend that has a new knee. This year, they’ll be introducing a new technique where they scan your old bones and 3-D print a new titanium knee that exactly fits where the old one was removed, an exact match in size to better than a millimeter fit, reducing the pockets that lead to infection. There are new cancer treatment techniques which have the ability to hunt down and kill every single cancer cell in your body by training your own immune system to work better, much better. And yet using much the same basic science, known as CRISPR, people have the ability to change children’s genes before birth to automatically immunize infants to the measles, to HIV, to small pox, to give children extra intelligence at birth – or less intelligence and strong muscles at birth. Or that same science can use a modified cold virus spread a disease so that it only affects people of certain ethnic backgrounds. The same technology that promises so much good could be used for so much evil.
So what is the answer to the sense of impending disaster that is coming, as people celebrate the great achievements of our modern day savior which is technology – and others look at the evil that may be unleashed if the disciples of that modern day savior get too far ahead of themselves? Who knows which technology will be the savior and which will cause the downfall of our civilization? We don't know, but Christ knows.
Folks, we would do well to remember that we are inclined to go with the crowd. And the crowd can be fickle and stupid. The very same people who were celebrating Jesus’ arrival on that Palm Sunday morning in Jerusalem were chanting “Crucify Him” on Friday morning, less than a week later.
As Christians, with the Holy Spirit, we daily make decisions that seem like simple economic decisions. This is cheaper, faster, takes less time – and that takes longer, costs more, or requires more effort. Our technology savior can be worshiped in this case – or we can question whether or not this is idol worship, which will always get us in trouble. But when we make our decisions about which store to shop at, which phone to buy, what job to train for, do we listen for the voice of our Lord – or the voice of the Pharisees who proclaim doom – or the voice of the crowd who has no idea of what will be happening next Friday?
Consider this. When my grandmothers were first married, they lived in homes without indoor plumbing, with washboards and clotheslines for laundry, with brooms for the floor, wood stoves for cooking on, and a sink for washing dishes. My grandfathers walked to work or road a horse. They had an icebox – no refrigerator or freezer, no air conditioner. They had no electricity – even that came later.
Most people today have vacuums, electric or gas stoves, microwaves, laundry machines, dishwashers, refrigerators, freezers, air conditioners, and plenty of electricity. Most people drive to work. The amount of free time we have compared to the people of a hundred years ago is tremendous.
Yet, with what have we filled this time that we've been given?
Do we read our Bibles daily? Do we have an hour of prayer - or struggle for five minutes of prayer? Do we teach our sons and daughters, our grandchildren about Christ?
I suspect we waste our time. Instead of focusing on the true God, we spend our extra time worshiping at the altar of our technology god, a god we carry in our hands and pockets and purses.
We make our decisions daily about what is important, what we will worship. Do you follow the King that rode down the hill on the donkey? Or do you spend your time worshiping the false god in your hand...the phone, the Facebook, the technology.
Or can you truly say that you have been using this device in your hand as a way to spread the Gospel, a way to teach yourself more about the man who rode the donkey, a way to learn more about how much He loves you? You see, technology can be good – or bad. It depends upon what Christ wants of it – and you. Today. In this hour. In this instance!
And so the grand procession entered into the city, into Jerusalem, the “city of peace”, as Jesus rode into the city that never has known peace, the gentle man on the little donkey who would be violently killed that week to bring us peace with God. And the celebrations continued throughout the day all over the city.
But here today, 2000 years later, what is the meaning of this day for us? Is it just a fun day, a day to begin the celebration that leads up to Easter Sunday? Is it a day for remembering joy?
I have a few thoughts for you. Please bear with me.
Everybody loves a winner. On this day, almost everybody was joyful and celebrating the arrival of Jesus and his followers into the city. Everybody pinned their hopes on him, that perhaps even this week there would be a great movement of freedom, that the Romans would be overthrown, that the burden that the Romans brought, the feeling of impending doom that was always there when ordinary people thought of the Romans would be lifted. We want to feel happy, don’t we? But when we look at the world around us, we cannot help but feel impending doom, don’t we?
I probably read the news more than most people. I try to balance my sources – I get a liberal view from NPR and I get a conservative view from the Drudge Report. And I see things happening in the world which, in a vacuum, would lead me to assume the next few years will be terrible. Our competition with the Russians is back, the Chinese are beginning to push at us around the world, the North Korean and Iranian rulers are a threat. Here at home, politicians that years ago behaved more like professional wrestlers – enemies as long as the cameras were on and then they’d go out to eat dinner together – today’s politicians seem almost mortal enemies of each other – and I’m talking on both sides. Even here in this state, there is a loss of the civility in Charleston that used to be there twenty years ago. We have mostly chosen to join sides as fans in the ballgame of politics.
It is all well and good to be excited when “our side” is winning the political battles, whichever side “our side” is. But when everyone chooses up sides and no one stands in the center helping arrange compromises, the history of the world shows that riots happen and people die. Sometimes it goes beyond riots and more people die. We need more people in the center looking for compromises, for moderation in change, for civility in conversation. With politics, there is much more at stake than in football or basketball games. Remember this before you post on Facebook.
Additionally, our technology is advancing very quickly, and, as always, technology can and will be a double-edged sword. Technology has become seen as our modern day savior and is entering our lives like that Palm Sunday procession entered the city. Robots can allow people to be removed from dirty, dangerous, repetitive jobs. But like the Pharisees, a few people stand by and look at the evil that could be unleashed if there is too much, too soon. Those same robots and artificial intelligence software can completely eliminate jobs, putting millions out of work.
We’ve already seen it happen – we just didn’t call vending machines “robots” as they helped eliminate the corner groceries. We didn’t worry about the pay-at-the-pump technology that eliminated a million jobs at gas stations across the country. We walk into Kroger or Walmart or Sam’s and can check out without an employee. Or pick out our groceries online and when we get to Kroger, someone puts them in the car while we wait. Amazon has even developed a physical store which doesn’t even have a check-out counter – just cameras that see what you pick up and take with you. How much longer will we have retail check-out clerks?
We didn’t complain when personal computers and printers and copiers replaced millions of typists who used to use carbon paper – Do you realize that the Pentagon was built mainly to accommodate the number of typists that were necessary to type the form letters and form orders for the army in World War II? Do you realize that typist was the most common job title for women in 1960?
We can order a pizza from Little Caesar’s on our cell phone and pick it up, not even talking to a person. With the push of a couple buttons, a machine fills our drink order at McDonald's, even accounting for whether or not we want regular ice or “light ice”.
Today’s technology is even rapidly replacing jobs we used to think of as highly skilled.
Last spring, from my home, I wrote a book, designed the cover, laid out the text, and had printed 60 copies of my book without ever talking to anyone. The books arrived ten days later. They could have arrived in two if I’d paid for the express shipping. I can do this with a book of sermons that brings life – or the next generation’s Hitler or Marx can do this with a book that brings death.
It used to be that lawyers and legal secretaries were needed for every will – now you can answer a few questions online and a will is automatically generated for you.
I have seen missiles made in a factory in Texas where humans never touch the parts, with the materials being put automatically into a warehouse, taken out of the warehouse automatically, machined completely without a human present, assembled, and just await a single fork truck driver to load them on the truck. I know of a hydroelectric generating plant in Georgia that has no one on site, it is controlled from the desk of a man in Cincinnati and only visited when there are problems.
In the same way, I have been in an industrial egg farm in Georgia where the eggs roll down padded chutes from the cages which hold the one million hens. The eggs move along a padded conveyor, are individually washed, inspected by a machine vision system for embryos or cracks, automatically put in a carton, the cartons are put into boxes, the boxes on a pallet and then, finally, a single fork truck driver loads them on the truck. There are a couple of maintenance men, an FDA inspector, an accountant, a shift supervisor, and in each of the ten hen houses are two women per shift, 60 altogether, who do nothing except check all the hundred thousand hens in their houses for dead chickens and throw them away. They haven’t been able to automate that part. Yet.
Self-driving trucks are being tested – no need for a truck driver, which cuts the costs and probably improves safety. But truck driver is the most common job for American men today. Ninety percent could be replaced in fifteen years. Self-driving taxi’s, delivery drones, even smart computer-controlled submarines that lie in wait for the enemy, just waiting for a signal from the fleet command to become active – they are all in development. And we remember that coal mining used to be done with pick and shovel – now one man can mine in a day what used to take 20 men to do.
On the medical front, everyone has a friend that has a new knee. This year, they’ll be introducing a new technique where they scan your old bones and 3-D print a new titanium knee that exactly fits where the old one was removed, an exact match in size to better than a millimeter fit, reducing the pockets that lead to infection. There are new cancer treatment techniques which have the ability to hunt down and kill every single cancer cell in your body by training your own immune system to work better, much better. And yet using much the same basic science, known as CRISPR, people have the ability to change children’s genes before birth to automatically immunize infants to the measles, to HIV, to small pox, to give children extra intelligence at birth – or less intelligence and strong muscles at birth. Or that same science can use a modified cold virus spread a disease so that it only affects people of certain ethnic backgrounds. The same technology that promises so much good could be used for so much evil.
So what is the answer to the sense of impending disaster that is coming, as people celebrate the great achievements of our modern day savior which is technology – and others look at the evil that may be unleashed if the disciples of that modern day savior get too far ahead of themselves? Who knows which technology will be the savior and which will cause the downfall of our civilization? We don't know, but Christ knows.
Folks, we would do well to remember that we are inclined to go with the crowd. And the crowd can be fickle and stupid. The very same people who were celebrating Jesus’ arrival on that Palm Sunday morning in Jerusalem were chanting “Crucify Him” on Friday morning, less than a week later.
As Christians, with the Holy Spirit, we daily make decisions that seem like simple economic decisions. This is cheaper, faster, takes less time – and that takes longer, costs more, or requires more effort. Our technology savior can be worshiped in this case – or we can question whether or not this is idol worship, which will always get us in trouble. But when we make our decisions about which store to shop at, which phone to buy, what job to train for, do we listen for the voice of our Lord – or the voice of the Pharisees who proclaim doom – or the voice of the crowd who has no idea of what will be happening next Friday?
Consider this. When my grandmothers were first married, they lived in homes without indoor plumbing, with washboards and clotheslines for laundry, with brooms for the floor, wood stoves for cooking on, and a sink for washing dishes. My grandfathers walked to work or road a horse. They had an icebox – no refrigerator or freezer, no air conditioner. They had no electricity – even that came later.
Most people today have vacuums, electric or gas stoves, microwaves, laundry machines, dishwashers, refrigerators, freezers, air conditioners, and plenty of electricity. Most people drive to work. The amount of free time we have compared to the people of a hundred years ago is tremendous.
Yet, with what have we filled this time that we've been given?
Do we read our Bibles daily? Do we have an hour of prayer - or struggle for five minutes of prayer? Do we teach our sons and daughters, our grandchildren about Christ?
I suspect we waste our time. Instead of focusing on the true God, we spend our extra time worshiping at the altar of our technology god, a god we carry in our hands and pockets and purses.
We make our decisions daily about what is important, what we will worship. Do you follow the King that rode down the hill on the donkey? Or do you spend your time worshiping the false god in your hand...the phone, the Facebook, the technology.
Or can you truly say that you have been using this device in your hand as a way to spread the Gospel, a way to teach yourself more about the man who rode the donkey, a way to learn more about how much He loves you? You see, technology can be good – or bad. It depends upon what Christ wants of it – and you. Today. In this hour. In this instance!
If Jesus had listened to the Pharisees, the doomsayers, quieting the crowd, if Jesus had turned around and left town with His disciples, He would not have been killed on the cross. But our lives would be hopeless, for Jesus’ death is what made salvation possible for us. No human could have worked this out. Only God had the wisdom, and God’s Son the love for us to go into Jerusalem that day.
The wise person, the person who truly is following Christ, understands when to follow the crowd, and when to walk against the crowd and leave town. Not of his own understanding. But instead, the wise Christian is always asking, “Lord, what shall I do today?” and listening for the Lord’s voice. Will He ask me today to find a donkey’s colt? Will He ask me to sing "Hosanna!" so the stones don’t have to? Or will He ask me to help Him climb on that donkey’s colt, so I can see Him beaten and whipped and killed by those He loved?
The wise Christian disciple, you see, is always listening for His Lord’s voice in the crowd. The wise Christian disciple is asking the Lord for guidance. The wise disciple of Christ is more concerned with what our Lord wants … than with what the crowd says. And when that happens to you, my friend, when you are steadily more concerned with what our Lord wants than with what the crowd or the Pharisees say…you have arrived!
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