Take your Bibles with you and turn to the book of Luke, chapter 19. We're going to be looking at verses 28 through 44 this morning. This is the passage of Scripture that tells the story of Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The events of this passage of scripture are what we celebrate each year on Palm Sunday. It's a very familiar story.

As we're reading it in a minute, if you get a sense of déjà vu, you're not crazy. Just a couple months ago on Palm Sunday we read and I preached from this very passage. We're going to look at it again this morning and I'm going to preach it from a different angle.

Let's go ahead and read verses 28 to 44 of this chapter together.

[28] And when he had thus spoken, he went before, ascending up to Jerusalem.
[29] And it came to pass, when he was come nigh to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount called the mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples,
[30] Saying, Go ye into the village over against you; in the which at your entering ye shall find a colt tied, whereon yet never man sat: loose him, and bring him hither.
[31] And if any man ask you, Why do ye loose him? thus shall ye say unto him, Because the Lord hath need of him.
[32] And they that were sent went their way, and found even as he had said unto them.
[33] And as they were loosing the colt, the owners thereof said unto them, Why loose ye the colt?
[34] And they said, The Lord hath need of him.
[35] And they brought him to Jesus: and they cast their garments upon the colt, and they set Jesus thereon.
[36] And as he went, they spread their clothes in the way.
[37] And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen;
[38] Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.
[39] And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples.
[40] And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.
[41] And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it,
[42] Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.
[43] For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side,
[44] And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.
Luke 19:28-44 (KJV)

Have you ever wanted to turn away and run away from something that was difficult?

Years ago I read a novel called "The Four Feathers." It was actually made into a movie with Heath Ledger but it tells the story of a young man in the late 1800s who is an officer of a British Army regiment. That army regiment is his whole life. His best friends are in it. His father is a celebrated war hero and general. And in the beginning of the novel it starts with a time of celebration as they're celebrating graduating becoming officers, but then very quickly a war breaks out in Africa. That celebration turns very serious as they realize they have to go to war. The main character looks at the war, is filled with terror, decides he cannot go, and resigns his place in the army. Because of this his four closest friends each give him a single white feather that's a symbol of his cowardice.

After wallowing in depression for a while in the book, he ends up going to Africa as a civilian, risking his life and saving his four friends, redeeming himself from the Four Feathers.

There is always this temptation when faced with difficulty, when faced with truly hard things, to want to cut and run. To want to take the easy way out. To make an excuse, to play the coward.

In this story, which we covered not too long ago, I'm not going to get into a lot of the details. There is a disconnect between the attitude of Jesus and the attitude of all of his disciples. As Jesus is going up from Jericho to Jerusalem, they all think Jesus is headed there to become king, to be the crowned Messiah, to receive his kingdom now. Jesus knows, and he's been telling them over and over again, that that's not the case. Jesus knows he's on his way to a cross. He's going to Jerusalem to be rejected, to be crucified.

Jesus went anyways.

Jesus knew that he was going to be facing suffering on a level that no one in history has ever faced. Yet he set his face like a flint towards Jerusalem. He set himself to go there and be rejected and crucified.

And so in this passage today I want to talk about this from a different angle. I want to talk about this from the angle of suffering. In this passage we see three different attitudes that Jesus had towards suffering. All three of them tell us something about who Jesus is and about who we are.

Let’s pray and we’ll look at those three things today.

Pray

The first attitude of Jesus towards suffering that we see in this text today is...

1. Jesus embraced our suffering.

This Palm Sunday passage, this triumphal entry passage, doesn't happen in isolation. Jesus is moving from a short stop in Jericho to Jerusalem. The passage even talks about this. He's going up from Jericho to Jerusalem.

Well we know what happened in Jericho. In Jericho we're told Jesus met with a couple of blind guys, and he touched them and he healed them. In Luke we just hear about Bartimaeus but in Matthew we are told there were two men that heard that Jesus was coming and that Bartimaeus yelled out, "Son of David, have mercy on me," and Jesus touched him and healed him.

Then we're told of a wicked little crook named Zacchaeus who climbed up a sycamore tree to see Jesus and Jesus invited himself into Zacchaeus' home.

The point I want to make is that Jesus came into this world and purposely embraced human suffering and human brokenness.

Philippians 2 verses 5-8 says,

[5] Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
[6] Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
[7] But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
[8] And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Philippians 2:5-8 (KJV)

Jesus came to this earth knowing full well what this earth is. Jesus came to save people, knowing full well who people are.

This is a broken place full of broken (and in many ways) crooked people.

As much as we like to pretend otherwise and look the other way, this is a place where sin and brokenness cause lots of human suffering.

From Jesus' very first breath on this earth, he was surrounded by suffering. His mother and Joseph were suffering as they were ostracized, criticized for the events surrounding his birth. He suffered in poverty, with them being too poor to give a standard offering. They had to give doves instead of a lamb.

He was close to untold suffering caused by wickedness, as King Herod wickedly had all of the babies around Bethlehem killed because of his fear of Jesus.

Yet Jesus embraced our suffering. Hebrews 4:15 says:

[15] For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
Hebrews 4:15 (KJV)

Jesus understood the feeling of our infirmities. He understood how broken we are. Jesus didn't gloss over the pain and the brokenness of this world. He embraced it. He loved the lepers. He loved the outcasts. He loved sinners like the despised Zacchaeus.

I love the way the Christmas song puts it:

🎶 How low was our Redeemer brought, the Lord the worlds obeyed
Would stumble as He learned to walk upon the ground He’d made
The One the angels bowed before would kneel to wash our feet
And be at home among the poor though He owned everything

This is an abstract. Many of you are going through real pain and brokenness. Dealing with real consequences of sin. Struggling against your own flesh. Seeing terrible things ripple out from sinful decisions.

• Jesus came into a world where wicked selfish men abandoned their families for their own pursuits.
• He came into a world where people give up on life and live a life of addiction.
• He came into a world where girls are stolen and trafficked.
• He came into a world where warlords massacre villages and enlist young boys to be their foot soldiers.
• He came into a world where poor mothers put their own teenage daughters up for prostitution.
• He came into the world where little precious babies are born with horrible genetic abnormalities that cause terrible suffering for themselves and their families.

He came into a world of brokenness and suffering. and Jesus didn't run from brokenness and suffering, Jesus ran towards the suffering.

But that's not the main attitude that we see of Jesus towards suffering in this story. The second attitude we see is

2. Jesus embraced His own suffering

This story tells us that Jesus sent his disciples on a little mission: to the next village to get a colt, a donkey that had never been ridden.

It's kind of humorous. He tells them, "Just go take this donkey. He's tied up there. You're going to find this donkey and if somebody asks you, 'What are you doing untying this donkey?' just say, 'The Lord needs them' and they'll be okay with that." Jesus is basically telling these guys to commit grand theft auto here.

All through Jesus' ministry people have been trying to hype him up as a king as a Messiah and all through his ministry he's been trying to tamp that down. Jesus would heal people of paralysis or of blindness or deafness and then he'd say, "Don't tell anyone about this because my hour has not yet come." Jesus feeds five thousand people with a few loaves and a few fishes and they want to make him King and he runs away.

Jesus very deliberately avoided any kind of royal attention because it was never Jesus' plan to be made King. It was His plan to be rejected and go to the cross.

At least a year before this, all the way up in Galilee, Jesus is talking to his disciples. Peter opens his mouth and says, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus says, "Blessed are you because flesh and blood has not revealed that to you, but my Father in heaven has revealed that to you." Remember that passage, Matthew 16?

Well immediately following that Jesus says this in verse 21:

[21] From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.
Matthew 16:21 (KJV)

Jesus knew what he was doing. Jesus knew what was going to happen when he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. Jesus knew what was going to happen when all of these people, with an earshot of the capital city, started praising him as the coming King.

He knew that he would be rejected by the leadership. He knew that he would be put on a cross. He also knew that, as bad as the horrible tortures that awaited him there, the worst torture would be the sins of mankind being placed on his shoulders and God turning his back on him.

Think of all the stuff that Jesus knew was going to happen in this next week.

• He knew that he was going to be betrayed by Judas, one of his closest friends, and that hurt him.
• He knew he was going to be abandoned by all of the disciples.
• He knew he was going to stand in the middle of the night and face an illegal trial.
• After that trial he was going to be whipped with a cat of nine tails and be absolutely eviscerated by that barbaric form of torture.
• On that eviscerated back they were going to place the heavy beam of a cross.
• His hands were going to have nails put through them.
• His feet were going to have nails put through them.
• He was going to be hung naked in public to be gawked at, to suffer in public.
• Worst of all he knew that on that cross Jesus was going to put all of mankind's sins on him.

Jesus knew all of this was coming And he orchestrated it. He embraced it.

Why would Jesus do that? Hebrews 12 tells us:

[2] Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:2 (KJV)

What was the joy that was set before Him? Church it was you and me. It was the people who would be saved, who would be transformed, who would be brought into His family, who would be given an eternal home in heaven.

Jesus knew exactly what coming to this world and going to the cross was going to cost Him and He “set his face like a flint” and came anyway so that you and I could know the joy of Salvation.

We know this weighed heavily on it because we can look, and we will look in a couple of weeks, at Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Overwhelmed with emotion and the dread of what's going to happen, he prayed, "If there be any way let this cup pass from me." But he drank it anyway. He did it for you and for me.

So we see in this story that Jesus embraced our suffering and we see that he embraced his own suffering. There is a third attitude of Jesus towards suffering I want you to see in the passage and that is...

3. Jesus looked forward to future suffering

In our text the most remarkable thing happens. Jesus rides on the donkey. People put palm leaves down in front of him and throw coats down in front of him. The whole crowd bursts out saying, "Hosanna! Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord." This joyous messianic movement towards the city of Jerusalem. They think he's going to be crowned but here's the amazing thing: Jesus starts weeping.

Weeping.

We're not talking about quiet crying here. We're not talking about the little sniffles you get and you're like, "I'm not crying, you're crying." No, this is a word that means loud, sloppy crying.

All these people around him, caught up in this moment of joy, exalting Jesus, and he is wailing.

Why? Look at verses 41-44 again:

[41] And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it,
[42] Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.
[43] For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side,
[44] And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.
Luke 19:41-44 (KJV)

Jesus knew what was about to happen to him but also knew what was about to happen to the people who rejected him. He knew that this city, the great city of Jerusalem, was going to be absolutely and totally destroyed.

Josephus tells us that the Roman general Titus, acting under the commands of the emperor, encircled the city, built a siege wall around it, and dug a trench around it. His orders were to destroy it so thoroughly that people wouldn't even know there had ever been a town there. According to Josephus, as many as a million civilians in the city of Jerusalem died.

That was thirty-seven years after this event. And yet as Jesus entered this city for the last time in his earthly life, he was overwhelmed with grief, thinking about the judgment that was coming to these people.

I think this is interesting and it's challenging in a lot of ways because Jesus loved these people. He loved this city and obviously had a heart for it, and yet it was an act of God's judgment that this city be destroyed.

Do you know what that tells us? That tells us that love does not preclude judgment. God's love for you does not mean that God will not judge you. God is holy and God is just and sin must be paid for.

It also tells us that God gets no joy from judgment. I have to think that the worst thing that has ever been done in human history was the rejection, betrayal, and murder of the most innocent, holy, good person who ever lived. Yet Jesus looks at this city that's about to reject him and weeps for them. He's not weeping for himself. He's weeping for them.

These people had such a missed opportunity. They had Jesus in their midst. They had the Messiah! And they rejected Him.

And I have to warn you that if you reject the Lord Jesus Christ, you will face the judgment of God. If you reject him in your time of visitation, in your time of opportunity to trust Christ, then you will stand before him outside of his mercy and face the full severity of his judgment.

I don't want that for you and Jesus doesn't want that for you. Jesus can look with his perfect foresight and see who is going to reject him and he weeps over that. We see that in this passage: he weeps over the future suffering that you will face if you reject him.

And here is the saddest thing: we don't get to choose suffering in this world. We don't get to choose to not live in a world with cancer, murder, broken promises, and disease. The suffering Jesus embraced for us is a suffering that none of us asked for.

You do get to choose whether you are going to suffer in the hands of God in the future because Jesus already paid your price. He already went to the cross and paid for your sins. He is begging you to come. He's weeping over you. He went to the cross for the joy of your potential salvation.

Conclusion

So we've seen three attitudes of Jesus toward suffering today.
He embraced our suffering — he came into this broken world and ran toward the pain instead of away from it. He embraced his own suffering — he orchestrated his own death with full knowledge of what it would cost him and walked toward it anyway. And he looked forward at future suffering — and wept over the people who would face judgment because they missed their moment.

I want to come back to where we started this morning.
Harry Faversham in The Four Feathers was a coward. He ran from something hard and spent years living with the shame of it. And then he went back. He went into the thing he was most afraid of and redeemed himself.

Here's the difference between Harry Faversham and Jesus Christ: Harry eventually went because his own honor demanded it. Jesus went because your eternity demanded it. Jesus wasn't recovering his own reputation. He was purchasing yours.

And here is where it lands for every one of us this morning.

Jerusalem had a time of visitation. Jesus was in their midst. He was right there. And they missed it — and Jesus wept over them because he knew what that missing would cost them.

You are in a time of visitation right now. Jesus is not physically riding down the aisle of this church, but he is present through his Word and his Spirit and he is making himself known to you. The question verse 44 puts to every person in this room is simply this: will you know the time of your visitation?

Some of you have been sitting in church for years the way Jerusalem sat in the presence of Jesus — close enough to see everything, close enough to hear everything, and yet your heart has never really surrendered to him. You've been saying "Hosanna, blessed is the King" with your lips while your life tells a different story.

Jesus is not looking at you with contempt. He's looking at you the way he looked at Jerusalem — with tears. He sees what's coming if you continue to walk away from him and it breaks his heart.

Don't miss your moment. Don't miss your time of visitation.
If you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, today is your day. He already paid the price. He went to the cross for the joy of your salvation. All that's left is for you to receive it.

Let's pray.