Seeing God’s Reality

The following video transcript has been lightly edited

 Palm Sunday is a chance for us to talk about Jesus riding into town on a donkey. That's a little funny to me that a donkey gets so much publicity in the midst of the Bible story, but it, it does. Every year we talk about the cross and the resurrection and Jesus' birth. And of course, Jesus riding into town on a donkey.

So what's the point of that whole story and what can we take away from it? Here's what I think it can help us see, is that often we are blind to what God is up to in the world around us. We have spiritual blindness, emotional blindness, relational blindness. You and I are people that often struggle with blind spots and a blindness to God's reality.

The story of Jesus entering into Jerusalem on the back of the donkey gives us some clues on how to not be a blind people. Because what happens as they enter, as this ragtag group of disciples celebrate, the Pharisees are like, "Hey Jesus, tell your people to be quiet." And Jesus says, if they don't cry out, even the rocks will cry out.

And the reason he says that to the Pharisees is because they're the ones who are blind. God's kingdom is arriving and unfolding around them and they can't see it. And the reason they can't see it is because they are not people who are willing to confess need. The reason that they can't see it is because they're not trying to build for good. They're trying to build for themselves. And the reason that they can't see it is because they themselves are not worshiping God. They're actually worshiping themselves.

And so that's a lesson to us. We want to be the kind of people that can see God's reality unfolding around us. In order to do that, we have to be the kind of people that do the opposite of what the Pharisees do.

So first we wanna be people who confess need. So you think about this group of disciples that had gathered to celebrate Jesus, and Luke tells us the reason that they gather is because of the powerful deeds that they have experienced.

So first I want you to think about who is this group? Well, based on the story of Luke, this group is a ragtag group of people that were tax collectors and Roman guards, and the disciples as fishermen and prostitutes, and all kinds of people who were able to admit that they had need.

And in their admission of need, they experienced grace. They experience God showing up. And grace is a powerful thing. It's a powerful thing that when we experience it up close, it moves us. We have a sense of transcendence and goodness, but we can't experience grace unless we confess need, because grace itself is rescue, it's restoration, it's repair, and that's what grace is all about.

It's about resurrection, repair, and rescue. And so if we wanna experience that, if we wanna be open, if we want our eyes to be open and be able to see the way God's kingdom is unfolding, we want to be a people who are willing to confess our need and receive grace.

And so let me ask you, what is the need that you have? You know, a lot of times for us, it's not financial or physical. A lot of times there's needs that we have that are emotional, they're relational. There are areas in which we need to confess our own brokenness in order to grow. And so our willingness to confess that need is what's gonna open us up to experiencing the grace and goodness and help us see the way God's kingdom is unfolding around us.

Secondly, what we see is we see Jesus arrive. So everything about Jesus' arrival mimics the way a king would arrive in his hometown after a big victory in in war. And so in this sense, Jesus is saying that he's the king, but he comes to bring peace and he comes in humility on the back of a donkey. And so what we see here is we see that Jesus' arrival is about seeking the good of the world.

Jesus doesn't use his position to extend his own power. Jesus uses his position and his power to bless and bring grace and goodness to the world. And so that's the lesson for us. If we want to be a people who see God's kingdom unfolding around us who don't have that blindness, we wanna seek the good.

This is the very thing the Pharisees weren't doing. They were using their position and their power to control and for their own gain. We want to act the opposite. We want to be a people who are like, okay, God, I want to be a part of your unfolding kingdom, and so I'm gonna seek the good.

We do that around here in a variety of ways. It's partnering with organizations like Young Lives or the Samaritan Center, but it's also the way we live our lives. So we can be participating in building the Good by showing up for Popcorn Day, for being a great coach on a team, for loving our family, for serving in the midst of our workplace, all those things.

And so if you wanna protect yourself against the spiritual blindness that we have as human beings, seek the good, build, the good because that's gonna open you up. So ask yourself, well, what good am I building? And am I tuned into that?

Lastly, what happens is Jesus tells the Pharisees, Hey, I can't tell these disciples to be quiet. Because even if I did, the rocks would cry out. And what we see there is that we see the importance of worship.

You know, we control things in a lot of different ways, but one of the ways we can control something is by knowing about it. If we're experts, we have a sense that we own it. So you can take a palm, for example, and we can talk about why it's green and the chlorophyll and how it germinates and how it grows and photosynthesis and all that stuff.

And so in the midst of that, we can almost separate ourselves from the mystery and wonder that a palm even exists at all. And I think that that can happen. Our lives are filled with ways in which we feel like we're in control, but most of our life is actually a gift. It's a mystery that we exist. It's a mystery that we experience love and joy.

It's a mystery that the sky is beautiful. It's a mystery the way the birds and the trees and the air create this thing we call life. And the way that we can open ourselves to it is to rejoice in it, to worship it, to worship God's good creation, to worship how God is given the gift of life itself. And in our willingness to worship the goodness and grace of God, it opens us up rather than staying clamped down or it opens our eyes. We get to see the way that God's kingdom is unfolding.

So how are you rejoicing in the good? That's my next question for you, because if you know how you're rejoicing in the good, it's gonna help you protect against that same kind of spiritual blindness that we see in the Pharisees. Don't be blind to the way God's kingdom is unfolding all around you because it is Open your eyes to see by confessing need, by seeking to build good, and by rejoicing and worshiping God and the goodness of this world.

Have a great week and we'll see you soon.