Luke 19:28-45
Have you ever been really and truly disappointed in a purchase? Maybe it was a product or even a vacation spot. You saw the advertisements, the flashy and exciting pictures of the product and happy people enjoying it? The glowing description and the pictures illicit a sense of anticipation of deep satisfaction and happiness. Then the promised product arrives, or you arrive at the promised spot you’ve planned for so long with your family, and it’s not at all what you expected.
When I was a boy, I really liked flying and I wanted to own all things flying. I saw a wonderful advertisement in the JC Penny catalog for a wire controlled airplane. In fact it was Snoopy in his flying doghouse! I built such excitement as I worked and saved up for that flying Snoopy doghouse. I imagined a flying doghouse on a 30’ line flying around on our pasture doing loops and dives at my fingertip command. I placed my order in the mail and waited and two weeks later a box came with my name on it. It was somewhat smaller than I expected. But I tore into it and followed the instructions to assemble it. And when I stepped back to look at the final product, my heart sank in bitter disappointment. It was a stupid little Styrofoam doghouse about 3 inches square, with a little plastic poorly printed Snoopy, on the end of an ugly 18” coat-hanger sized hard wire attached to a flimsy electric motor on a pad on the floor that made it go around in an unvarying, boring circle. It broke in about 5 minutes and I was very sad. I wished I’d paid a lot more attention to the fine details in the ad.
Well, ancient Israel leading up to the arrival of Jesus in Jerusalem had been sold by their traditions, joined to their own fleshly desires, such a false product. It was a half-truth. They were sold, and they bought the idea of a promised and greatly anticipated King and a Kingdom of political rescue from and dominance over their enemies, and a national restoration to glory. Now it is true that a King and a kingdom were promised/offered. But the fine print (and there was plenty of it) was that because of their sin-guilt, that they could not enter that kingdom if it came right then! Imagine it! No, a sacrifice of perfect, sufficient and efficient blood would have to me made, and they were required to acknowledge their need and rest their faith in the One who made it for them!. They had not heeded all of the fine print in their own Tanakh!