April 13, 2025 | The King Who Paid My Debt | Matthew 21:1-11

The King Who Paid My Debt | Matthew 21:1-11

Matthew 21:1–11

Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying,

Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’

The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.” (ESV)

This Palm Sunday message centers on Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, not as a conquering warlord but as a humble King riding a donkey. Jed Gillis draws out how Jesus intentionally fulfilled prophecy from Zechariah 9, orchestrating the moment to reveal both his identity and his mission. Rather than avoid public attention, Jesus embraced it for the purpose of beginning His journey to the cross. The crowd cried out “Hosanna,” calling for salvation, though many would soon turn against Him. Yet even then, Jesus was riding not to take a throne but to take our place.

Gillis highlights how Jesus' request for the donkey shows He desires the ordinary from us: our weaknesses, not just our strengths. The message presses into the idea that our King does not need fanfare. He needs faithfulness.

Ultimately, this King paid a debt we could never repay. Drawing from Colossians 2, the sermon shows how Jesus canceled the record of debt, not just our guilt but our shame. Our dishonor before a holy God has been completely covered by the infinite worth of Christ. This is not just about theology; it is about identity. If you're in Christ, there is no record left. The same King who rode humbly into the city rode purposefully to the cross, and He did it for you.

This message calls you to rejoice. Not because the week ahead is easy, but because your King has come, your debt is paid, and your shame is gone.

Transcript of The King Who Paid My Debt | Matthew 21:1-11

This morning, we're going to begin in Matthew Chapter 21.

What Does God Want to Do In Your Life Because of the Story of the Cross?

We'll do something a little bit different this morning. We'll, we'll move from passage to passage a few times, because I think as we come to Palm Sunday, there's at least two different groups of people who need different messages. We need the story. Just of what happened, and sometimes we can take for granted that we know the story, but maybe there are some of you here today who don't know the story of Palm Sunday, and you don't know exactly what happened.

For those of you who know the story, it's good for you to hear the story again, but it's also good for you to remember, as our brother reminded us, what this story has to do with you. And so we're going to go through different pieces of the story. Really thinking of Jesus as the king who then died for us, and thinking, well, why do I care about that story?

We won't exhaust all the reasons we care about it. We won't exhaust all the things that it should do in our lives to transform us. But we'll get a scattering of those. And what I want to encourage you to do, if you're very familiar with the story of Palm Sunday and Easter, as we come up on Easter, I want to encourage you to ask God to give you one thought, one idea to really meditate on this week.

One thought that would. Shape you and would help you when you think about your king who went to the cross, who was raised from the dead, what's God want to do in your life through that story?

The Triumphal Entry

So I'm gonna read the story of the triumphal entry. From Matthew 21. Now, when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples saying to them, go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey, tide and a colt with her, untie them and bring them to me.

If anyone says to you, if anyone says anything to you, you shall say the Lord needs them and he will send them at once. This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet saying, say to the daughter of Zion. Behold, your king is coming to you. Humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.

The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. Most of the crowds spread their cloaks on the road and others cut branches from the trees. And spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting Hosanna to the son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!

And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up saying, who is this? And the crowd said, this is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee.

Opening Prayer

Let's pray again and ask God for his help. God, this truth stirred up the whole city of Jerusalem so much that they came and said, who is this?

And I pray that you would do the same thing in our hearts, that the story of what you did for us, the story of Jesus walking this earth. I pray that you would stir us up so that even those of us who have known Jesus for a long time would still respond with wonder and Marvel to say, who is this? And may our eyes be drawn to our savior, and may we respond with great joy with worship. In his name we pray. Amen.

Jesus Did Not Shy Away From This Moment

I want you to notice a couple things about this story. First, Jesus didn't shy away from this moment. Jesus orchestrated this moment. I think sometimes we, can we get this picture like maybe Jesus was going along and some people thought he was God and thought he was king, and Jesus just did whatever he was going to do and let the crowds do whatever.

No. Jesus self-consciously knew: Zechariah nine said a king is coming in on a donkey. And so Jesus followed what was prophesied and told his disciples, he set it up. He said, you go and you find the donkey you're gonna find, by the way the donkey and it's foal there. Jesus wasn't like caught up in some moment of history that happened apart from him.

Jesus planned this. Jesus set it up. And it's interesting to us. It might seem a little weird if I sent somebody to your house. And said they're going to have a loaf of bread, grab it and bring it here. You'd be like, well, that's weird. I mean, I'll be glad to give you a loaf of bread, but you should probably just come and ask.

Right? It, it's a little bit interesting to us because of this sense of he's asking for something, a donkey to ride in. It seems like he's asking for a favor, but there's something more than that in, in an ancient custom where animals would be brought into service for a great person. It could be a king, could be a ruler.

So when Jesus said, Hey, go get this donkey, and if anybody asks anything of you, you just say the Lord needs it. Jesus is claiming to be that kind of great king. He's telling his disciples, that's who I am. He's orchestrating this entire moment, telling them, I'm not the king that you expected, but I am the king that you need.

They expected a king to come in on a warhorse and defeat Rome, right? Said I'm not that. But I am the king that you actually need. And he orchestrates this moment so that the disciples, and can you imagine being the disciples walking into town and you say, Jesus has asked me to do some pretty strange things before, so I guess I'll go do it.

You walk in and you see a donkey. I don't know it happened this way, but it seems like it could have. You see the donkey and you're like, oh look, there's a donkey. And then as you walk around the corner a little bit, you see the foal behind the donkey. Like, wait a minute. Jesus was right.

We know the disciples had these moments. We were just talking in Teen Sunday school this morning about the disciples not getting it sometimes. When Jesus comes and says, I'm going to Jerusalem to die, and the text tells us, and they didn't get the saying.

We think it's so obvious, of course, but they're looking at it, walking in. I can imagine the amazement as they talk to each other, Hey, there is a donkey, and we're not told what happened. We're not told if someone actually came and asked them or not. I imagine they did because especially in that day when when animals were treated a little bit differently, it'd be like somebody coming to your house, jumping in your car, turning it on and starting to drive off.

And you'd think, well, um, wait, what's going? Like, I don't think that it just happened unnoticed. Probably someone did ask and they probably said the Lord has need of it. And then the owner of that donkey said, okay.

Imagine Being the Owner of the Donkey

So I asked you a minute ago to imagine you were one of the disciples. Now imagine you're the owner of the donkey.

You don't even see Jesus. He's not there. His disciples come maybe as the owner of the donkey. Maybe you knew who his disciples were. Maybe you don't. I mean, some of us probably could name all 12 disciples, but some of us couldn't, and we have scripture. So one of them walks up to you and says, Hey, the Lord has need of it. Okay.

Do We Give Jesus The Little Things?

That might stretch us a little bit, but it struck me as I was, as I was looking at this text, it struck me what Jesus asked for wasn't something big. It wasn't something because it was the best horse in all the lands, so Jesus asked for the best horse. And I think sometimes we have this idea that I'll give Jesus anything that I feel really good about, like anything I feel strong in, I'll give that to Jesus. If Jesus wants the areas I'm really gifted in the war horses, the sure I'll give him that. This donkey, Jesus comes, says, I need the humblest animal you've got.

We might think something like, if Jesus wants me. To go live this incredibly exciting, difficult life for him. Now, if we're honest, we might hesitate, but we say, yeah, sure, I'll do that. But what if Jesus says the Lord has need of your average ordinary life tomorrow? Do we hesitate a little more?

One of the commentators I read phrased a question this way. Are you as ready to offer your weakness to the Lord as you are to offer your strength to the Lord?

If God's blessed you with a lot of financial resources and you say, oh, yeah, I'm ready. I'm ready to be generous. What if he hasn't blessed you with as many financial resources? And he says, the Lord has need of a dollar. Jesus has need, not of your greatness, not of your strength, but of your weakness, of your humility.

At the beginning of this story, we see it. It's flipped upside down from what we expected, from what we think Jesus is going to do because this king is humble. Like in Philippians chapter two, which we looked at a few months ago, where Jesus, though he was equal with God, though he was in the form of God, he laid that aside, and he came and took on humanity. He's, he's the kind of king. Who doesn't just sit in his palace and boss other people around. He's the kind of king who comes and says, the Lord has need of that donkey.

Rejoice Greatly Because of the Cross

And then he rides in which the text quotes Zechariah chapter nine. You see that in verse five. It says, say to the daughter of Zion. Behold, your king is coming to you. Humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.

If we go over to Zechariah nine, we can see the context. Verse nine is the one that's quoted and it starts with this rejoice greatly, oh, daughter of Zion. This coming of the king is supposed to bring joy. Sometimes I think we get to Palm Sunday and and we know the cross is coming and we can feel overly somber about it.

There's a good reason to look at the cross and feel weight. 'cause it was a weighty time. But even when we look at the cross as people of our king, we rejoice 'cause our king is conquering, even in that moment.

Your Humble King Will Bring Peace

The text in Zacharia continues. Behold, your king is coming to you righteous and having salvation as he. It's really fascinating to me. If you follow verse nine in Zacharia. And then you follow the way it's quoted in Matthew 21, the quote in Matthew 21 says, say to the daughter of Zion, your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt. The quote in Zechariah says, rejoice greatly shout aloud. Your king is coming to you. And then a phrase that Matthew skips righteous and having salvation is he. You see in, in Matthew 21, they saw Jesus as humble.

Everybody there could see he's riding in on a donkey. The question wasn't, did you see the donkey? The question was, did you know, like Zacharia said, he's righteous and having salvation, and some of the crowds saw him and knew that, and some of the crowds didn't see it. They didn't know that part.

The humble king, it goes on in Zechariah to say he will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the warhorse from Jerusalem. He will speak peace to the nations. Your king, who is humble, brings peace. It says his rule will be universal.

We sang several songs this morning that focused our attention on the fact that all creatures of our God and King should praise him. Every creature, everywhere. This king's rule is universal. It goes on, it says, as for you speaking directly to Israel, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. This morning we celebrated that the king has a covenant sealed with blood, which will set prisoners free.

When Jesus wrote in, Matthew says, he's fulfilling that prophecy. He's gonna come, he's gonna die. The king is going to shed his blood, but the shedding of his blood is going to set prisoners free.

And it's interesting when he says that if you were hearing Zacharia, you might not catch all of this. Certainly not the first time. But right after he says, I will set your prisoners free. He says, return to your stronghold. Oh, prisoners of hope, or oh prisoners with hope you could translate it, today I declare I will restore to you double.

See, right now we have a king who's writing in. He's humble. We say it's gonna be peace. He's, his reigns gonna be universal. This is all wonderful and good, but sometimes I don't feel set free. And we still live in a world that groans where we aren't completely set free. But even in the prophecy in Zacharia, it pointed to the king writing in and said, he is going to set your prisoners free. So right now, even while you're a prisoner, have hope because your king will conquer.

Imagine Being a Disciple

A minute ago I asked you to imagine being the owner of the donkey. Imagine being one of the disciples. He's been with Jesus for three years. Up and down, excitement, difficulty. The crowds have come, the crowds have gone. They've come and gone again and again. People have absolutely been fawning all over Jesus and what he is doing, and people have also been spitefully asking questions, attacking slandering. You've gone back and forth and back and forth and now this scene, Jesus is riding in and Jerusalem is throwing its cloaks before him yelling hosanna.

I've, I've gotta imagine some of the disciples were probably optimistic. It's finally happening.

The other disciples who are maybe a little more pessimistic. Yeah, I've seen this before. They're back and forth. What are they going to do?

Let me ask you, when Jesus has need of your faithfulness in the ups and downs, in the weeks when you say, I feel like my spiritual life is going really well. Or the weeks where you say, I feel as dry as I can be. In the weeks when it seems like the crowds around you are all for Jesus, or when it seems like the crowds around you are all against Jesus. The Lord has need of faithfulness in the ups and downs.

Do you see your king? Do you say Hosanna, hallelujah, praise God for what he's doing? Do you bow before your king with confidence? But I know for my heart it's a lot easier to bow with confidence and joy when you see everything working out than when the crowds walk away.

What Does Hosanna Mean?

So this humble king rides in on a donkey and they cry hosanna, or help I pray. It, it was used as just an exclamation of praise. We do this too. We use Hallelujah to say it's praise, but we often don't think about it as praise to Yahweh, which is what it actually meant. But Hosanna meant literally something like help I pray or save, I pray.

It actually comes, this section comes from Psalm one 18, which is familiar probably to many of us. It includes the verse that says, this is the day the Lord has made, and we will rejoice and be glad in it. Well, that's true of every day, but that was especially true in a sense of the day that Jesus was riding in in his triumphal entry.

Because the rest of Psalm one 18 there says, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone Jesus who was about to be rejected and crucified. This is the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice, just like Zechariah said, rejoice greatly and be glad in it.

And so then it says, save us, we pray or Hosanna. Save us, we pray, oh Lord. Oh Lord, we pray. Give us success. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. The crowd's saying this, Jesus is the best representation of what God is doing. This is the day that the Lord has made Hosanna save us. We pray. They're looking at Jesus writing past.

They're not saying, I've got a warm, fuzzy feeling about life right now. That's not what they're doing. They're looking at the king, writing down and looking at him saying, you save us. Save us. We pray. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And you can imagine the whole city is thrown into an uproar, right?

So just for a moment, imagine you're in downtown Knoxville on a Friday evening down market square, and it's busy and everybody's milling about doing their thing, and Jesus comes riding with a donkey. And you hear echoes over and over and over of people saying, save us, save us. Help us. Help us. I bet you'd tell that story when you got home.

Excitement for Jesus Must Lead to Commitment for Jesus

The whole city is in an uproar, and yet we know the rest of the story. The same voices that are crying, Hosanna, some of them will cry. Crucify him in a week.

Sometimes excitement for Jesus or something that looks like excitement for Jesus isn't enough. Excitement for Jesus must lead to commitment for to Jesus. These crowds were save us. Help us. Help us.

A few days later, they looked at the same king and said, give us the criminal instead, kill him.

It would be interesting if we could know a look at an individual who was in the first crowd, who was also in the second. How did that happen? We don't know 'cause God didn't tell us. He does tell us the overall idea. Matthew tells us the crowds were persuaded by the chief priests to choose Barabas instead of Jesus.

The Humble King Pays Your Debt

When you think of Jesus as the king, when you think that he has need of the ordinary of the weaknesses of your life, not just the strengths, when you think of excitement for Jesus, are you committed to follow him? Because he is not just the king who wrote in. He's also the king who paid our debt at the very moment that this humble king was riding down the streets with praises echoing, he knew he was riding to the cross.

I want to turn over to Colossians chapter two. Because when our king rode in, he knew the result. I read verse 13 through verse 15. God's word says, and you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him.

We have to see our king rightly for the next part. To make any sense, we have to know. He was actually the king who had all of this honor. Who knew I am going to set in motion these events by saying, go get the donkey and I'm gonna ride in. We have to see him in his majesty. In order for this next part to make any sense, this king didn't just ride in and conquer.

What is the Debt that We Owed?

This king didn't just ride in and receive praise. This king paid our debt. Notice in Colossians chapter two, verse 14 says, he canceled the record of debt that stood against us. Now, we're real familiar with the idea of debt, but we typically think of it in terms of money. And so one of the questions can be, I know this language, Jesus paid my debt, but what is it that he actually paid?

I didn't owe money. So how does this work? And really, it, it's something more like an honor debt.

Theologian, and around a thousand, Anselm, wrote a, a whole big work on why God had to become man. And essentially, if you boil down what he says and a lot of long stuff, you boil down what he says. He says this, God had to become man because God's honor had been wronged and that had to be made right.

We're a little familiar with this. If someone has wronged you, is it enough for you? If they come and they just say some words that sound like an apology. Not really. That doesn't really solve the problem. You know it. I know it. I'm sorry. I slandered you we're good, right? Let's move on. No, that doesn't work like that, because words alone don't do it.

We might want restitution. So let's say someone stole from you and they come and they say, I'm sorry, I'm going to give this back to you. But as they're giving it back to you, they make it clear. That they absolutely hate you.

You still didn't really solve the problem. Right. And parents, grandparents, teachers, when there's squabbles in kids, we know, even though it's hard to define, I don't just want you to come and go, sorry, I don't want you to come and go, sorry, but I'll give the toy back as I glare at you as you walk away. No, there's an honor debt.

If we want you to recognize you wronged a human being who made, who's made the image of God and deserves honor and value, you didn't do that. In fact, if someone stole something from you and let's say it was a couple years later and they don't have the means to repay. But if they come back and you really are convinced they are restoring the honor debt, you don't care as much about the money, because the honor is the part we actually want for true reconciliation. We want the honor debt to be repaid.

We could think of how that might look if we use a medieval context. If you've dishonor a king. Well, what do we expect you to do? We expect you're gonna come in, you're gonna apologize. You're gonna hope he doesn't kill you, and you're gonna bow down before him. Why? You're paying honor. You're trying to restore the honor debt.

But in order to repay an honor debt, you have to be able to give enough honor to make up for what the wrong was. Our problem is God is infinitely worthy of all honor. We sang all creatures of our God and King earlier. Every being that's ever existed owes him all of the honor we could give him at every moment. So we have an honor debt and we could never build up a surplus that we could give back 'cause He, he owe, he's owed all of our honor to start with.

So you think about it, if you wronged God and you say, alright, I've dishonored God, I've done wrong, I'm now going to do what's right and I'm gonna try to repay the honor debt.

Well, no matter what you do, that's just what he still deserved. There's no way for us to pay the debt that we owed. Or as Anselm and his work said, you have not repaid that, which you owe. And you have nothing with which to pay.

That's really what he's getting at. When he says you were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God, you did not have a way to pay. Dead people can't pay debts back.

And so, and some continues, only man ought to pay the debt because man sinned. Only God can pay the debt because he is the only one who can offer something of enough value. Therefore, it was necessary that one who is God and man would repay this debt.

But I want to take, I think we get used to that theological language, right? He had to be God and man to pay our debt. Yes, true. Let's, he had to be God and man, which means he's also the king who deserves all of that praise. He had to be the king in order to pay your debt, because he had enough honor that he could then lay that aside, give up his glory in heaven, come as Philippians two says, take on himself the form of a servant. And in doing so, he was paying our debt. He was restoring the honor debt that we owed to God.

God Removes Our Shame

I wrestled with this language because we talk like this in Christian circles. God paid your debt. Sure, yes. Check the box. Let's move on. I know it's true. I might sit and meditate on it. Yes. So now I have a right standing with God. My guilt is taken care of, good and true. I wanna push further than that. If the main point of the debt is honor, then the main thing that is removed is shame.

If the main point of the debt, what was owed is honor. Then what is removed is shame.

Jesus took the debt that you owed, and I know, I know some of you specifically, but I know because you're human, you feel some of the weight of shame.

Because you know, you've done things that wronged a holy God. You know, you've done things that dishonored him. You know, you haven't lived with perfect infinite honor towards the God who deserves it from you. And so I think a lot of times we say yes, he took care of my guilt, so I'm okay when I get to heaven the end of my life, he took care of that.

But we shortchange the debt that our king actually paid because the king who wrote in, when they said, save us and help us, he was saving them and he was helping them. And he took your shame.

God Removed the Record of Our Debt

Notice even in this text in Colossians two, by canceling the record of debt. It is a specific Greek word that talks about the debt, where it's written down. He doesn't just say, I love this. I was, I was encouraged by this, this week. He doesn't just say he canceled the debt. Although that's true, he canceled the record of it. Because if there's still a record of your debt, even if it's been forgiven, you might feel shame. But if there's no record of debt, who could point to anything?

He canceled the record of debt by nailing it to the cross.

And I want to encourage you, one of the reasons God drew me to this idea that Jesus paid our debt is because the next section of the book of Proverbs that we're gonna look at another week. Tells you, don't take on debt for a stranger because you'll be trapped. It tells you if you put up security, it's like if you co-sign for a loan for someone who's not a good risk, it's going to harm you.

And he says, don't do that. That's not wise. And that's true. It's not wise for finite humans with limited resources, but that's exactly what Jesus did for you. You owed a debt you could never pay. And Jesus took your debt. He said, I'll pay it. And you could imagine if Jesus had financial planners around him, if you will, they'd be like, no, no, no. This debt is way too bad. You don't understand how bad these people are. They'll never pay it back. And Jesus says, I know. That's foolish. That's exactly why first Corinthians one tells us it's the foolishness of the cross.

'cause it does seem foolish from our perspective, for Jesus to take on himself the liabilities that all of us have, the debts that we have, but that's because we have limited resources. But our king, he doesn't. So he can look at you with your shame, however much shame you feel, and he can say, I paid for that.

We say, Jesus, I'm I'm too bad a risk. That's what Job did. By the way, there's this same language in Job 17. Job says, I am such a terrible risk that the only person who can put up security, who can take my debt is God. And that's exactly how you have to come to your king. That's how you honor your king is saying, God, I will never repay this debt. I'm not going to try to keep paying this debt. I can't. You have to pay it.

But because Jesus is the king, the humble king, who deserves all praise, because he is both God and man. He comes and he says, you don't have to worry about that debt. So whatever it is, when you feel shame before a holy God, that's because you have wronged that, holy God. But when you feel shame. You turn your eyes to Jesus. Say, my king paid all of my debt. Not just my guilt, but my shame. My king had infinite honor and when he poured out his honor, it more than washes over the shame that I feel.

So every voice that says my king or my debt is too great. Every voice that says My debt is too great. The king silences it. Every shame before God, every fear before God, both now and forever. If your trust is in Jesus, it's nailed to the cross.

As we have Palm Sunday, the donkey and the cross tell the same story. They tell the story that our king is both humble and victorious. He doesn't conquer with a sword. He conquers with a sacrifice. He doesn't demand tribute. That's what Kings do. He doesn't demand tribute. He pays our debt. So brothers and sisters respond. Like Zachariah said, rejoice greatly, help us, save us, hosanna, our king has come. Our debt is paid, and our freedom is won.

I wanna invite you just to close your eyes and respond to God as God points at things in your life. I pray that you would take the shame that you feel and that you would honor the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. By throwing that shame on him and trusting his promise that he said he took the record of your debt and he nailed it to his cross triumphing openly over all of his enemies.

Let's take a moment and respond to God and then we'll sing together.