The Triumphal Entry
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2021 · 18 July 2021
This is an important moment in the history of our Lord. Matthew 21, Mark 11, Luke 19, and John 12 all record this event. We call it the triumphal entry or Palm Sunday. This is traditionally well-known of our Lord when He enters Jerusalem to all of the praise and hosannas of the people who are acclaiming Him as the King and the Messiah. It’s part of Christian tradition and Scripture revelation.
And by Friday, these people were shouting for Barabbas to be released and the one they had claimed as King to be crucified, just a few days later. Let us read the story from John 12:12 - 17, “The next day, the news that Jesus was on the way to Jerusalem swept through the city. A large crowd of Passover visitors 13 took palm branches and went down the road to meet Him.”
“They shouted, “Praise God! Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hail to the King of Israel!” 14 Jesus found a young donkey and rode on it, fulfilling the prophecy that said: 15 “Don’t be afraid, people of Jerusalem. Look, your King is coming, riding on a donkey’s colt.” 16 His disciples didn’t understand at the time that this was a fulfillment of prophecy.”
“But after Jesus entered into his glory, they remembered what had happened and realized that these things had been written about him. 17 Many in the crowd had seen Jesus call Lazarus from the tomb, raising him from the dead, and they were telling others about it. 18 That was the reason so many went out to meet him—because they had heard about this miraculous sign.”
So with that we begin the Passion Week of our Lord. They hailed Him as King. He comes into the city to the hosannas and the hallelujahs and the praise of the people of Israel. “King Jesus,” they say, “has arrived to take His throne.” Their hearts are bright with hope, anticipation that the long-awaited Messiah is indeed this one named Jesus of Nazareth, this Galilean.
He has accumulated a profound reputation by doing miracles for three years during His ministry; which have been talked about across the land and essentially done in every village throughout Israel. It all culminated in this amazing raising of Lazarus from the dead. Our Lord chose to do this in Bethany, two miles east of the wall of the temple in Jerusalem where this resurrection could be verified.
That puts Jesus in Bethany, and then He spent that Sunday with his friends: Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. There was a great supper made for Him there in the home of a leper that He had healed by the name of Simon. Simon must have had a large home to accommodate our Lord, Simon’s family, Mary, Martha, Lazarus and all the disciples who were traveling with Him.
At that supper there was much love for Jesus from the two sisters of Lazarus. There was Martha, who was serving lovingly. And then there was Mary who took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard. Nard was an herb that produced an amazing fragrance that came from the Himalayas. It had to come by camel, so it was rare and costly. Judas points out that it was worth a year’s income.
In a lavish expression of love, she broke the alabaster jar of nard and poured it all over Jesus, from head to foot. Then she loosened her hair and wiped His feet with her hair. As soon as the fragrance dominates the room, we see the hate in Judas who says, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and given to poor?’ He was not concerned about the poor, because he was a thief and stole from the money box.”
So a large crowd of Jews learned that He was there, “And they came not only for Jesus, but they came also to see Lazarus, whom He raised from the dead.” Now, there had been 2 other resurrections, but no resurrection in which a four day period had passed from the death to the resurrection. All the people who were pilgrims from all around the world would find out about it.
But the Jewish leaders planned to put Lazarus to death also. They wanted to execute Lazarus because his testimony was so effective that the Jews were abandoning the temple religion and heading toward believing in Jesus. This miracle had a massive impact at the final moment of our Lord’s public ministry. Later in the week, He will restore an ear, but that was a private miracle in the garden.
That was Sunday. Now we come to Monday, verse 12 on the next day, “The large crowd who had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.” Now, there is a dramatic change. There were times when the Jews wanted to crown Jesus as king, but He didn’t allow it. Look now at John 12:23, Jesus answered them saying, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”
Now it is His hour because it is God’s hour. Jesus sets it up by healing Lazarus, raising him from the dead. He remains there to draw the crowd to see Him, to see Lazarus, to strengthen the testimony of that miracle power. He deliberately places Himself in a situation to draw the largest possible crowd of people, and a crowd comes on Sunday to Bethany. Then another crowd packs the city of Jerusalem.
Jesus wants to generate the enthusiasm of the masses. But He also wants to increase the fury of the leaders of Israel so that they will against their own plan wind up crucifying Him on the very day that God has ordained at the Passover. He forces the Sanhedrin to change their plans to harmonize it with the purpose of God. The Sanhedrin did not want to kill Him at a time when the city was full of pilgrims.
But that’s exactly when they would crucify Him because that’s when God had planned His crucifixion. Now, let’s look more at the story. First, we could say there is the presentation the Lord makes of Himself. He comes to Jerusalem and as He comes, the large crowd took branches of the palm trees and began to shout, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel.”
As Jesus begins His journey, He asks two of His disciples to a nearby hamlet, and He says, “Go to this place, and you will find a post, and you will find a donkey and a donkey’s colt tied to the post. I want you to bring those animals to Me. Bring the donkey and bring the donkey’s colt.” And when the disciples reached the village, they found the right home and these two animals tied to a post.
They start to untie the animals to take the animals with them, and the owner comes out and says, “What are you doing? Why are you taking these animals?” Remember their brief answer, “The Lord needs them.” This may well have been a follower of Jesus who was eager to provide for Him whatever He asked for. The disciples threw the outer garments over the colt and its mother and brought them to Jesus.
Jesus chose the colt to ride and not the mother. Why the two? Jesus wanted to come into the city in humility. He rode the weaker, younger animal. The mature animal was brought along to lead the young colt because a colt will always follow his mother. This is the way Jesus could demonstrate the humility that His was going to portray during that Passion Week where He did what the Father wanted.
Verse 12 - 13, “The next day, the news that Jesus was on the way to Jerusalem swept through the city. A large crowd of Passover visitors 13, took palm branches and went down the road to meet him. They shouted, “They shouted, “Praise God! Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hail to the King of Israel!” They associated palm branches with celebrations in the Old Testament.
They are symbols of strength and beauty, strength because they flourish in a desert; and beauty because they are evergreen. No one had ever raised the dead. Jesus comes to Jerusalem and the enthusiasm of the crowd mounts. Jesus is the Messiah and the King. He will not deny their hosannas. In Luke 19:40 He actually says, “If these people don’t cry out hosanna, the rocks will cry out.”
They are calling Jesus their Savior. Matthew adds that they also called Him “Son of David.” The Messiah, according to 2 Samuel 7 would be David’s son, who would have an everlasting kingdom. Then they say, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord,” again from Psalm 118. Their hope and expectation is that at any moment, this power over death that He exhibited, will be used against Rome.
Verse 14-15, “Jesus found a young donkey and rode on it, fulfilling the prophecy that said: 15 “Don’t be afraid, people of Jerusalem. Look, your King is coming, riding on a donkey’s colt.” It was to fulfill a prophecy of Zachariah 9:9, “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming seated on a donkey’s colt.” You not only have a fateful presentation. You have a fulfilled prophecy.
Because Jesus comes exactly the way the prophets said He would come. There’s another prophecy that is being fulfilled in Daniel 9:24. Daniel is praying to God, and He answers his prayer. He’s praying for the deliverance of Israel from Babylon. He knows that God promised 70 years of captivity. He is praying for God to fulfill His promise and to deliver Israel out of Babylon.
In response to that prayer, God gives him a far greater promise, not just a promise of deliverance from Babylon. God fulfilled that. Cyrus wrote a decree that sent the Jews back. They went back under Nehemiah and rebuilt the city. Now look at Daniel 9:24, “Seventy sets of seven have been decreed for your people and your holy city.” That is seventy times seven, 490 years.
This is God’s plan for Israel and the bringing in of the kingdom. Now, there are six elements. The first three are fulfilled at Christ first coming: to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin and to make atonement for all iniquity. The second time He comes: to bring in everlasting righteousness, to fulfill all vision and prophecy, and to anoint the holy place, to set Himself on the throne.
Verse 25 says, “There will be a period of seven weeks plus sixty-two weeks,” which is 69. The decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Messiah arrives is 69 weeks. That’s 483 years. That decree was given by Artaxerxes in the year 445 B. C. If you add 483 years, that’s the 69 weeks that are mentioned there, and you end up in the year 30 in the month Nisan. That is the exact time when Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem.
And verse 26 says, “And after the sixty-two when the Messiah comes, He will be cut off and have nothing.” That’s also what happened. “And the people of the prince who is to come.” Who is the prince who is to come? That is the anti-Christ. Daniel says “The people of the antichrist who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary.” This is done by the Romans in the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.
We still have one week. So what happened to that seventieth week? That’s in the future when the antichrist will make a covenant with many in Israel for one week (Verse 27). In the middle of the week, he will violate the covenant. This is the ‘abomination of desolation’ that Jesus comments on in the middle of the tribulation. This brings destruction at the end of which our Lord establishes His kingdom.
The important point is they pointed to the year A.D. 30, the Friday, the ninth of the Jewish month of Nisan, as the time when Jesus came into the city. But the Jews didn’t understand that prophecy in the narrative of the Passion Week, but it is there and it was fulfilled. Go to Luke 19, the account of the triumphal entry. Verse 37, “The whole crowd praised God joyfully for all the miracles they had seen.”
Verses 39-45, “Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, rebuke your disciples.’ Jesus answered, ‘I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!’ When Jesus saw the city He wept over it saying, ‘For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground.”
And they dismantled the temple down to the foundation, “Because you didn’t recognize the time of your visitation.” 45 Jesus entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling.” He attacked the Jewish people at the heart of their worship, their religion. He is worthy of all of this praise, but it’s so short-lived and He knew that. So we see this fulfilled prophesy from Jesus as to what was going to happen.
We see the perplexity of the disciples. Verse 16, “His disciples didn’t understand at the time that this was a fulfillment of prophecy. But after Jesus entered into his glory, they remembered what had happened and realized that these things had been written in the Bible about Him.” John is looking back and he’s saying of himself and the rest, we didn’t understand what was going on.
Verse 17, “Many in the crowd had seen Jesus call Lazarus from the tomb, raising him from the dead, and they were telling others about it.” They’re attracted by the miracle, they are false followers, who by Friday choose Barabbas, a well-known criminal to be released; and Jesus to be held prisoner, and then screamed for Him to be crucified. The rejection of Israel caused God to turn from the Jews to the gentiles.
It’s really a preview of the church. Jesus says in John 6:37, “Whoever comes to me, I will not turn away.” So what we have here is the beginning of what believers are all a part of, the church of our Lord Jesus Christ, people who truly want to see Jesus and believe Him. May we all follow Him daily, and learn to love others and to tell people who Jesus is. Let us pray.