Sunday Faith Blog

"The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt!” His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him. ..."  John 12:12-19

For anyone interested in more, I found this excellent explanation of Palm Sunday:

The people who witnessed the resurrection of Lazarus learned that Jesus would enter Jerusalem shortly thereafter riding on a donkey. The people of Jerusalem interpreted this to mean that Jesus was the Messiah. But their conception of the Messiah was that He was King David come to conquer the world, deliver them from their Roman enemies, and bring peace. They expected Him to destroy their enemies by might. So he rode in just like the prophet Zechariah said He would. But he did not fulfill the next verse, Zechariah 9:10, where He establishes world peace. He will fulfill that verse when He returns. The people expected him to fulfill it then.

The reason that they proclaimed Him king this day, shouting "Hosanna!" and turned on him a few days later shouting "Crucify!" is because He did not do what they expected. They thought he was an impostor. Their traditions and teachings led them to believe that the Christ would come and conquer. They did not realize, or did not accept, that the scripture also said he must first suffer (e.g., Psalm 22 and Isaiah 36).

The triumphal entry proved two things. It was Jesus' statement to Jerusalem and the world that He was indeed the Messiah. He fulfilled the Zecharian prophecy that promised the Israelites that their king, in the form of David the conqueror, would ride into Jerusalem meekly (which he truly did after the defeat of Absalom) and that he would then deliver the nation from their enemies.

It was also proof of the fickleness of mankind. One day Jesus was their conquering hero, the next He was a liar and a charlatan who entered Jerusalem as Messiah only to fail to accomplish the promised mission of delivery. People today are just as fickle as they were then.

This was the beginning of a series of what the world would consider to be misadventures. Yet, these supposed "misadventures" were all in the will and the plan of God. He knew that these things would lead to the crucifixion of His Only Begotten, which would allow for the salvation of multitudes, yea for the very salvation of us in this day some two millennia after the fact.

Have a Happy Palm Sunday... interesting to consider that the man, Jesus, humbled himself by riding on a donkey instead of on a great stead like the people thought he would...A week later, he died, and many in Jerusalem and Rome, cynics from the start, turned off even more because he didn't appear like King David, galloping into Jerusalem, heard enough about the crucifixion that they started believing all he'd said.  Quite a story......

z