Today is Palm Sunday. Not only do we remember this day, for it celebrates the moment when Jesus entered Jerusalem to the welcome cries of the people waving palm branches, but it begins the week we call Holy Week. Easter is only one week away. Let’s read the Gospel of John’s account of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, including what happened immediately before and after.
John 12:1-19 (CSB)
1 Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany where Lazarus was, the one Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 So they gave a dinner for him there; Martha was serving them, and Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with him. 3 Then Mary took a pound of perfume, pure and expensive nard, anointed Jesus’s feet, and wiped his feet with her hair. So the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
4 Then one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot (who was about to betray him), said, 5 “Why wasn’t this perfume sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” 6 He didn’t say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief. He was in charge of the money-bag and would steal part of what was put in it.
7 Jesus answered, “Leave her alone; she has kept it for the day of my burial. 8 For you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”
9 Then a large crowd of the Jews learned he was there. They came not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, the one he had raised from the dead. 10 But the chief priests had decided to kill Lazarus also, 11 because he was the reason many of the Jews were deserting them and believing in Jesus. 12 The next day, when the large crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, 13 they took palm branches and went out to meet him. They kept shouting:
“Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord—the King of Israel!”
14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written:
15 Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion. Look, your King is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt.
16 His disciples did not understand these things at first. However, when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and that they had done these things to him. 17 Meanwhile, the crowd, which had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead, continued to testify. 18 This is also why the crowd met him, because they heard he had done this sign. 19 Then the Pharisees said to one another, “You see? You’ve accomplished nothing. Look, the world has gone after him!”
Right before this monumental event takes place, Jesus, and His disciples, have gone to Bethany. While there, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus give a dinner for Him. They may have given this dinner at their home, or at the home of Simon the leper, if the accounts in Matthew and Mark are recounting this same event. If you know Lazarus’s story, you know he had died, but Jesus raised him from the dead. Here is Lazarus, in full health, restored to life. And here is Martha, characteristically serving the food, and Mary, true to form, is sitting with Jesus, but this time, anointing Him with perfumed oil. Although Jesus says that she “has kept [the perfume] for the day of my burial,” I don’t think she fully understands what the implications of her actions are. Jesus has told the disciples that He will die, but they do not understand it yet. Proof of that is the argument about Mary wasting the perfume when it could have been sold and the profits given to the poor. If they only understood what she was doing, if they only understood how short the time was to when He would die and be buried, they would not have protested. Just as Jesus said, “you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”
Here they all are, getting ready to celebrate the Passover, not understanding that soon He would be gone. Bethany, where they are, was a small village less than two miles from Jerusalem. I’m sure news of Jesus’ arrival spread quickly. Once people find out that Jesus and Lazarus are there in town, they gather to see them, and the Pharisees find out, too. But did you catch what verse 10 said? It tells us that, “the chief priests had decided to kill Lazarus also.” Yes, they had already decided to have Jesus killed, and now they wanted to kill Lazarus, too. They were jealous and angry that the people were “deserting them and believing in Jesus.”
The text tells us, the next day Jesus goes to Jerusalem and “when the large crowd that had come to the festival [of Passover] heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, they took palm branches and went out to meet him.” Luke 2:41 tells us that, “Every year [Jesus’] parents traveled to Jerusalem for the Passover Festival.” Just as they traveled there, so did everyone else. It is no coincidence that the day Jesus rides into Jerusalem is the week of Passover, and that it is full of the people who had arrived early in order to select their lambs for Passover. Exodus 12:1-6 explains what the process was like. It says, “The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, ‘This month is to be the beginning of months for you; it is the first month of your year. Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month they must each select an animal of the flock according to their fathers’ families, one animal per family. If the household is too small for a whole animal, that person and the neighbor nearest his house are to select one based on the combined number of people; you should apportion the animal according to what each will eat. You must have an unblemished animal, a year-old male; you may take it from either the sheep or the goats. You are to keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembly of the community of Israel will slaughter the animals at twilight.’”
In the midst of all this Passover activity, here is Jesus, riding into the city. As I said, this was no coincidence. Here is Jesus! The One who, in actuality, is their Passover lamb. Jesus is right there, saying, “Choose me to be your lamb.” God Himself has provided the Lamb. Could God have made it any clearer? The disciples eventually understand, as we see in 1 Corinthians 5:7, which says, “Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new unleavened batch, as indeed you are. For Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed.” At that moment in time, though, they did not understand that the prophetic words of John the Baptist were true. He said, “Look! Here is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of people in the world” (John 1:29). The Lamb of God had come and was there to take away the sins of the world. This is why we celebrate Palm Sunday today: Christ is our Passover Lamb.
This is why Jesus came to earth. All of this was His plan and purpose in coming. All of this was the fulfillment of God’s plan. Even the way Jesus entered Jerusalem, riding on a donkey. That act was the fulfillment of the prophecy in Zechariah 9:9, which says, “Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout in triumph, Daughter Jerusalem! Look, your King is coming to you; he is righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” All of this was deliberate. All of this had to be done to fulfill the prophecy. Mark 11:1-3 tells us, “When they approached Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples and told them, ‘Go into the village ahead of you. As soon as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here right away.’”
I’ve always wondered what that person would have thought and why they would let them borrow their donkeys. Matthew 21:2 includes the extra details, so we know there were two. It says, “At once you will find a donkey tied there with her colt. Untie them and bring them to me.” This is just my guess, but reading through each of the Gospels’ accounts of this event, I think whomever it was the two disciples spoke to, he or she probably knew that “the Lord” to whom they were referring, was Jesus. Jesus was well acquainted with that area. Bethany was where Mary, Martha, and Lazarus lived. It’s probable they borrowed the donkey from people who knew of Jesus. By this time, He was well known.
As mentioned, so many people had traveled to Jerusalem because it was the week of Passover. Pretty much all of Israel would have made the pilgrimage to the city. Throughout the crowd, the miracle of Lazarus being raised from the dead must have spread far and wide. That’s why the crowd was clamoring to see Jesus. They’ve heard the reports. Maybe that is why they were shouting Hosanna, which means, “save us.” Maybe you’ve wondered why the people were shouting that. They didn’t shout it for Jesus to save them from their sins, for they didn’t know that Jesus was about to die on the cross. I don’t even know how many of them truly thought He was going to save them from their corrupt government and become their king. They were shouting that He was the King of Israel, but He was not riding on an impressive horse. He was on a humble donkey. He had done nothing to make them think He would overthrow the government. They didn’t know that He was, indeed, the Messiah, for Matthew 21:10-11 says, “When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in an uproar, saying, ‘Who is this?’ The crowds were saying, ‘This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.’” This crowd of people who were shouting and crying Hosanna, they weren’t telling people that Jesus was the promised Messiah. They were saying He was a prophet. That is because they didn’t really know who He was. I think the majority were probably shouting, “save us” because they wanted Him to show the power He demonstrated when He raised Lazarus from the dead. They wanted to see more miracles.
Verses 16-17 say, “His disciples did not understand these things at first. However, when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and that they had done these things to him. Meanwhile, the crowd, which had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead, continued to testify.”
And all of that combined, it infuriated the Pharisees. They were so mad they were attacking each other; accusing each other of failing in their plans. The Pharisees were so upset about the shouting and the testifying that some of them even tried to get Jesus to silence the crowd. Luke 19:39-40 tells us, “Some of the Pharisees from the crowd told him, ‘Teacher, rebuke your disciples.’ He answered, ‘I tell you, if they were to keep silent, the stones would cry out.’” The people couldn’t stay silent, for this was prophesied to happen, as we read in Zechariah.
After this triumphant entry, then Jesus goes to the Temple and overturns the tables of the money changers. But before that happens, Luke’s account makes note of something. He includes the only other time we see Jesus crying; the first being when Lazarus had died. Luke 19:41-44 says, “As he approached and saw the city, he wept for it, saying, ‘If you knew this day what would bring peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. For the days will come on you when your enemies will build a barricade around you, surround you, and hem you in on every side. They will crush you and your children among you to the ground, and they will not leave one stone on another in your midst, because you did not recognize the time when God visited you.’”
Jesus was echoing what God spoke through the prophet Jeremiah in Lamentations 1:1&16, which says, “How she sits alone, the city once crowded with people! She who was great among the nations has become like a widow. The princess among the provinces has been put to forced labor. I weep because of these things; my eyes flow with tears. For there is no one nearby to comfort me, no one to keep me alive. My children are desolate because the enemy has prevailed.”
Jesus was grieved for the people of the city who did not realize that He was there to bring them peace. They did not know that He was truly the Messiah, the Passover Lamb. They did not “recognize,” as Jesus says, that God had visited them. Jesus knew what would happen. He knew the temple would be torn down and the city would be destroyed. He knew all the suffering that would happen to the people who rejected Him. So He wept.
Not only that, but He also knew what He was about to go through. He was about to endure the unendurable. If the Gospel of John is correct in its timeline, then only five days later, He would face the cross. Only five days later, the same amount of time the people were to keep their lambs for sacrifice, He would willingly offer Himself as the unblemished sacrificial lamb.
After the triumphal procession, after all the shouts of hosanna, Jesus will have the Last Supper with His disciples. Then He will go to the Garden of Gethsemane and wait and pray. He will ask the disciples to stay awake with Him and pray with Him, but they won’t stay awake. They will fall asleep, for they still didn’t know what Jesus was about to face.
Five days from now is Good Friday. Can we stay awake this week? Can we watch with Him? If we are honest, I think we’d all rather stay in celebration mode. It’s Palm Sunday, we are waving the Palm branches and shouting Hosanna. The King has come to us. He has saved us. But how did He do it? How did He purchase our salvation? Jesus knew what was to come. There had to be a death to bring us forgiveness. He knew what was going to happen at the end of this week, and so do we. They didn’t then. But we do now, so will we stay awake with Him? Will we allow our hearts to dwell on and consider all that He was about to face? Can we lay down our selves for a moment, stay awake and wait with Him, considering all that He endured for us?
I’m afraid if we aren’t careful, we might find ourselves in that crowd of people, shouting hosanna, but not really knowing why He died or Who He really is. So many people in that crowd abandoned Him. In just a few short days, so many people turned and shouted, “Crucify Him!” Jesus knew that would happen and it caused Him to weep.
Jesus wept, because He knew what they would do. He knew they would reject Him. We could end up with that crowd if the only reason we are following Jesus is because we want Him to show us His power. If the only reason we follow Him is because we want Him to answer our prayers, bless us, make our lives easy, and give us a blissful heaven, then do we really know Who He is? Do we really know what He endured for us and why? Or do we just want Him to show us a miracle? Do we just want Him to meet our immediate needs? We all have needs, and of course we are supposed to pray and ask Him for help. It’s good to pray and seek the Lord’s help. But let’s get beyond those things. Let’s consider not just what we need or want Jesus to do for us, but let us think about Who He really is. Who is He to us? If we don’t know Who He is, then when we face troubles or go through suffering, if our prayers aren’t answered the way we want them to, if we don’t see the miracles we are wishing for, then we could lose our faith and turn away from Jesus. This happens to so many people today. They think they know Who Jesus is, but when He turns out not to fit in the box they’ve put Him in, or doesn’t answer their prayers the way they want Him to, they get disillusioned and reject Christianity. They say it doesn’t work, or it turned out not to be true, because their prayers weren’t answered. That’s because they never actually knew Jesus. They were asking to be “saved” because they wanted the miracles. They wanted the power. They wanted to see what it was all about, just like the crowd on Palm Sunday.
So many people want to come to the party, but they don’t want to change out of their regular clothes and wear the wedding garments as the Parable of the Wedding Banquet shows us. They say yes to following God, but do not actually go and obey what He says to do, as the Parable of the Two Sons shows us. They want to wave the palm branches and shout hosanna, but they don’t really know what they are saying.
Today is Palm Sunday, and the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world is here. Today is the day of choosing our Passover Lamb. As Hebrews 3:13-15 says, “But encourage each other daily, while it is still called today, so that none of you is hardened by sin’s deception. For we have become participants in Christ if we hold firmly until the end the reality that we had at the start. As it is said: Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” There is still time today. God, Himself, has provided the Lamb for us. Let us bow before the King and shout with understanding: Hosanna! Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna, hosanna to our Savior Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
Pray: Lord Jesus, we rejoice today in Your great love for us. Thank You for coming to earth to be our Passover Lamb. We cry to You. Please save us from our sins. Be King over us, and reign eternally in our hearts. Amen.
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