Palm Sunday

John 12:12-13 On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, {13} Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.

The entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on this day took place shortly after the resurrection of Lazarus. The people saw Lazarus raised form the dead. There was no doubt that he had died, for he was three days plus in the grave. The people learned that Jesus would enter Jerusalem the next day. They followed Him and observed the things His disciples did. With the crowds that were most likely following them, it is probable that the crowds heard Jesus' instructions to His disciples. Matthew presents a more in-depth look at this story.

Matthew 21:1-7 And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples, {2} Saying unto them,Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me. {3} And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them.{4} All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, {5} Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass. {6} And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them, {7} And brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon.

Perhaps Jesus had prepared for this event in advance. Or, perhaps, because of His divinity, He simply knew about the donkey and its owner. Verse five, above, is a quote from Zechariah 9.9:

Zechariah 9:9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.

Pretty simply, verse nine prophesies the first coming of Christ. The next verse speaks of His Second Coming. But the people did not know that these two verses indicated two different events separated by thousands of years. The daughter of Zion is Jerusalem and that city represents all of Judah. In verse 10, Ephraim and Jerusalem refer to the northern and southern Kingdoms, or the entire twelve tribes of Israel. Of course, the entire twelve tribes of Israel symbolically represent all of God's people. Who are God's people? They are those who believe on His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ. (See Hosea 1:9-10, and Romans 9:22-33)

Zechariah 9:10 And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off: and he shall speak peace unto the heathen: and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth.

The people of Jerusalem understood this prophecy to mean that King David (a reference to Messiah, the conquering king) would return. He would enter Jerusalem meekly in order to fool the Romans. Then he would free Judah from Roman rule and establish world peace by conquering his enemies just like King David did. When Jesus did not throw out the Romans and conquer the enemies of Judah as expected, the people forsook Him.

Of course the dominion that would be from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth was reminiscent of the land God promised them in Exodus. The land given to the Israelites was to stretch from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean (then the Philistine) Sea, and from the Euphrates to the end of the desert of Shur or the Sinai. This is a very large area including portions of modern day Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, and Egypt. Let's read the verses:

Exodus 23:31 And I will set thy bounds from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee.

The sea of the Philistines is the Mediterranean. The river is the Euphrates, which means "the river." The desert is the desert of Shur or the Sinai peninsula. The ends of the earth would be the end of the Sinai. The word used for earth is 'erets, which can mean land, area, country, etc.

But Zechariah 9:10 speaks of that dominion of Christ's which includes the entire world and the entire universe. This is that kingdom spoken of by Daniel the prophet: And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever." (Daniel 2:44)

John 12:14-15 And Jesus, when he had found a young ass, sat thereon; as it is written, {15} Fear not, daughter of Sion: behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass's colt.

Again, this is from Zechariah 9.9. The daughter of Sion (or Zion) is Jerusalem.

John 12:16 These things understood not his disciples at the first: but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of him, and that they had done these things unto him.

The Spirit brought these things to the remembrance of the disciples. They realized Jesus had fulfilled scripture.

John 12:12-13 On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, {13} Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.

Jesus entered Jerusalem through the Eastern Gate. Through that gate you could see into the Temple, into the Holy of Holies. You know it was the Eastern Gate because Jesus came in from the Mount of Olives, which is to the east of the city. When He came in, he came right into the temple. The Eastern Gate would have afforded that. That gate is shut now. It will not open again until Messiah returns and enters through that gate. Then His enemies will be a footstool at His feet.

The "palm" in Palm Sunday is extracted from this verse. The other Gospels tell us that they laid down branches of oak, palm, and other trees and garments in the path of Jesus. They were welcoming the King into His City.

Hosanna is the combination of two Hebrew words: hoshea and na. Hoshea means save, help, deliver, rescue, defend, preserve, etc. The word na means please, now, oh, beseech, then, you, etc. Therefore, Hosanna literally means "save now" or "Oh! Save!" It can be dynamically rendered "Please help us!" or "Please save us!" or "Please rescue us!" or "Please deliver us!"

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.