Palm Sunday – Jesus Was…..weeping?

Palm Sunday – Jesus was…..weeping?

It began early Sunday morning, we call it Palm Sunday. as Jesus was walking toward Jerusalem. He stops for a moment to sends two of his disciples into a nearby village to take care of some special arrangements. We read about it in Luke 19:29-31:

"As He approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples, saying to them,

29. When He approached Bethphage and Bethany, near the mount that is called cOlivet, He sent two of the disciples,

30. saying, “Go into the village ahead of you; there, as you enter, you will find a colt tied on which no one yet has ever sat; untie it and bring it here.

31. “If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of it.’ ” (Luke 19:29-31)

It could be that the two disciples must have wondered about what Jesus told them to do, because none of the Gospel accounts about the ministry of Christ ever mention Him riding any animal to get from one place to another. Jesus always walked, He must have walked hundreds of miles all over the "Holy Land," but there is no mention of Him ever riding, except in a boat across the Sea of Galilee.

But now, He gives this unusual command to go into the village to get a colt that had never been ridden, and to bring it to Him. It must have seemed strange, indeed.

He even tells them the exact words they are to use should anyone question them. They are to say, "The Lord needs it." Beyond this, we don’t know much else.

It is obvious, though, that Jesus knew what He was going to face in the city of Jerusalem. So His decision to go into Jerusalem was not taken lightly.

And on top of that, to ride into the city on a colt, rather than to walk into it as He had often done before, must have been an even more difficult decision, because riding a colt into the city was a public declaration that He was a King.

Five hundred years earlier, the prophet Zechariah had proclaimed that fact when he wrote,

9. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!

Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem!

Behold, your king is coming to you;

He is just and endowed with salvation,

Humble, and mounted on a donkey,

Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey. (Zechariah 9:9)

In Roman times, emperors, kings or conquerors would ride only in chariots or war horses. They wouldn’t dream of riding anywhere on a donkey or a colt. He would come with a show of force, a show of power, coming with all the authority of the conquering army. The Jewish people fully expected a king to come with power, to overthrow the Roman government, and to free them from Roman oppression.

But in times of peace, the king would ride a colt to symbolize that peace prevailed. So, for Jesus to ride into Jerusalem upon a colt is to declare that He is a King proclaiming peace.

Of course, this was the beginning of the great 8-day Passover Festival, when the Jews remembered God’s deliverance of their ancestors from Egyptian slavery. Jews from all over the world were gathering in Jerusalem to celebrate, and the city was filled to overflowing.

So Jesus wasn’t the only one coming to Jerusalem for the Passover.

Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor, had already entered Jerusalem to occupy the Antonia Fortress and the Praetorium with a full complement of elite and battle-hardened Roman soldiers ever ready and willing to suppress any attempted uprising against Roman rule that might occur.

Herod Antipas, Tetrarch (King/ruler) of Galilee and Perea, the one who had imprisoned and beheaded John the Baptist, had also arrived with great pomp and ceremony, undoubtedly occupying the palace of his late father, Herod the Great.

Awe inspiring power and pageantry the people were seeing that week, and then here comes Jesus fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah: “See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” (Zechariah 9:9)

For the crowds lining the road that day, Jesus riding a colt into the city was a public declaration that He was the promised King!

The question is, how would the people respond to that? Would they recognize that His Kingdom was not a kingdom of this world, rather it was a spiritual kingdom, and Jesus was to be a spiritual King? Small chance, because He had been teaching them that for over 3 years, and still they had not learned that lesson.

Perhaps some of them would greet Him with laughter. Maybe they would be amused by what Jesus was doing. After all, it was a rather ridiculous picture. Here is a carpenter declaring Himself to be a King!