OUR FOCUS IN THIS MESSAGE: This Triumphal Entry story pauses to note its Old Testament roots.
- John 12:16.
- This is easily overlooked, but it is important that it is inserted here. What do the prophetic pieces of this passage have to tell us?
- Preaching on the Triumphal Entry normally either centers on “you should praise Jesus” or “the voices that praised Jesus one day called for His death less than a week later” (which is probably an overstatement because it’s unlikely that those two crowds were made up of the same people). I want to look at a different angle in this message and focus on the prophetic pieces.
THE PHARISEES' FEAR: All the power and popularity have gone to Jesus.
- John 12:17-19.
- We start with larger context of Triumphal Entry. We’ll get to in a minute, but you know that the actual “parade” involved those who surrounded Jesus praising and worshiping Him. But vv. 17-19 gives us what’s swirling around beyond that joyful assembly: fear and concern. Jesus’ star seems to be ascendant and the Pharisees know that has power implications for them.
- So power and popularity are foremost in many people’s minds at this moment. As we are going to find, though, it’s not just the Pharisees who are thinking about power.
THE FIRST GROUP OF QUOTES: Praise leading to power, not repentance.
- John 12:13.
- Jesus comes into Jerusalem to accolades and shouts. The NIV divides the sayings from the crowd into three quotations. Let’s look at them and what they reveal.
a. “Hosanna!”
- This points us to Psalm 118:25.
- “Hosanna” is a transliteration of the Hebrew word for “Help, I pray” or “Save now, I pray.” (In a similar vein, “hallelujah” is a transliteration that means “praise Yahweh.”)
- This passage is part of the Psalms that are the Hallel (Psalm 113-118) that were sung by the temple choir each morning at major Jewish festivals. These are praising psalms. And these verses come right at the tail end of these chapters.
b. “Blessed . . .”
- This is from Psalm 118:26.
- Another word of praise.
c. “Blessed is the King of Israel!”
- This is where we get back to the larger point we’re making in this sermon.
- If the first quote was Psalm 118:25 and the second quote was Psalm 118:26, what would you expect the next one to be? Right – Psalm 118:27. And look at it – it’s not a bad verse for this moment, speaking of light shining and going to the Temple.
- But that’s not what they cried out.
- If you have an NIV, you’ll see that there’s a note at the end of the first two expressions, both noting the meaning of “Hosanna” and the verse references. But there’s not a reference note at the end of the third. What’s that mean? It means that sentence is found nowhere in the Old Testament.
- That’s odd, isn’t it? There’s a perfectly good expression in v. 27 that they don’t use. There are hundreds of other quality expressions they could have chosen that they don’t use. Instead, they make up something to say. And what they choose to make up says volumes about what’s on their mind.
- What do they cry out? “Blessed is the King of Israel!”
- What does that tell us?
- It tells us their mind was on Jesus taking over. It tells us their mind was on Jesus as a political Savior. It tells us their mind was on Jesus exercising power. And, of course, that’s exactly what we’ve been talking about.
- All this leads us back to the point I gave you on your sermon outline. Are they praising Jesus? Yes. But what’s the hope of that praise? His power. It is praise leading to power, not repentance.
- Psalm 118:27 is more of a verse about repentance. Light shining, going to the Temple – those are images associated with repentance and getting closer to God.
- But they don’t quote that. No, they make up a statement instead that speaks to their real hope and desire: power and overthrow.
- This puts a different spin on the adulation of the crowd here. It’s less pure worship. It’s more mercenary. It’s less about who Jesus is and more about what they can get out of Him.
THE SECOND QUOTE: Humility leading to repentance, then power.
- John 12:14-15.
- Now we move on to the second quote, which is found in vv. 14-15. Here we have a direct statement within the text that what is quoted is from the Old Testament.
- Let’s look back at this reference. It’s from Zechariah 9:9. It’s either a loose interpretation of that verse or they’re quoting multiple verses with 9:9 forming the core.
- What’s interesting about Zechariah 9:9 is what comes before it and after it.
- Verses 1-8 paint a picture of God’s incredible protection of Israel in the midst of military oppression. This prophecies the later campaign by Alexander the Great that will destroy all of Israel’s neighbors, yet Israel is miraculously spared. It speaks to the power of God to protect even against a menacing, intimidating foe.
- Verses 11-17 tell of something that will be fulfilled in the Maccabean revolt in 150 B.C. It’s the only time Israel fought Greece, as referenced in v. 13.
- Both speak to situations where Israel was facing overwhelming odds against a much larger, stronger military. Sound familiar? Yes, it speaks directly to the situation that the Jews were in during Jesus’ day. Only it was the Romans instead of Alexander or the Greeks.
- Yet right there in the middle of those verses sits the prophecy about a donkey and a king coming to Jerusalem! It speaks to God’s miraculous deliverance in the face of a superior military foe.
- This leads us back to the statement in your outline.
- What do these situations have in common? A progression. The horrible situation you find yourself leads to humility. You know you can’t fix this yourself. That humility leads to repentance where you fall on your knees before God, confessing your sins and asking for help. Having done that and gotten right with God then sets the stage for God to show up in power on your behalf.
- This is, again, the situation we find ourselves in with Jesus and the Triumphal Entry. Again, it goes back to the power issue. Israel is not really looking to repent here. That is especially true for the religious leaders of v. 19. They’re only concerned about preserving their power.
- In the midst of that, we see that the prophecy Jesus fulfills is one about humility leading to repentance and then power.
- And finally, within the subject to humility, we haven’t even touched yet on the humility of Christ to be willing to ride a donkey in the Triumphal Entry. That angle touches similar ground in different ways. Christ’s humility opened the door for our repentance (unto salvation), which opened the door for the power of God in our lives.
A KEY QUESTION: Do we also cry out for His power too soon?
- I am not speaking here of asking for God’s power in prayer, but something else.
- I am talking about when we get tired of the sinfulness of the world around us and cry out for God to bring justice and to “come quickly.” Is that a desire of our hearts – to see Christ return? Yes. But there is another factor as well. What about those we love who don’t know Him? What about the changes I need to make in my life to be closer to Christ?
- This passage, as I know in the exegesis on vv. 17-19, that this passage is all about power and popularity. The Pharisees were scared they were losing it. Then the cries of the crowd indicate that they want a Messiah coming to wield power on their behalf – to throw off the oppressive Romans.
- They were confident that seeing power unfurled would play exclusively in their favor.
- What if Jesus as a Messiah wasn’t going to do what they wanted? What if it would have led to conviction and destruction rather than favor and triumph? What if it wasn’t just the Romans that Jesus as political Messiah lowered the hammer on, but also many of the religiously-compromised friends of those who were cheering Him? That’s a different animal.
- We need to be cautious about crying out with the crowd for Jesus’ justice and power to come because we might not like some of the consequences of that.
