In a typical year about 3.5 million people visit Jerusalem. It’s one of the most historic cities in the world. It has been continuously inhabited since about 1,800 B.C. So it’s been worth visiting for a VERY long time!
But in the time of Jesus, there were certain times of the year when Jews had a special reason to visit Jerusalem. They were the feasts. There was, for example, the Feast of Weeks, to celebrate the giving of the law on Mount Sinai. There was the Feast of Tabernacles, to remember when the people of Israel lived in tents. There was the Feast of Passover, to remember when God delivered the people of Israel from Egypt. There were other feasts too.
During the feasts, lots of Jews came to Jerusalem. Historians think that perhaps a hundred or two hundred thousand people would come for the feasts, doubling or tripling the population of the city.
This year, Jerusalem had a very special visitor.
John tells us at the start of chapter 12 that ‘six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany.’ Bethany was a village just outside Jerusalem. That year, Passover was on a Thursday. So on approximately the Friday before Passover, Jesus arrived in Bethany.
Jesus was no casual tourist, there to see the sights. He was there to observe a festival.
At the Feast of Passover the Jews had to sacrifice an animal. It would remind them that on the very first Passover in Egypt, their ancestors sacrificed lambs. The blood of the lamb covered their sins and the angel of death ‘passed over’ them. Jesus had also come to Jerusalem to offer a sacrifice.
In Jesus’ time, Judea was ruled by the Romans. They were an occupying power. The Jews, very understandably, wanted them gone. They were hoping for a messiah who would lead them to overthrow the Romans.
In our passage, we read that the people took palm branches and went out to meet Jesus, shouting, ‘Hosanna!’ ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ‘Blessed is the king of Israel!’
The commentators tell us that palm branches were a very nationalistic symbol. ‘Hosanna’ comes from two Hebrew words which mean, ‘deliver please’.
So it seems that the people of Jerusalem hoped that Jesus would be a king who would liberate them from the Romans.
But that wasn’t Jesus’ mission and he intended to make that clear. He was going to make a statement.
Jesus had a good deal of scripture – passages from the Old Testament – to guide him.
Way back in Genesis, Jacob made a mysterious prophecy. He prophesies about his 12 sons, anticipating what the future held for each of them. He comes to Judah and declares:
'The sceptre will not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until he to whom it belongs shall come
and the obedience of the nations shall be his.'
Jacob anticipates the coming of one who would rule over all nations, who would be from the tribe of Judah – which Jesus was.
But then Jacob continues:
'He will tether his donkey to a vine,
his colt to the choicest branch…'
[Genesis 49:10-11a]
What’s Jacob on about here?! Why does he suddenly talk about a donkey and a colt? It seems very random!
Arriving in Jerusalem, Jesus tells his disciples, ‘Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey TIED THERE, with her colt by her’ [Matthew 21:2]. Jesus emphasises the fact that the donkey is TIED THERE to draw attention to the fulfilment of Jacob’s prophecy.
There are other prophecies too. Malachi prophesies, ‘I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come TO HIS TEMPLE’ [Malachi 3:1]. So Jesus would certainly have to come to the temple – which was, of course, in Jerusalem.
But the clearest prophecy comes in Zechariah. Zechariah proclaims:
'Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!
Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!
See, YOUR KING comes to you,
righteous and victorious,
lowly and riding ON A DONKEY,
ON A COLT, THE FOAL OF A DONKEY' [Zechariah 9:9].
Zechariah has returned to the colt and donkey which Jacob spoke about. And now, we see where they fit. Jerusalem should rejoice! Her king is coming, ‘lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’
Jesus knows from prophecy what he has to do. He has to get on a donkey. That’s what he wants to do in any case. He certainly doesn’t want anyone thinking that he’s going to lead a glorious uprising and rid the country of the Romans.
So, Jesus gets on a donkey and rides into Jerusalem. He fulfils Zechariah’s prophecy. The people of Jerusalem knew the Old Testament. Jesus’ sign was unmistakeable. He was declaring himself KING.
A king isn’t like other people. We can have a friendly chat with our window cleaner or our doctor or our estate agent. But when we know someone is the king or queen or some other member of the royal family then we have to show a whole lot more respect. You can’t simply ignore a king.
When Jesus got on the donkey, he declared that he was king. He also declared what kind of king he was. He wasn’t the lead-you-into-battle kind of king. At least, not at that moment. He was a king who sought peace.
Jesus’ declaration that he was king demanded a response. The people could acknowledge him as king. But to ignore him would be to reject him. You can’t ignore a king.
One Bible scholar wrote:
'In retrospect, two things are clear. One, Jesus intended to enter Jerusalem as its king and provoke its people either to affirm or deny allegiance to him and his message. Two, he was rejected.'
[B. Kinman, Jesus’ Royal Entry into Jerusalem, Bulletin for Biblical Research 15.2 (2005) p.260.]
What can we learn from this? I’d like to suggest two lessons.
The first lesson is that Jesus is king. You may think: that’s obvious. We know that. But I suspect that a lot of us think of Jesus in other ways than king. We think of Jesus as saviour or lord or perhaps friend. But not, first and foremost, as king.
But BEFORE Jesus went to the cross, he declared himself KING.
We might think that the Christian faith is all about salvation. ‘The wages of sin is death’, Paul tells us in Romans 6:23. The essence of the Christian faith is dealing with the problem of sin. That’s what we think. But the essence of sin is humankind’s refusal to recognize God as God. Paul tells us that in Romans chapter 1. He writes that God’s wrath is being revealed against people who suppress the truth: ‘For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him.’ God requires that we acknowledge him as God. Jesus requires that we acknowledge him as king. Humankind needs salvation because it hasn’t done that. The message of salvation must be set in the context of how we relate to God and Jesus.
If we want to be accepted into the kingdom of God, we have to recognize Jesus as king. We can’t pay him lip service. Shouting hosanna doesn’t do it. The people of Jerusalem did that fine. We have to show Jesus the respect, and give him the obedience, that befits a king.
The second lesson I suggest we can learn from this passage is that we don’t get to choose what kind of king Jesus is. The people of Jerusalem wanted Jesus to be a specific kind of king. They wanted someone who would liberate them from the Romans.
Some people today are like the people in Jesus’ day. They want Jesus to be a particular kind of king. They want Jesus to be a king who will liberate them from oppressive political regimes. That has a name: ‘liberation theology.’ Other people want Jesus to be a king who will free them from poverty and make them rich and prosperous. That has a name too: ‘prosperity theology.’ Many people in churches in the west want a king who is gentle. That’s fine: Jesus is gentle. But they don’t want a king who can be firm, who deals with sin. That isn’t so fine. Jesus who will one day destroy the wicked. I don’t know what name to give that.
We can’t dictate to Jesus what kind of king he should be any more than the people of Jerusalem could. Actually, if we want Jesus to be another kind of king to the king he is, we dishonour him. It means that we don’t really value him for who he is and what he has done for us. There can be no greater liberation than the liberation Jesus achieved for us. No greater price could be paid than the price he paid. He was the true Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
So what do we need to do? We need to do the opposite of what the people of Jerusalem did. We need to bow our knees and acknowledge Jesus as our king, and love him and esteem him for the king he is.
Prayer. Lord Jesus, we acknowledge you as our king.
We pray that we may not be like the people of Jerusalem, looking for the king they wanted rather than accepting you as the king you are.
Lord Jesus, in the passage we read today, you rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. You showed that you are gentle, that you come in peace. We thank you that you have come into our lives in the same way.
And at Easter, we especially praise and thank you, that you, our king, went to the cross for our sakes; that with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. We thank you and praise you, Jesus, for being our king – and also, our saviour and our friend. Amen.
Talk given at Rosebery Park Baptist Church, Bournemouth, UK, Palm Sunday, 10th April 2022, a.m. service
