Our passage tonight happens to fall in a timely manner. It is the familiar story that we hear each year at this time. Tonight’s passage is the familiar passage of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. But let’s take a quick look at the wording of these verses to look a little deeper into the event.
READ 12. If you remember from last time, Jesus was at the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. Mary had anointed Jesus’ feet with expensive perfume. It was six days before the Passover celebration.
Now the crowds are gathering for the Passover. We might note the words “Great crowd.” People were swarming into Jerusalem for the Passover. Josephus, who was a noted Jewish historian of that day, estimated over 2 million people were involved in the Passover Feast.
It’s known that 256,000 lambs were slain at one Passover and that each lamb represented at least ten worshippers. This puts the number of people well over 2 million. So, thousands were flooding in from all over the world to observe the Passover.
The mass of people and the necessary housing and food arrangements to handle such a mass of people can hardly be imagined. It was a carnival type atmosphere. That was the scene as the people gathered for the great Feast.
READ 13. Here we actually see the false concept of Christ. The false concept sees Jesus as an earthly Savior, One who is to bring utopia to earth for the people of God. This concept sees Jesus as the Conqueror, the Provider.
This false concept fails to see 2 things in understanding the Messiahship of Jesus.
1. It fails to see the demand of Christ. What is His demand? This is the demand to serve by reaching out to a world that is lost. The concept of seeing Jesus as an earthly king fails to see the demand of Christ for self-denial, the denial that demands the giving of all one is and has to meet the needs of the world.
2. Secondly, this concept fails to see the spiritual concern of Christ—His concern with bringing peace between man and God, His concern with man’s living a holy, righteous, and pure life in order to be acceptable to God.
“Many people” were involved in welcoming Jesus in this Triumphal scene. Many held the false concept of Jesus as the earthly King, the One who was to be sought in order to secure all the good things of this earth.
It says the people “went out” to welcome Jesus. They weren’t just sitting and waiting for Him to come. When they “heard” about Him, they actually went out to meet Him.
The people took palm branches to wave and lay before Him. They cried “Hosanna,” which means save now, or save, we pray. But these people shouting this, thinking of Jesus as an earthly conqueror, were doing so under the false concept that if Jesus did what they expected Him to do, they could move about and do as they pleased with no Roman restrictions.
The people received Jesus as the political King and Messiah, but that’s a false concept of Christ. And that is really what happens today. People still have a false concept of Christ which sees Him as the One who gives us material blessings. What people fail to understand is that they must come to Jesus because they love Him, not because they can get something out of Him. They must come because of who He is, not because He blesses them with the possessions of this earth.
READ 14-15. Here we see the true concept of Christ. This was symbolized in the riding of the young colt or donkey. In ancient days the colt was a noble animal. It was used as a beast of service to carry the burdens of men, but more significantly, it was used by Kings and their emissaries. When they entered a city in peace, they rode a colt to symbolize their peaceful intentions. Of course this was quite different from a conquering King. When a King entered a city as a conqueror, he rode a stallion.
So, Jesus was demonstrating two things for the people.
1. That He was unquestionably the promised King, the Savior of the people.
2. That He was not coming as the conquering King.
His mission wasn’t to come as a high official, in pomp and ceremony, or as a leader of an army to kill. So, the people had to change their concept of the Messiah. He was coming as the Savior of Peace who had been sent to save all men. He was coming to show men that God is the God of love and reconciliation.
So, the colt was a symbol of peace. Jesus came to bring peace. The colt symbolized service. Jesus came upon the colt symbolizing that He came to serve men and to bear their burdens for them.
The colt symbolized sacredness. This particular colt had never been ridden before and that had a sacred meaning. Animals and things used for religious purposes had to be animals and things that had never been used before. So, in our scene, Jesus was deliberately taking every precaution to proclaim that He was the sacred hope, the promised Messiah of the people.
READ 16. The disciples didn’t grasp the meaning and significance of what was happening. They misunderstood Jesus’ Messiahship and Kingship. They, at this point, still thought Jesus was to be a worldly King and earthly Messiah.
The disciples were as guilty as the people in misunderstanding Scripture. The truth of Scripture—its prediction of these things and how Jesus fulfilled them—wasn’t made clear until after the resurrection of Jesus. Revealing this truth to the heart of man was going to be the task of the Holy Spirit.
When the Holy Spirit came, He revealed this truth in the disciples’ minds and the disciples clearly saw how Jesus had fulfilled the Scripture in the Triumphal entry.
After Jesus had risen and been glorified, no one had an excuse for not understanding the mission of Jesus. He came as the Prince of Peace and as the Savior of the world. He didn’t come to fulfill the lustful craving and worldly ambitions of men. He came that we might be saved and surrender our lives to Him as Lord.
READ 17-18. Many of the people were sincere and put their faith in Jesus. But many were simply sightseers, wanting to be where the people were and where the action was. They came for the excitement, the sensational, the spectacular.
READ 19. The religionists’ reaction was that of despair and rage. Standing there, they witnessed the whole scene of thousands of people along the roadway welcoming Jesus as the Messiah. They became so upset and full of despair that they began to accuse and blame each other for the failure of their plots against Jesus.
Note what they exclaimed. “The whole world has gone after Him.” Even the enemies of Jesus saw Him conquering the world.
Practically every pilgrim in the city must have been caught up in the excitement. Thousands upon thousands were lining the roadway between Bethany and Jerusalem crying for their Savior.
What a picture of how the world should be crying for the Lord’s deliverance! If only they were.
