Matthew 21: 1 - 11
The world of Christendom commemorated the tradition of "Palm Sunday" this past Sunday, March 24. In churches all around the world, the event we have just read about was remembered and celebrated. It marked the beginning of the final week of Jesus' life on earth. It was the road that led directly toward the humiliation and the cross. What courage from our Lord! He knew where it led.
To understand the scene, picture the reports you saw about our national Mall when President Obama was inaugurated for his first term as President. Some of you may have been there. Picture what is happening right now in Washington before the Supreme Court building as the furor around the cases about same sex marriage are being considered by that court. Picture the crowds ... picture the chaos ... picture the opposing, passionate views. The scene we read about is not too different ... just the clothing. Verse 10 tells us that the "whole city was stirred". It's Passover time in Jerusalem. One estimate places the possible number of people swelling the city to be around 2,500,000. Imagine the pushing, the sweat, the jockeying for position, the mob mentality, the confusion. I can see mothers desperately trying to hang on to their little ones. That's the scene. And this is not a random 'happening'. Let me make some observations for us ...
First consider the donkey. Of course it was to fulfill the prophecy. Matthew quotes the prophet Zechariah. These words come from Zechariah 9:9. Jesus is making his claim to be their "king". But what kind of king? In the Roman world of the time when a king rode a horse ... it was for war. When a king rode a donkey ... it was for peace. (I wonder how Zechariah knew that would be the culture into which Jesus, Messiah, walked?) So Jesus enters Jerusalem ... on a donkey ... our Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6) We have read so many instances where Jesus tries to get his disciples to understand that his kingdom and earthly kingdoms were different. The value systems represented were different. The use of power and service in the two were different. What constituted greatness was different. So this king enters Jerusalem to establish his kingdom on a donkey ... surrounded by ordinary people.
How prominent in your own life are the qualities of humility and peace?
Secondly, the people received Jesus as a king. We see that in the spreading of the people's cloaks before him. This is exactly what happened in Israel centuries earlier when Jehu was made king.
2 Kings 9:13 They hurried and took their cloaks and spread them under him on the bare steps. Then they blew the trumpet and shouted, "Jehu is king!"
Have you proclaimed Jesus as King in your own life? If not, why not?
Do you honor him as your King?
Third, the palm branches were historically significant and were symbolic of a victorious leader. In the period between 175 and 164 BC there was a plan to turn Jerusalem into a Greek city with Greek values and pluralism, even bringing other rituals into the Temple itself. It was under the rule of a king named Antiochus Ephiphanes and supported by Jewish elitists. A strong revolt ensued, led by Simon Maccabaeus. When Simon Maccabaeus entered Jerusalem following one of his victories, we read in 1 Maccabees 13:51 "On the twenty-third day of the second month, in the one hundred seventy-first year, the Jews entered it [Jerusalem] with praise and palm branches, and with harps and cymbals and stringed instruments, and with hymns and songs, because a great enemy had been crushed and removed from Israel."
How is Jesus your conquering hero? Do you see him in those terms right now, not just future?
Fourth, the people cry out their hearts' desire with the word 'Hosanna'. The Hebrew word translated "hosanna" is the word "yasha". Its meanings include: "to save, to be delivered, to be liberated." Hosanna Lord ... Hosanna! The quotation Matthew chose is Psalm 118:26. But notice ...
Psalm 118:25 Save us, we beseech you, O Lord!
Hosanna.
Are you saved by the Lord? Have you cried out "hosanna" to Him?
Are you being delivered from the bondage and slavery of sin that wrecks our bodies and our souls?
my Lord ... my King ... my conquering hero ... HOSANNA!
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