Triumphal Entry

Matthew 21:1-11

Mark 11:1-11

Luke 19:28-40

John 20:12-19

Now when they drew near Jerusalem, and came to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, ² saying to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to Me. ³ And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will send them.” ⁴ All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: ⁵ “Tell the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your King is coming to you, Lowly, and sitting on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.’ ” ⁶ So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them. ⁷ They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them. ⁸ And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road. ⁹ Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: “Hosanna to the Son of David! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ Hosanna in the highest!” ¹⁰ And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, “Who is this?” ¹¹ So the multitudes said, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.” Let us sum up all that has gone before.

The first 20 chapters of Matthew. Our Lord a few weeks before had left Galilee. He had ministered throughout Galilee and some in Judea where Jerusalem was the major city. But He had yet really touched Peraea which was the region called the beyond which was east of Jordan. So, in leaving Galilee this time, He went east of the Jordan and through the area known as Peraea. Jesus did what He did everywhere. He preached, taught, healed, and presented to them His credentials as King.

As Jesus came to the south, moving through Peraea, He was moving directly toward Jerusalem at the same time, knowing it was Passover time. Knowing it was time to come to the end of His pilgrimage and it was time to get ready to die.

As He moved among pilgrims who also were going. Crowd collected as He came to the south. Finally, He crossed the Jordan, back over to Judea. He crossed Jericho, went through the city of Jericho.

There He embraced in His salvation a small man by the name of Zacchaeus, healed two blind men one of whose names was Bartimaeus. Even more people joined with Him, and together they moved up to Jerusalem. So, it’s been a few weeks since He left Galilee, ministered in Peraea, came through Jericho, and now He ascends to Jerusalem.

Only about 15 miles, but it’s 3,000 feet in elevation. When it says, “He went up to Jerusalem,” or when anyone went up to Jerusalem, they really went up from Jericho. Now Jesus was joined by an entourage of people. They are moving to that great event called Passover. Little do they know that He is the Passover lamb.

At the same time, the city is literally teeming with humanity. Masses of people are there. There was a census ten years after this particular event when there was a counting of the sacrificial lambs, and the count is somewhere around 260,000 Passover lambs that were slaughtered during that week ten years later.

The Jewish law prescribed one lamb for ten people there could have been as many as 2.6 million people in the city. So, it would have been literally teeming with mobs of people. They were flowing in the city and Jesus was taking the primary moment in the history of Israel’s calendar year for this great event, when the city was swelled to its greatest population.

Jesus in one way walking into Jerusalem as king for His coronation. Europe has given us a long history of glory, splendour, majesty, and the wealth of those events in which a king is inaugurated into his royal and regal status.

Sometimes he was raised on a shield. Sometimes he was made to stand on a sacred stone. Sometimes he was presented with a spear or with a sword or with a scepter or given a crown or given a robe of great distinction to mark the inauguration into that official place of king.

Traditionally in Europe, they borrowed from the inauguration or coronation of David and Saul by adding some religious features and wanted to assign to the secular king’s divine rights as kings. They brought the men of God, the bishops or the priests, to affirm the sovereign right of a king.

It was a grand and glorious occasion, usually followed by great feastings and banquets. There was splendor everywhere, rich people in rich clothing, jewels, horses, carriages, archbishops, famous

dignitaries everyplace. Everything pointed to the glory of the individual being crowned, his majesty, his military might and power. Some of the exorbitant and the wealth that goes along with all of that, a crown was made for Queen Victoria in 1838.

The crown was made all out of rubies and sapphires of monstrous proportions. In the middle of it was a 309 carat diamond. The scepter which she took in her hand had a diamond on top of it of 517 carats cut from the Star of Africa. Events of tremendous, almost inconceivable wealth, coronations were events of great splendor.

But this is not like those coronations: a donkey’s colt, a bunch of branches, and some old clothes. But then this is no ordinary king, and He has no ordinary kingdom. Jesus said to Pilate, “I am not a king like you think kings are. My kingdom is not of this world.”

Now this is a very important event because it initiates the last week of the life of our Lord prior to His crucifixion. It is the last drama. It is His last public act prior to being crucified, the last event of His ministry.

It has to be treated with a great amount of respect, and it has to be understood for what it really is or you won’t understand what comes after it. The earthly coronation of Jesus Christ, sometimes called the triumphal entry, gets bypassed far too much. It is a very significant event.

In our text we have a very, very different kind of coronation. It is marked by an attitude of humility. Completely the opposite of any coronation that would be held in the Western world through its history. Even though this is the King of all kings, this is the one true King who will reign forever over all kings in the future.

This is no ordinary king, but this is an extraordinary coronation.

1. Pilgrimage. Jesus is drawing near to Jerusalem for the last time. He has been going there all His life and going to all the feasts and festivals that were prescribed in the Old Testament. His family and the rest of His community dutifully observed.

This is the last and end of the pilgrimage of His life. It has reached its pinnacle. It has reached its goal. This time, at this Passover, He will die as the Passover Lamb, slain for the sins of His people. As the crowds gathered around Him in Perea they would join the entourage and continue south.

This was a paved road, and they would walk from Jericho with a crowd, collecting more people as they went straight up the hill about 3,000 feet to the little village of Bethphage. V 1, Now when they drew near Jerusalem, and came to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples Bethpage means “house of figs.”

We don’t know where it was, but it’s most likely between Bethany, which is fifteen miles up the hill from Jericho, and Jerusalem, which is seventeen miles. So somewhere around Bethany before you get to Jerusalem, was this little place called “house of figs.”

Jesus is coming, and this huge collection of people are following Him to Passover. There is an increase in their sense that this is someone very special. Of course, the disciples are along, and the disciples are affirming that He is the Christ, He is the Messiah, He is the Son of God. He arrives in the little town of Bethphage.

The Mount of Olives is also on the east side, so Bethphage is right around that area. He comes not in triumphant regal splendour. He comes with a strange collection of odd people who are not in uniforms and don’t have weapons.

They don’t constitute an army. They aren’t any kind of threat. Just a collection of the people from here and there and everywhere. He comes not in regal splendour at all, He comes not with a triumphant army. Jesus did not come to conquer, but He comes in peace.

Jesus did not travel alone. He arrives in Bethphage, and right there is also the village of Bethany where His friends Mary, Martha, and Lazarus are. Jesus goes to Bethany at night, and He stays there. He would have arrived in Bethphage, as we put the story together, and He would have stayed that Thursday night with that little family in Bethany.

John 12:1, Then, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was who had been dead, whom He had raised from the dead. John tells us this is six days before Passover. That is before sunset on Thursday. That night at the house in Bethany there was a supper given in His honor, and it’s recorded in John 12. As He comes and meets with His friends Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, and their family. In that supper Mary shows love and kindness to Him, and she pours out perfume on Him. Immediately incensed Judas, who doesn’t like the idea that they are wasting this substance. Judas makes some kind of hypocritical comment about how it should have been sold and the money given to the poor. That’s not the truth of what was in his heart because the Scripture says he said that not because he cared about the poor, but because he held the bag. Judas was the treasurer, and he wanted more money in the bag because he had planned to get away with as much as he could.

It was an ugly evening compared to a beautiful evening of expressing love to the Lord. Jesus comes on that Thursday to the area just east of Jerusalem. Six days before His crucifixion, six days until the Lamb of God becomes the Passover Lamb who takes away the sins of the world.

Sweet fellowship with the family and the disciples and all the rest of the people who were with Him, but there is also the stinging reality of the presence of Judas to make that fellowship somewhat toxic. Hearing and knowing of His arrival, John says many Jews came from Jerusalem to see Him. They came to see Lazarus because they all knew that Lazarus had been raised from the dead.

When Jesus arrived, there may be assumed to be a quiet time with His beloved friends was a very crowded experience of people coming out of the city of Jerusalem. A pilgrimage that lasted three years, or you could say a pilgrimage that lasted from the time He was born.

His earthly pilgrimage as God incarnate was coming to its end, and this is the final journey. There will be no more travel after this. It all comes to an end in Jerusalem where He is crucified and from where He rises and ascends into glory.

These two disciples are very likely Peter and John.

Luke 22:8, And He sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat.”

It was Peter and John who were chosen by the Lord to be sent on another mission. Perhaps that was a common thing, and it may well have been Peter and John. Jesus asked them to do is begin to stage the coronation. A disappointment when you must stage your own coronation, but that is exactly what happened.

Certainly, the leaders of Jerusalem weren’t going to stage a coronation for Him. Their reaction to the resurrection of Lazarus recorded in John 11. John 11:47-57, it tells us that the leaders of Israel wanted to kill Jesus because of the resurrection of Lazarus.

They are not about to plan a coronation. The scribes and the Pharisees aren’t about to plan a coronation. The Sadducees, the Sanhedrin, none of the leaders are going to plan a coronation for Jesus. If there is going to be a coronation, He is going to have to plan it Himself. Exactly that is what He does.

Jesus wants to create a massive demonstration. He wants to create a demonstration that makes it look like everybody is going after Jesus, everybody. He wants to create a demonstration that’s going to further anger the Jewish leaders.

Why does Jesus want to anger them? So that on His timetable, by Wednesday, they will hand Him over to the Romans to be executed. So, Jesus will be executed on the very Passover day. Jesus is orchestrating the timetable for His own death.

To trigger that event is to send two of His disciples to begin this massive collection of people hailing Him as Messiah that will terrify the Jewish leaders who want Him dead. There must be a demonstration that will lead to His death, and He creates that demonstration.

Jesus controls all the events all the way to His cross the timing of His death. He yielded up His Spirit and the timing of His resurrection. It is all in His hand.

• He is not the victim of the Jews.

• Jesus is not the victim of the Romans.
• He is not the victim of Satan.

Jesus is in control of everything. We see the end of the pilgrimage as our Lord enters Jerusalem to die and rise again in a few days. Wednesday our Lord entered the city. That would be the very day that the Jewish people would pick their lamb for sacrifice.

The very day that our Lord picked His Lamb for sacrifice. The Father picks the Son to be the Lamb of God, God’s Lamb on that same day. So that is the end of the pilgrimage. 2. Prophecy. V 2, saying to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to Me.

Go into the village opposite you that refers to Bethphage, which must have been just opposite Bethany where they were staying. This is an obscure village. We don’t know anything about it. It’s around the Mount of Olives and around the area of Bethany.

Very close, across the Kidron Valley on that ridge that overlooks the temple ground in Jerusalem. Jesus says to them, “You need to do this immediately. When you go, immediately you will find it. Go to this village opposite you. Immediately when you get there.”

You will find a donkey tied there and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to Me. This is supernatural knowledge. Jesus is not there. He can’t see there, but He knows what is there. He knows there are these two animals.

Mark tells us exactly where the two animals were found.

Mark 11:2, and He said to them, “Go into the village opposite you; and as soon as you have entered it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has sat. Loose it and bring it.

Now this sort of looks like stealing, but it’s obvious that this is a home that our Lord knew.

Mark and Luke tell us further that the animal that He is going to ride the colt, the foal of the beast of burden, the donkey had never been ridden. If there is anything in this entire coronation that could be seen in any sense as an honour, this is it.

Deuteronomy 21:3, And it shall be that the elders of the city nearest to the slain man will take a heifer which has not been worked and which has not pulled with a yoke.

1 Samuel 6:7, Now therefore, make a new cart, take two milk cows which have never been yoked, and hitch the cows to the cart; and take their calves home, away from them.

We are told that to ride a young animal never ridden was a mark of special honour. The only honor that you could say that’s a part of the pageant of this coronation. Jesus rode on an animal that had never been ridden, which was somehow to declare His uniqueness.

Now Jesus had no intention of keeping these animals permanently; He was just borrowing them for the afternoon. V 3, And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will send them.”

Jesus knew those people knew Him, because all He had to say was, “The Lord has need of them,” and that was it. These are believing people who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Just say, “The Lord has need of them.” No further explanation than that.

There were people who had confessed Him as Lord. Immediately he will send them. He would readily and happily submit to My command as his Lord. Willing to let the Lord use his animals. Certainly, followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Is this purely to demonstrate humility? It does do that, but it’s a much higher purpose. V 4, All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: We have an Old Testament messianic prophecy being fulfilled. This is the first of a lot of prophecies that will be fulfilled during Passion Week, including prophecies about His death.

Prophecies fulfilled on the cross, burial, and His resurrection. But here is the beginning of these prophecies.

Again, Jesus triggers these events to fulfill prophecy. He is on a divine plan, a divine schedule, a divine timetable. Those critics who say that Jesus let the crowd get out of control. The crowd became so out of control that He overstepped sensible limits, and that angered the Jews, and the Jews killed Him.

If only Jesus had been a little more measured in how He conducted Himself and carried on He might not have gotten killed. That is a common explanation of what happened to Jesus, that He was victimized by being over-zealous and getting a crowd that scared the Jews, and so they killed Him.

Not hardly. Everything that happened happened under His total control to accomplish His purpose: to die and rise again. He controlled everything. V 5, “Tell the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your King is coming to you, Lowly, and sitting on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.’”

From Zechariah 9:9, prophecy. The first line comes from Isaiah 62:11, Indeed the Lord has proclaimed To the end of the world: “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Surely your salvation is coming; Behold, His reward is with Him, And His work before Him.’”

“The daughter of Zion” is a kind of a Hebraism, a colloquialism that the Jews used to refer to the people of Jerusalem. Zion was the highest mountain in Jerusalem, higher than Mount Moriah. Zion was the symbol of Jerusalem, and the daughter of Zion would be the people of that area. That is just a colloquial Hebrew figure of speech.

Behold your King is coming to you. Quoted from Zechariah 9:9, “Look, your King is coming to you.”

Zechariah 9:9, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.

Zechariah 9:1-7, have a prophecy about a conqueror. But it’s a different conqueror. There is a human conqueror in the opening seven verses or so, and most commentators see this is fulfilled by Alexander the Great. It’s only about two hundred years after the prophecy of Zechariah that Alexander the Great came. His massive, incredible campaign through Syria, Phoenicia, Philistia, and even Israel.

Although He was a protector of Israel, that’s about two hundred years later. So, there is a human conqueror described in the opening verses of the chapter. The Lord used Alexander the Great as a protector of Israel. But in verse 9 there is a completely different protector of Israel, and this is the Messiah.

Zechariah 9:9-17, Jesus, the Messiah is subject of the prophecy. Zechariah introduces the divine Conqueror in the latter half of this chapter, by presenting His character against the background of the invincible march of Alexander the Great comes one who’s very different than Alexander the Great. Alexander the Great inspires fear. Alexander the Great makes war.

But this king in verse 9 and following does not inspire fear and dread, but praise.

• He doesn’t make war but makes peace.
• He is not a foreign dictator but Israel’s own king.
• He is not cruel and oppressive but kind and righteous.
• He doesn’t slay but saves.
• He is not rich but poor.
• He is not proud but meek.
• He is not riding a white horse but on a colt.

Very stark contrast. Four elements describe His character in Zechariah 9:9.

• a. He is a king.

“Behold, your king is coming,” not an alien king, not a foreign king, but Israel’s king. Your king, your Messiah is coming to you. He is coming to you is kind of contrary to what mostly happens with kings. They don’t come to you, but you go to them.

They draw everything they can out of you to enrich them. But this king takes everything He has and gives it to you to enrich you. He is a king. “He is your king, Israel’s king.” That is Messiah.

• b. He is righteous, just.

He is virtuous.

He is holy. He is sinless. He is a saviour. He is endowed with salvation. “He shows Himself a saviour.”

• c. He is humble or meek.

His meekness is symbolized in the fact that He is mounted on a donkey. Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey. So here comes Israel’s true king who is righteous, who is Himself a saviour, and who is meek, and demonstrates that meekness by riding on this animal.

When Solomon instituted the wide use of horses, and the stables of Solomon were famous in ancient history. When Solomon kind of elevated the horse and donkeys lost their identity.

Jeremiah 17:25, then shall enter the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, accompanied by the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city shall remain forever.

But in this case, Jesus goes back to a donkey.

• d. Fulfilling the Prophecy.

This is a very strange kind of coronation, but it is the fulfillment of an Old Testament prophecy. He can’t come in on a white horse, because the Messiah will come on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden, and He will come gentle, or meek, or humble, mounted on a donkey.

He is declaring then that He’s not a military messiah.

• There is no entourage.
• There is no great white horse.
• There is no armour.
• There is no weapons.

But He is nonetheless the true Messiah coming exactly the way the prophet said He would come. It’s a scene of great humility. This is an animal for a time of peace, not a time of war. This is an entourage for peace, certainly not for war The Lord says go and get these animals and bring them in order to fulfill prophecy.

V 6-7, So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them. ⁷ They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them. Matthew indicates the disciples put their coats on both animals. They didn’t know which one He was going to ride, and they put their coats on both animals. He sat on the younger animal and the coat on the back of that younger animal.

Luke 19:35, Then they brought him to Jesus. And they threw their own clothes on the colt, and they set Jesus on him.

The mother would be leading the colt a certain distance, until the colt would have gone on its own. Jesus starts then for Jerusalem. Couple of miles away at the most. Jesus is coming officially as the King of Israel, prophesied by Zechariah, to fulfill God’s plan. The prophecy is so precise. It is not just an animal but the colt, the foal of a beast of burden. Prophecy is fulfilled explicitly.

3. Praise. V 8-9, And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; This is a makeshift red carpet. Dirty robes. Smelly robes are thrown down in the road. Great multitude, the language indicates that. All the people who came with Jesus from Galilee and then crowds were kept adding. Finally, the crowds joined Bethany as well.

A massive entourage, and that’s coming into the city of Jerusalem. There are all those people already in the city of Jerusalem. These two massive crowds at Passover. Literally hundreds of thousands of people is not an overstatement. Some have gone so far as to say it might even touch a million.

2 Kings 9:13, Then each man hastened to take his garment and put it under him on the top of the steps; and they blew trumpets, saying, “Jehu is king!” A symbol of submission.

When somebody wanted to demonstrate submission, they might kneel in front of someone else. Also they might throw their coat on the ground as an expression of submission. V 8, others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road.

John 12:12-13, The next day a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, ¹³ took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out: “Hosanna! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ The King of Israel!”

They were palm branches, hence Psalm Sunday. They were cutting down palm branches and spreading them on the road. In the book of Revelation, we learn that branches were symbols of strength, beauty, joy, and salvation because they last so long. They survive in a barren land for so long.

Beauty, because they produce those green leaves even in a barren place. They were symbols of the joy of salvation. The people are hailing Jesus as their conquering King.

Why would they even do this? The great deliverance that we all remember from our history was the deliverance out of Egypt when Moses our leader led us out of Egypt, through the wilderness to the promised land. Passover was a commemoration of that great deliverance.

When Moses was their leader, and how God delivered them from Egypt. They all expected that when the Messiah came, He would also deliver them from bondage to any blasphemous, godless Gentile power. The assumption is, if this is the Messiah, He is going to come to exercise power and authority and drive the Romans out. Give us back our freedom.

Jesus had said that He was greater than Moses. Jesus had shown that by raising people from the dead. Moses never did that. The people are filled with hope. This is Passover and if this is the Messiah, our deliverance is near.

Very odd scene. A scene of dirty, old clothes and broken branches, thrown in front of a humble man riding on a donkey’s colt.

• Rome would never see that as a coronation.
• Israel would never see that as a coronation.
• No one would see that as a coronation.

How did the people get so worked up over this?

Because there were people who did believe Jesus was the Messiah, and they had entrusted themselves to Him. Perhaps they began the conversation. The flame went from person to person. This was not militarily frightening at all.

Lots of smelly fishermen and a rabble of poor common people, and then the riffraff that He collected on the way. A very odd procession. V 9, Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: “Hosanna to the Son of David! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ Hosanna in the highest!”

Hosanna means “save now,”

Zechariah 9:9 said He is a saviour. He is a king who is a saviour. Save now. Grant salvation.

This is a cry for deliverance. They identified Him as the Son of David. That is a royal, messianic title. 2 Samuel 7, God promised to David a son greater than Solomon. That Son of David would have an everlasting kingdom. The messianic promise is that Messiah will be a son of David in the genealogies Matthew and Luke.

We know that both His father and His mother were in the Davidic line. He is truly a son of David. If there were a king in Israel, it would be Him. He was the one who had the right to rule. They hail Him as the Son of David.

Every Jewish boy when he was old enough to memorize, he would memorize Psalm 113 to 118. The Great Hallel. Those were the psalms of ascent, that the people memorized and recited as they ascended the temple to worship. This is drawn from Psalm 118, the last psalm of the Hallel.

Psalms 118:26, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We have blessed you from the house of the Lord.

They are literally praising the name of the Lord. They are calling on the Son of David to save them. They mean that in the physical, temporal sense from occupying Rome and all other enemies.

Psalm 118 was the conquerors psalm. Those are the very exact words that were sung and shouted in Jerusalem when they welcomed back Simon Maccabeus who had just had a great victory at Acra and freed the nation Israel from Syrian domination a hundred years before.

So, this was a language familiar to them. It was a distinctively messianic psalm, because in that Psalm 118:22, The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. Which obviously refers to Christ. They hail their conquering King.

They call on Him to deliver them from the Romans and all their enemies. They identify Him as the one coming in the name of the Lord, God’s messenger sent by God. They even say, “Save now in the highest.” That is from the very abode of God. “Send down divine power to save us.”

They look for Rome to be crushed. They look for all the promises to Abrahamic and Davidic Covenant, all the new covenant promises to be poured out on them, because their Messiah had arrived. This is a procession like no other king would ever have in history. Even though He was the greatest king, He had the humblest coronation.

4. Puzzlement. V 10, And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, “Who is this?” Moved/Shaken the same word used 3 times in the book of Matthew to describe an earthquake. They were rattled. They were shaken.

They said, “Who is this?” Does this tell you the insanity of a mob? They are saying all this and they don’t know who they are talking about. You may have been caught in a crowd, a buzzing, humming crowd, and you are trying to figure out what it’s about because you can’t see where the action is.

The whole city is shaken by this outpouring. This massive demonstration of hundreds of thousands of people. They don’t even know who it is. This is what happens in a crowd.

The crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.” They are putting on this massive demonstration and they don’t even know who He is.

John 12:15, “Fear not, daughter of Zion; Behold, your King is coming, Sitting on a donkey’s colt.” John also quotes that from Zechariah 9:9.

John 12:16, His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about Him and that they had done these things to Him. Even the Disciples didn’t understand why the Messiah would come in such a meek and humble manner. They knew who He was, but why this?

But when Jesus was glorified, they understood. When Jesus was glorified means that after He ascended into heaven, after His crucifixion, after His resurrection, forty days later when He ascended, then they understood these things?

They understood that He had to have a humble coronation. They understood that He had to die. They understood that He had to rise, but they didn’t fully understand it until Jesus was glorified.

Why? Because until Jesus was glorified, He did not send the Holy Spirit. Jesus told them in the upper room, “When the Spirit comes, He will lead you into all truth, and He will teach you everything concerning Me.” Their messianic theology never really came together until the Holy Spirit arrived. At this point, the disciples are confused because they have the same messianic theology that everybody else has, that He is going to come and throw out the enemies. He is going to bring the fulfillment of all God’s promises to Israel. But this doesn’t look like that.

Luke 19:37, Then, as He was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen,

John 12:19, The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, “You see that you are accomplishing nothing. Look, the world has gone after Him!”

They were caught up in clash, “Who is this? V 11, So the multitudes said, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.” This is that prophet, Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee. The people weren’t sure even who He was. They were caught up in the messianic excitement.

They were terrified because it looked like the whole world was going out to support Him. How would they be able with that kind of commitment to Him from the people to have Him killed? If He was that popular, how could they get away with killing Him?

The next day He did go to battle. But He didn’t go to battle against the Romans. He went right to the temple and attacked Judaism at its heart. He dismantled the temple operation, threw the buyers and sellers and money changers out and declared that they had turned the house of God into a den of thieves.

Instead of attacking Rome, He attacks Jerusalem. He attacks the religious system and the religious leaders who were the leaders of the nation. That assured them that they were going to have to put an end to Him. He was now massively popular.

He was attacking their system. That sets the table for them to drive Him eventually to the cross. Through the middle of the night phony trial with false witnesses, every bit of it illegal. They pronounce a death sentence on Him. They execute Him in the morning. Exactly at the hour that God had planned, so that He would die as the Passover Lamb for the sins of His people. It is a very strange coronation.

Conclusion

There is always a place in the world for the Jesus that people want. There is just not always a place for the Jesus who is. He didn’t come to fulfill your dreams. He didn’t come to bring you prosperity and happiness. He didn’t come to give you what you and your carnal desires want.

• He came to attack your false religion.
• He came to attack your sin.
• He came to expose the judgment of God that will fall on every unconverted sinner.

He came to warn you to flee from the wrath to come. He came to offer you salvation to rescue you from death and hell.

If you thought He came like a genie out of a bottle to do what you want Him to do, you have got the wrong Jesus. He came to confront your sin and your need, and to offer you a gracious salvation through faith in His name.

• Thankfully, He was in control of everything.
• Thankfully, they didn’t make Him a king.

They had tried a few other times to do that. Thankfully, it was just a few hours until He attacked the temple, turning all the leaders against Him. Then the leaders began to work on those few days to turn the people against Him.

Finally, the people were shouting something different. It wasn’t, “Your King has come.” It wasn’t, “Save now.” It was, Crucify Him! Crucify Him! Crucify Him! He cannot be anybody’s King unless He is, first, their Lamb, slain in their place for sin.