“The Triumphal Entry” - Author and Writer Ronald Nelson

BIBLE MEDITATION: 

“Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden. Matthew 21:5 

ENCOURAGING WORD: 

Palm Sunday commemorates Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, commonly marked by shouting "Hosanna!" and laying palm branches. Key verses include Matthew 21:9, Mark 11:9-10, Luke 19:38, and John 12:13, which all describe the joyful crowds welcoming Him as King. It fulfills Zechariah 9:9, depicting Jesus’ humble entry on a colt. 

Key Palm Sunday Bible Verses:

Matthew 21:9; “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!”

Matthew paints a vivid scene. Jesus, riding on a donkey into Jerusalem… 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.”… it is followed by a great crowd that has travelled the road with Him toward the city for Passover. People already in the city have heard that Jesus is coming, and another crowd emerges to meet Him as He enters;

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, 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!”

It's a celebration. Matthew has already described how most of the people are taking off their cloaks and putting them in Jesus' path as He rides, as well as spreading branches in the road before Him. This is an act of submission to royalty; 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, “Jesus is king!” 

Here, he explains what it sounded like as Jesus made His triumphal entry.The crowds shout words from; Psalm 118:25–26; “Save now, I pray, O Lord; O Lord, I pray, send now prosperity. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” We have blessed you from the house of the Lord.” The word "Hosanna" literally means "save," as it is used in Psalm 118, but it came to be a cry of praise for the One who had done the saving. The crowds call Jesus "the Son of David," which is a name for the promised Messiah. Matthew 1:1;

“The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham:” They also shout, "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" And "Hosanna in the highest!" from those verses. John 12:13; "They 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!”

Palm branches were ancient symbols of victory. The term hosanna was most famously used in Psalm 118:25–26;  and means "save now!" It came to be a figure of speech praising God for deliverance, and it was said in support of a king or victor. So, the people who celebrate Jesus' entry into the city are deliberately applying Old Testament ideas to Him. They are proclaiming Him as the Promised One and the Savior of Israel. Jesus, for His part, will deliberately fulfill certain aspects of Old Testament by riding on the back of a donkey;

John 12:14–15; “Then Jesus, when He had found a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written:  “Fear not, daughter of Zion; Behold, your King is coming, Sitting on a donkey’s colt.”

Daniel 9:25; “Know therefore and understand, That from the going forth of the command To restore and build Jerusalem Until Messiah the Prince, There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; The street shall be built again, and the wall, Even in troublesome times.”  This verse also speaks of the coming Messiah. That passage implies that after a certain event, there would be a set time ending with the arrival of the Promised One, who would then be "cut off" (Crucified)

Daniel 9:26; “And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, (Crucified) but not for Himself; And the people of the prince who is to come (Rome) Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, And till the end of the war desolations are determined.” Using the prophetic concept of days and years, this predicted 173,880 days. Starting with the decree of Artaxerxes to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem on March 5, 444 BC, Daniel's predicted timeline ends on March 30, AD 33 – the Monday before Passover.

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 12:12; “The next day a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem,”Unfortunately, many of the people still misunderstand the nature of Jesus' role. Those who turned away after He fed thousands were disappointed that He spoke of spiritual issues, instead of political ones. 

John 6:26; “Jesus answered them and said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.”  It's likely that most of those cheering for Jesus in this crowd are also expecting Him to come as a conquering king, to oppose the Roman oppressors.

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.” (Prophecy): Zechariah 9:9 prophesies the arrival of a righteous, victorious, yet humble King (the Messiah) riding on a donkey into Jerusalem. It signifies a peaceful, spiritual savior rather than a political war-leader, a prophecy fulfilled by Jesus on Palm Sunday. The verse calls for rejoicing in God’s coming salvation. 

Mark 11:9-10; “Then those who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: “Hosanna! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ Blessed is the kingdom of our father David That comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”

Hosanna, literally "save us, please!", is an appropriate cry, although the crowd doesn't understand why. For the time being, the people expect Jesus to gather the nation to rebel against Rome, force out the pagan Gentile oppressors, and bring in the kingdom of David. This will happen, but not yet. The Jews are angry that they are separated from their promised glory, but Jesus is more concerned that they, and the world, are separated from God. The exultant Jewish crowd does not need to be saved from Rome but from their sins which will lead them to hell. By the end of the week, thorns will be Jesus' crown, and a cross His throne. What some see as the failed promises to Abraham;

Genesis 12:1–3; “Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

To Moses in Deuteronomy 29 and David 2 Samuel 7 becomes the fulfilled promise God made to Adam and Eve; Genesis 3:15; “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.”

Luke 19:41; (Jesus' reaction): "As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it." Jesus is in the middle of His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. He is riding a donkey in fulfillment of Zechariah 9:9 which we read above. The road is lined with cloaks and palm branches. The people around Him are celebrating the arrival of David's promised heir. They are going to celebrate the Passover, a feast in honor of God's miraculous rescue of the Israelites from their captivity in Egypt. And Jesus is weeping. The Pharisees have set the scene better than the multitudes of Jesus' disciples.

They told Jesus, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples" Luke 19:39; “And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.” In this moment, they represent the Jewish leadership who will not follow the crowds in welcoming Jesus' arrival. They will reject their King and Messiah and manipulate the Roman governor to crucify Him.The people are rejoicing, shouting,

Luke 19:38;  saying:“ ‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!’ Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

Luke 19:42; “Jesus laments, saying, "Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes" The Jewish leadership refuse to see who Jesus is. And so, after He is crucified and resurrected—which must happen no matter what—the priests and elders will not take their rightful place as leaders in spreading the worship of Jesus and salvation through grace to the Jews and then to the Gentiles. Jerusalem will stand just long enough for Christianity to gain a toehold in Gentile countries, and then Rome will destroy the city and the temple;

Luke 19:43–44; “For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, ⁴⁴ and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

This took place in 70AD.

All this starts with Palm Sunday when Jesus enters the city of Jerusalem. The week leads through the Last Supper, His crucifixion, and ends on Easter Sunday with His resurrection.

The Last Supper!

Matthew 26:26-28; “And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.”

Matthew is describing what eventually became known as the Last Supper. This is the final time Christ, and the disciples were all together for a meal before His arrest and crucifixion. This was the Passover meal. which the law required Israelites to eat together according to a specific set of guidelines. While eating together, Jesus has already said something shocking: One of you will betray me. The guilty party is Judas, but none of the other men know this, yet.

Matthew 26:24-26; “The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.” Then Judas, who was betraying Him, answered and said, “Rabbi, is it I?” He said to him, “You have said it.” Jesus Institutes the Lord’s Supper And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.”

Now Matthew records more surprising words from Jesus, introducing a sacrament in which Christians still participate today. In the middle of the meal, Jesus picks up a loaf or cake of bread. He blesses it: He gives thanks to God the Father for the bread. This might have been the customary prayer of thanks for bread among the Jewish people. He distributes it to the disciples, perhaps one by one or perhaps passing it around the low table. Jesus then gives a command to eat, noting that the bread is His body. The disciples likely had no idea what Jesus meant by this statement. It would only become clear after His death and resurrection. When taken together with the command in the following verse to drink the wine, as His blood, the concept of remembrance will become clearer.

Luke 22:19; “And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”

Jesus is once more saying surprising and difficult things to the disciples. He has just broken a loaf of bread and given each of them the pieces, telling them to eat while referring to the bread as His body.

Now Jesus takes a cup of wine. He gives thanks to God the Father for the blessing of the wine, perhaps using the customary prayer of thanks to the "Creator of the fruit of the vine." He distributes the wine to each of the disciples. Jesus was using this moment in the Passover meal to introduce something new to the disciples and, through them, to the church that would soon be born. The requirements for the Passover meal included drinking four cups of wine. This was likely the time for the "cup of blessing." Jesus associates that cup, representing God's gift to Israel, with His own blood. He commands the disciples to drink it, with that specific command in mind. The Passover meal was observed by nearly every Jewish person as a way of remembering and celebrating God's rescue of Israel through the blood of the lamb on their doorposts. Now Jesus is using the elements of the Passover meal to introduce something new. He has broken the bread and distributed it to them, describing it as His body. He has given them the third cup of wine included in the meal, the "cup of blessing," and commanded them to drink it. He now describes that cup of wine as "my blood of the covenant." Jesus' words have a connection to a powerful moment between God and the people of Israel during the time of Moses. The blood of animal sacrifices was used to seal an agreement between God and the people. God promised to take care of them, and the people promised to be obedient to all God told them.

Then came this: "Exodus 24:8; "Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, 'Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.

During the Last Supper, a Passover meal, Jesus redefined the traditional elements to symbolize a new covenant. He identified the broken bread as His body and the "cup of blessing" (third cup) as His blood of the new covenant poured out for the forgiveness of sins. This act connected to the Mosaic covenant sealed with animal blood, marking a new promise of salvation for all believers, not just Israel. The disciples, then, would have grown up knowing that a covenant between God and His people was sealed with the blood of a sacrifice. Now Jesus has described the wine they are drinking as His blood of the covenant. He says that it is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.Jesus is describing a new agreement—a formal promise—between God and many people. This time, though, the covenant will not be for Israel alone. It will be for all people who come to God through faith in Jesus. Jesus' blood will be poured out to pay the price for the sin of all who trust in Him. His blood will seal the agreement God is making to forgive the sins of these Christ-followers or "Christians," taking Jesus' death as the payment for their sin. The moment is very close now when Jesus' body will be abused, and His blood poured out on the cross. That is the moment Jesus' followers will remember with humble gratitude when they break the bread and drink from the cup together. It will come to be known as communion or the Lord's Supper.

Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. Amen!