The Humble King: Jesus' Triumphant Entry and Its Significance

We have to imagine 2,000 years ago a king entering to his the capital city of Israel, not on a war horse with an army behind him, but on a young donkey and with a crowd waving palm branches and putting their their garments on the ground and and shouting hosana, hosana, which means save now. And so thousands of people are lining the streets as as Jesus is riding into Jerusalem. And that's the scene that's taking place on what we know as Palm Sunday. When Jesus rides into Jerusalem, it was a moment of triumph. Uh and not the kind this world expects, right? where uh triumphing over a political or a empire but Jesus is riding triumphy steadfast going towards the cross to die for our sins to be buried and raised from the dead. [00:00:54]

Jesus purposefully sent his disciples to go and get uh the donkey and bring it for a specific purpose. Jesus is deliberately fulfilling prophecy from the Old Testament. In Jewish tradition, uh kings would uh ride on horses for battle, for war. If there was a king coming to you riding on a horse, it it usually didn't mean that he was going to be peaceful towards you. Um but if a king was riding on a donkey, that meant there was peace. there was an opportunity to extend peace and to receive peace. Um, and there was a way to have peace at an occasion. For example, in First Kings chapter 1, it talks about Solomon riding a donkey to his coordination uh and being anointed as king over Israel. [00:06:30]

Now repeatedly Jesus had explained this to his disciples and to the crowd if people were listening uh that the Messiah must suffer before there is deliverance. And yet they could not fully comprehend it. They were looking for Jesus to overthrow Rome. And they came up with this preconceived idea of what they would expect the Messiah to do for them. and thinking again that he would overthrow Rome and set up his earthly kingdom. And yet they missed the forest for the trees. Um they saw only part of God's plan and they ignored the rest of it. Yet God told in the Old Testament the Messiah would suffer. And again Isaiah 53 is very clear on this. Psalm 22 is another place. [00:11:25]

Jesus came first as a suffering servant to die on the cross for your sins and for mine. Next time he comes, he won't be riding a donkey. He'll be riding a horse and he'll be setting up his kingdom upon this earth. and rule and reign physically upon this earth. And so they didn't comprehend that. Um they were thinking this is all going to happen at the exact same time. And uh you know as I was thinking about that, we too can lose our perspective if we're not considering the Lord's thoughts and the Lord's ways for us. We can be so heavily invested in a particular situation or approach God with expecting or even sometimes demanding. He works in a certain way. [00:13:26]

And so will we trust in God and his sovereign plan and his will for us or will we trust in our plans and proceed going forward without seeking the Lord? Again, Jesus came for a very specific reason. He came here to fulfill God's plan to do the will of the father. He came to rescue us. But the religious leaders, well, they had a different opinion about all this and they had a actually a very different response than I think most of us would. And we'll see next in John 12. Uh the disciples uh understanding was was not fulfilled and not completed at this time. Uh and the religious leaders panicked as they saw the crowds chanting hosana and beginning to worship Jesus. [00:14:46]

The disciples didn't fully understand this event at first. And um sometimes we can go, "Oh, it's obvious. It's right there in the scriptures." But again, if we were there, we probably wouldn't comprehend a lot of the things that Jesus said or he did at the time. Only later after Jesus's resurrection when then they were empowered by the spirit did they see it clearly. Did the Holy Spirit bring these things to the remembrance and show them how Jesus had fulfilled the Old Testament and how they were a part of that plan. And thus Jesus is fulfilling prophecy or the promises of God. [00:16:44]

And so to the pilgrims, Jesus was a king to overthrow Rome. To the witnesses, he was a miracle worker. But to the religious leaders, he was a threat. And and they became furious at Jesus. Who does this guy think he is to come in here and change our customs and to and to draw people away from us? And so the Pharisees saw the crowds and they groaned. And it says here as we looked at look the whole world has gone after him. What's interesting is their words are a little bit prophetic um because the name is of Jesus has gone worldwide um and yet we don't even know these religious leaders names right their their names are forgotten in the books of history. [00:24:17]

Times of great persecution to God's people has actually caused growth. It's caused people to share the gospel more rapidly. And uh so every time society has tried to to stomp up Christianity with persecution has caused growth as the gospel message goes forth that you can have your sins forgiven and have a relationship with Jesus that you can have forgiveness and everlasting life. And so Jesus becomes more and more known uh as people try and stop his spread, his fame. And so the leaders again are cleaning the power here. They're blinded to see their own scriptures. [00:25:51]

And so all of creation, the trees, the hills, the rivers, it all proclaims that there is a creator and they praise God. Now, if you were to look at a car, maybe one out there in the parking lot, you wouldn't think, "My goodness, look at what millions and millions of years made by random chance. These parts just fell from the sky and assembled on their own by random chance. It just took millions and millions of years." No, you wouldn't think that. You would think someone made that. Someone created that. Someone designed that. Someone engineered that. And they made it for a specific purpose. They made it for someone to utilize. [00:30:24]

And so we see here that it shows God's heart that judgment comes with sorrow, never with joy. And this causes me to wonder, do we recognize Jesus's visit? Do we recognize that he came on a rescue mission for you and for me? That he came into Jerusalem riding a donkey as a humble king, humbly offering us peace through the cross and through his resurrection. Or like the crowd, we can miss it, right? We can be chasing our own plans or have our own preconceived ideas of Jesus and you'll find there's a lot of people out there today, right? Have a different idea of what Jesus is and what Jesus will do for them. [00:35:44]

The Jesus of the Bible says he's the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through him. Or like the Pharisees, we can resist them alto together. Right? Well, I don't believe in God anymore. You know, there's a loving God. Why would he allow me go go through hardships? I can't I can't fathom that. So, I'm just going to ignore it all and I'm just going to believe that we're all randomly here by chance. I think that takes more faith to deny that there's a God than it takes to have faith in a God. And so like the Pharisees, we can prioritize our plans, our thoughts over surrendering to the King of the universe. [00:43:20]

So in closing, like the crowd, do we want Jesus to fix our problems our way? Like the leaders, do we resist him when he challenges our pride? Or do we see him as who he is, the humble king, the one who saves? Again, today, God's not looking for us to wave palm branches. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but he wants us to trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ through his death, his burial, and his resurrection for you and for me. So let's open our eyes to see Jesus as our king. Let's praise him with our whole hearts and trust in his peace. [00:44:49]