Who Is This? Jesus Shakes Our Expectations

Palm Sunday unfolds as a collision between expectation and reality. The narrative opens with waving palm branches and a children’s parade, then moves to Matthew’s account of the triumphal entry where Jesus instructs two disciples to fetch a donkey and its colt. Crowds lay cloaks and branches on the road and shout “Hosanna,” using language that mixes praise, hope, and a plea for deliverance. Matthew emphasizes that this moment fulfills prophecy, but he also highlights a dissonance: the people expect a conquering king, and Jesus arrives riding a donkey—the ancient sign of peaceful kingship rather than military might.

The crowd’s cheers carry a deeper cry. Hosanna translates not simply as praise but as “save us,” revealing a community worn by suffering and hungry for change. Matthew frames the arrival as seismic: the whole city shakes, a tremor that Matthew will echo at the cross and the empty tomb. That shaking signals more than physical disturbance; it exposes assumptions about power, victory, and salvation. The traditional markers of authority and triumph cannot contain the kind of rule Jesus embodies.

Jesus stages the entry deliberately. The donkey does not diminish kingship; it redefines it. Instead of force and domination, this king brings humility, peace, and a power that disrupts comfortable narratives. The crowd applies royal titles and hopes for a familiar kind of deliverance, but the story Jesus unfolds will unsettle those hopes, reveal misplaced trusts, and demand a reordering of priorities.

The arrival starts a week that refuses to be reduced to spectacle. From parade to cross to empty tomb, the events shake foundations and invite sober reflection. Worshippers receive an invitation to follow through Holy Week, not to skip the hard parts but to enter them with prayer, attention, and compassion. Practical care for the community—missions, offering, prayers for the sick, and shared meals—flows from the same redefined power: faithful love rather than domination. The week concludes with an urging to walk into holy ground even when the ground shifts, trusting a king whose victory transforms by sacrificial love, not coercion.

---

Key Takeaways

• 1. Jesus redefines kingship with humility Jesus arrives on a donkey to claim kingship, not by force but by peace. That arrival confronts any gospel that equates God’s reign with domination or easy triumph. Receiving this king requires reorienting loyalties away from status, toward service and vulnerability. Such redefinition asks the faithful to practice leadership that lowers itself for the sake of others. [39:27]
• 2. Hosanna expresses desperate, hopeful longing The crowd’s cry of “Hosanna” blends praise with a raw plea for salvation from suffering. This word surfaces the depth of communal ache and the earnest desire for transformation, not merely religious cheering. Recognizing that cry invites honest prayer that names pain and expects God to act in ways that may surprise. Holding that tension—hope within desperation—keeps the heart open to unexpected deliverance. [38:08]
• 3. True power unsettles and reshapes Matthew uses seismic language to show that Jesus’ arrival shakes foundations and exposes hidden assumptions. When power arrives as humility and mercy, it destabilizes systems built on domination and coercion. That disruption does not aim to destroy but to make space for justice, compassion, and renewed vision. Following such power means allowing old certainties to be questioned and reformed. [35:09]
• 4. Holy Week demands faithful presence The procession into Jerusalem begins a week that includes both celebration and sorrow, and faithful response requires staying with the full story. Moving from palms to the cross asks for attention, prayer, and participation in communal practices that shape character. Showing up through the hard days trains the heart to love what God loves and to act with courage amid uncertainty. Presence becomes an act of discipleship, not just a ritual. [62:45]

Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [15:40] - Palm branches arrive early
• [27:49] - Children invited to lead parade
• [31:07] - Reading: Matthew 21:1-11
• [33:51] - Annie’s Palm Sunday story
• [34:42] - The city shaken: seismic language
• [37:03] - Donkey signals peaceful kingship
• [41:27] - Expectations challenged; power redefined
• [46:01] - Who is this in our lives?
• [50:57] - Offering and prayer
• [62:45] - Holy Week schedule & invitation
• [64:50] - Benediction and sending

Bible reading: Matthew 21:1-11 (ESV)
Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, “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.’” The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”

Observation questions

1. What specific instructions did Jesus give to his two disciples, and what detail shows this event was planned and intentional?
2. What two actions did the crowd take to honor Jesus as he entered the city, and what were they shouting?
3. What was the reaction of the entire city of Jerusalem to Jesus’s entry, and what was the central question everyone was asking? [42:07]
4. According to the prophecy from Zechariah that Matthew references, what two characteristics describe the king who is coming?

Interpretation questions

1. The word "Hosanna" literally means "save us." How does understanding this transform the scene from a simple celebration into something with a deeper, more complex meaning? [38:08]
2. Why would riding a donkey into the city, as opposed to a war horse, have been a surprising and even confusing signal to the people about the kind of king Jesus was? [39:09]
3. The city was described as being "stirred up" or "shaken" (from the Greek *seismos*, meaning earthquake). What does this seismic language suggest about the true, disruptive nature of Jesus' arrival and the kingdom he brings? [35:09]
4. Different people in the city answered the question "Who is this?" in different ways. What does this tell us about how our existing stories and assumptions shape our understanding of Jesus? [42:54]

Application questions

1. The crowd’s cry of “Hosanna” was a raw plea for salvation from suffering. What is one area of deep ache or longing in your life or community where you are desperately crying out, “Save us, Lord”? How can you bring that honest cry to God this week? [38:08]
2. Jesus redefines power and leadership through humility and service, not force and domination. Where in your life (work, family, church) are you most tempted to rely on worldly power or control? What would it look like this week to lead with Christ-like humility instead? [39:27]
3. Jesus’s arrival shook the foundations of the city and exposed people’s assumptions. When has following Jesus personally unsettled you or forced you to question a deeply held belief about success, security, or how God works? [41:27]
4. The entire Holy Week journey—from celebration to the cross to the empty tomb—invites our faithful presence, not just our attendance. What is one practical way you can intentionally "show up" and engage with the story of Jesus’s sacrifice and love between now and Easter? [01:02:45]
5. The people welcomed a king but didn’t fully understand what kind of king he was. In what ways do you sometimes try to fit Jesus into your own story and expectations, rather than allowing him to interrupt and redefine them? [45:09]
6. True power that comes through humility and love has the effect of unsettling injustice and disrupting what we accept as normal. Where do you see a need for this kind of disruptive, loving power in your neighborhood or city? How could you be a part of it? [41:52]