The Triumphant Entry?
Warm-up
If you had one week to live, what would you do?
What acts do you want to be remembered for?
Read Matthew 21: 1-11/John 12: 12-19/Luke 19:280-40
What kind of Festivals are mentioned in the bible?
•3 feasts when people have to present themselves to Jerusalem
•Feast of Tabernacles: harvest feast, most festive one
•Feast of Pentecoast:
•Feast of Passover: most solemn, people remembers God’s wrath,
Why is the event special?
•One of the few events recorded in all 4 Gospels
•Jesus makes a public appearance, departs from his usual behaviour
What specific instructions did Jesus give to 2 of his disciples? (2-3)
How does Jesus know there is a donkey standby?
Jesus is not telling his disciples to engage in "grand theft donkey," but is taking up a friend on his long-standing offer. Notice that once the disciples say, "The Lord needs it," there is no further argument. The owners are happy to have the Lord use their possessions for his work.
How about you?
Do you argue when the Lord makes a demand on something that belongs to you?
Why a Donkey?
•beast of burden from the patriarchal period
•renowned for its strength and was the animal normally ridden by nonmilitary personnel (Numbers 22:21; Judges 10:4; 1 Samuel 25:20)
•the scripture indicates that riding a donkey is not at all beneath the dignity of Israel's noblemen and kings (2 Samuel 18:9; 19:26)
What elements of the Triumphal Entry point to Jesus' claim to be the King of the Jews, the rightful Anointed One, the Messiah? Read Zechariah 9:9-10
•The Jews were ‘’Kingless’’ during that era
•Prophecy foretold 500 years before Jesus came
•Describes coming King as righteous, humble and bringing peace
Read Revelations 19: 11-19. How does the image portrayed in Revelations contrast with this scene?
•Zechariah’s prophecy: a gentle king that comes into Jerusalem riding a young donkey is the same one who will defeat chariots and war-horses and bring peace to the nations
•Revelations: picture of the conquering Christ riding a white war-horse
What is so special about that Donkey?
•that donkey must be one that has never been ridden (see Numbers 19:2; Deuteronomy 21:3; 1 Samuel 6:7; 2 Samuel 6:3)
•It is set apart, consecrated for a specific use -- for the Master's use
•There is a rabbinical tradition that no one should use the animal on which a king rides
•King Solomon rode a donkey during his coronation ceremony, King David rode a donkey
•By riding a donkey that no one had ever ridden before, he is initiating a public, kingly act
•He is revealing openly that he is the Messiah.
How did the crowd welcome Jesus’s triumphal entry?
•Threw cloaks on the road
•Cut branches from trees and spread them on road
•Blew trumpet and shouted
The words translated "cloaks" (NIV) or "garments" (KJV) is Greek himation, which can refer generally to any garment, "clothing, apparel," or specifically to outer clothing, "cloak, robe."
The word translated "spread" is Greek hupostronnuo, "spread out underneath." It is in the imperfect tense, indicating continued action in the past, meaning "they kept on spreading their cloaks on the road."
Significance of Palm branches?
•John is the only gospel to mention the palm branches from which we get the title, Palm Sunday,' for the day of the Triumphal Entry
•Where are palm branches from? As nearly as scholars can tell palm trees did not grow in the mountainous region of Jerusalem. They grew in the lower elevations such as Jericho and the Jordan Valley. However, palm branches were imported to Jerusalem for the great religious festivals such as Passover and Tabernacles. Palm branches are symbol for Jewish nationalism, emblem of ‘’Conqueror’’
•Generation after Jesus, Jewish army revolted against Rome, coins were imprinted with palm branches
What was Jesus’s reaction to the crowd?
What are the crowd’s expectations of Jesus (12-19)?
•Popular expectation among Jewish people that Messiah would bring political deliverance to Israel and overthrow oppressive rule under the Romans
How does Jesus’s mission statement contrasts with the crowd’s expectations (23-28)?
•Riding on a donkey= Divine royalty with gentlenesss and humility of spirit
•Donkey stands out as a rejection against arrogance and trust in human strength/might, instead expresses subservience to the sovereignity of God
•Strong renunciation of what zealots stood for, not what the people expected
•Everything a Messiah should be, Jesus rejected the people’s idea of a violent kingship and earthly war-fare
•Crowds rejected Jesus’s idea of a kingdom of peace
•Jesus came to Israel with Spiritual demands and kingdom of justice and peace
How can we apply this to Evangelism?
•We can’t spread the Word of God by sword or arrogance
•But by mirroring humble spirit of the Saviour
•Jesus didn’t come in worldly might but by the weakness of His cross
Look at how different people responded. How did Disciples respond?
•Even disciples were ignorant even after Jesus told them what is about to happen!
•Only later when they were enlightened by the Holy Spirit then they understood why Jesus chose to come on a donkey
Why do you think so many people came to see Jesus?
•Some people witnessed Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead in Bethany they wanted power to harness for their worldy interests/purposes?
•Like the gifts more than the Giver
What was the Pharisee’s reaction to Jesus’s entry?
•The Pharisees present in the crowd are scowling. They are deeply offended and can't suppress their disdain why the crowds are going fanatic over Jesus
•They don’t realize the same crowd is going to betray Jesus in a few days
•Pharisees are primed to accept Judas’s offer later
How will we respond when Jesus comes?
Why did Jesus choose to make a triumphal entry now?
•Up until now Jesus has been very guarded about his identity as Messiah (see, for example, Mark 8:30)
•Rather than using the term Christ (Greek for "anointed one") or Messiah (the Hebrew word for "anointed one"), he identifies himself as Son of Man
•If Jesus had previously acknowledged publicly that he was the Messiah, the political implications would be such that he could not complete his intended ministry of teaching, healing, and proclaiming the Kingdom.
•But now that ministry is complete
•All that remains is to accomplish his "exodus" in Jerusalem (Luke 9:31)
•Jesus now moves to fulfill messianic prophecy, and directs his disciples to find the donkey that his Father has prepared for his public entry into the City of Zion
•His claim as King must now be clear.
Spot the irony of the setting of this scene?
•The open acknowledgement of Kingship, seems to precipitate his death. It was certainly on the lips of everyone in Jerusalem that week (Luke 22:67; 23:3, 35, 38, 42; 24:26, 46). Jesus is not crucified for his good works. He is killed for his claim to Kingship.
How is Jesus different from an Earthly king?
•Earthly kings reign for their own riches and glory, eventually get corrupted
•Jesus ruled not for his own sake, but for our own salvation
•Earlthy kings rule for haughty power
•Jesus condescends himself, yielding himself to an ignominious death for us
•Earlthy kings choose wise advisors
•Jesus choose to eat and dine with sinners, chose normal ordinary folk to be his disciples
•Earthly kings were crown of gold and jewels, sit on throne
•Jesus wore crown of thorns, throne was a wooden cross
What lessons can we take home from this passage?
1.Obey Jesus whenever he tells us to do something. (see instructions about obtaining the donkey) Just because we don't understand how everything will work out is no reason to refuse to budge when it is time to obey.
2.We must be ready and willing for Jesus to claim use of our possessions and positions. Since he is our Master, they don't belong to us, but to him. When he sends a message, "The Lord has need of it," we must relinquish our control willingly and immediately.
3.Praise can be received with humility. Jesus did not crave the praise of men, but neither did he silence it. It was fitting. It was appropriate.
4.There is a time to be guarded about who we are in God, and there is a time to be fully open about it. We must not operate out of fear or self-absorption, but be sensitive to what God wants to do and then cooperate with that.
5.Jesus IS King! The King is returning again.
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