Triumphal Entry

Journeying to Jerusalem

Leaving Jericho, Jesus ascended up to Jerusalem.  The altitude of Jerusalem is about 2400-2500 feet.  Jericho is northeast of Jerusalem and about 820-850 feet below sea level.  Bethany is about 2 miles southeast of Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives.

From here, Jesus sent two of his disciples to the village near them to fetch a colt.  Jesus said that near the entry they would find an ass tied and her colt with her.  They were to bring them both, Matt 21:2.  The colt had never been ridden.

They were to tell any man who asked them why they were doing this, “The Lord hath need of him”.  They found the ass and colt tied, they loosed them, they answered those who asked them why with the words Jesus said, and they brought them to Jesus.

After they returned, they cast their garments on the ass and the colt and set Jesus on them, Matt 21:4-8.  Thus, they fulfilled Zech 9:9.  As he went they spread their clothes and branches cut from trees in the way before Jesus.

What they cast before him is significant.  When Jesus actually returns to Jerusalem to be the King he will trample his enemies, Rev 19:15, 14:19-20, Is 63:2-4.  Casting their garments before him foreshadows this. And the time of his return should be at the feast of tabernacles, Lk 9:33, Lev 23:39-40.  This is the feast where they cut branches to make booths.  So, the spreading of branches also foreshadows his return.

When Jesus came to the descent of the Mount of Olives, the multitude began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice.  They said, “Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord”.  And they said, “Hosanna to the Son of David”, Matt 21:9.  They also said, “Blessed be the kingdom of our father David”, Mk 11:10.  With these sayings, they professed that he was the King of the Jews and their Messiah.  This is why this event is often called his Triumphal Entry.

When the Pharisees asked Jesus to rebuke the crowd, he replied, “if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out”.  Many things in nature will praise Jesus when he comes to rule the earth, Is 55:12-13; Ps 96:10-12.  The stones would have done it right then.

Weeping Over Jerusalem

Astonishingly, Jesus wept over Jerusalem when he saw the city.  He was indeed a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. The people of that city were about to kill their king and he knew it.

He said to the city, “If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto they peace! But now they are hid from thine eyes”. See also what he said to Jerusalem in Matt 23:37-39.  This passage is anti-Calvinist.  It was Jesus’s will, often, to gather them, and they “would not”.  They resisted.

What she got, instead, was a Roman siege, a massacre, and a city razed to the ground.  All because she didn’t know the time of her visitation.  Yet, Jesus will come again to bring peace to her since Israel passed up that opportunity at his first coming.

Entering the Temple

When Jesus first entered the temple after his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, he looked around and then left to spend the night in Bethany.  The following day he returned.  And that’s when he cast out all them that bought and sold therein, Mk 11:11-17.

In the Sunday School lesson on The Day of the Crucifixion, you can click on a link to a concise chart of the events around the crucifixion.  You will see that Jesus arrived in Jerusalem on Friday and cleansed the temple on Saturday, their sabbath.

There is no such thing as Palm Sunday.  The Pharisees had been accusing Jesus of breaking the sabbath throughout the greater part of his ministry.  Yet, they were the ones guilty of breaking the sabbath, and he caught them “red handed”.

He said, “My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves”.  See Is 56:7 for the cross reference.  Isaiah says, “for all people”; Mark says “of all nations”, Mk 11:17.  Gentiles will come to worship the Lord here during Jesus’s millennial reign, Zech 8:20-23.

Teaching in the Temple

He taught daily in the temple.  The chief priests and the scribes were so angry with him for running them out of the temple and spoiling their business that they wanted to destroy him.  But the people were so attentive to him, that they couldn’t find a way to get him without causing an uncontrollable mob reaction.

So, they waited to question his authority as their next move.

To study the previous lesson, click on Zacchaeus and Parable of the Pounds

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