THE TRIUMPHAL ENTRY 

(Ariel Ministries  3-2008)
(Yeshua is the Hebrew name for Jesus)

Why didn’t Yeshua establish the Messianic Kingdom on Palm Sunday, as expected by the crowds?

...when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, they took the branches of the palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried out, “Hosanna: Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel” (John 12:12).

The Triumphal Entry is normally interpreted to represent the time when Yeshua (Jesus) came and officially offered Himself as the King of the Jews and as Israel’s Messiah. But that is not the best interpretation of the actual significance of the Triumphal Entry, also known as “Palm Sunday.”

Yeshua had already been offering Himself as both Messiah and King of the Jews for the previous three-and-a-half years.

According to Matthew 12:22-45, Israel rejected the Messiahship of Yeshua about a year and a half earlier than the day of His Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. Because of Israel’s national rejection of His offer, Yeshua declared the generation of His day guilty of committing the “unpardonable sin.” From that time onward, Israel fell subject to the judgment that would come in 70 AD.

Furthermore, the Messiah’s offer of the Kingdom to that generation of Jews was rescinded and would be re-offered to a later Jewish generation: the generation of the Great Tribulation.

The Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem was not for the purpose of Yeshua officially offering Himself as the King. The purpose of the Triumphal Entry was to set Himself aside as the Lamb of God for the Passover sacrifice. Yeshua knew this final Passover of His life would provide a complete and sufficient atonement for sin by virtue of His death (Lk. 22:14).
 

I.  The Setting Aside of the Lamb of God 

1. THE SETTING ASIDE OF THE LAMB OF GOD

Yeshua’s entry into Jerusalem occurred on a specific date on the Jewish calendar. It was the tenth day of the Jewish month of Nisan. Exodus 12:3-6 tells us that the 10th of Nisan is the day of the year the Passover lamb was to be set aside. Between the tenth and the fourteenth of the month, the lamb was to be inspected and tested to insure that it was without spot and without blemish (Ex. 12:5).

Passover begins on the evening of the fourteenth of Nisan. This testing of the lamb took place exactly between Palm Sunday and Passover. Yeshua, as the Lamb of God, was tested to prove that He was without blemish and without spot (I Pet. 1:19).

For His final Passover, we know that Yeshua first arrived at the town of Bethany, a suburb of Jerusalem (John 11:55 and 12:1, 9-11), six days before the Passover, on the eighth day of Nisan. It was not until the tenth of Nisan that He would enter Jerusalem.

When Yeshua left  Bethany on His way to Jerusalem, he stopped at the town of Bethpage, which was along the way. He sent His disciples to fetch a colt for His ride into the city. Mark 11:2 states that Yeshua told them they would find “a colt tied, whereon no man ever yet sat.” In this incident, a miracle takes place which few people notice. The Gospels of Mark and Luke clearly state that this was a colt “upon which no one had ever sat.” Normally in such a case, a colt would buck and could not be ridden because it would not yet have been broken. In this case, the colt did not buck. This shows Yeshua’s authority as the Messiah and as the Creator over the animal kingdom.

In Mark 11:3, Yeshua told His disciples that if anyone objected to their taking this colt, all they needed to say was “The Lord has need of him” and the colt would be released immediately with no further objections raised.  The colt was brought to Yeshua, and He rode into Jerusalem in fulfillment of a messianic prophecy (Zechariah 9:9 and Matthew 21:4-5).

As Yeshua came riding the colt into Jerusalem, suddenly the buzzing of rumors began to spread that He was coming into town, riding in as the Messianic King of the Jews. The Jewish people’s response was significant.  John 12:12-13, Mark 11:8-10, and Luke 19:37-38 give similar accounts to the one in Matthew:

And the most part of the multitude spread their garments in the way; and others cut branches from the trees, and spread them in the way. And the multitudes that went before him, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest (Matthew 21:8-9).

The multitudes responded in several ways. They cut off palm branches and laid them before the feet of the colt upon which Yeshua was riding. They cried out Hosanna…in Hebrew, Hoshanah. They said, Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord. These are actions normally performed during the Feast of Tabernacles, not during Passover.

The multitudes demonstrated that they were expecting the Feast of Tabernacles to be fulfilled on this occasion. According to Zechariah 14:16-21, the Feast of Tabernacles is fulfilled through the inauguration of the Messianic Kingdom. The people thought that Yeshua was coming to fulfill the Feast of Tabernacles. They did not know that in reality He was coming to fulfill the Passover by His death on their behalf as the Messiah.

The crowds greeted Yeshua with, Blessed is he that comes in the name of Jehovah. This comes from Psalm 118:26, a messianic psalm of the Old Testament. The rabbis taught that when the Messiah comes, He must be greeted with these words. Thus the crowds were proclaiming Yeshua to be the Messiah of Israel.

The Pharisees did not concur with the crowds. John 12:19 states: The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, Behold how ye prevail nothing; lo, the world is gone after him.  Luke 19:39-40 adds:

And some of the Pharisees from the multitude said unto him, Teacher, rebuke your disciples. And he answered and said, I tell you that, if these shall hold their peace, the stones will cry out.

Yeshua responded to the Pharisees’ rebuke that if the multitude had been silent, the stones would have cried out the very same lines. However, Yeshua was not riding into Jerusalem to offer Himself as the King coming with His Kingdom. This is made clear by what happened next. In the context of the many Hosanna’s and greetings of Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord, in the context of many proclamations of His Messiahship, the words of Yeshua remained words of judgment. Luke 19:41-44 states:

And when he drew nigh, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, If you had known in this day, even you, the things which belong unto peace! but now they are hid from your eyes. For the days shall come upon you, when your enemies shall cast up a bank about you, and compass you round, and keep you in on every side, and shall dash you to the ground, and your children within you; and they shall not leave in you one stone upon another; because you knew not the time of your visitation.

No amount of Hosanna’s and refrains of Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord could change what had already occurred a year-and-a-half earlier. The unpardonable sin had already been committed by that generation of Jews. After a manifold testimony of His Messiahship, after Yeshua proved Himself by many miracles, signs, and wonders, after they heard Him teach and preach and proclaim for the first half of His ministry, they had rejected Him on the supposed basis of demon possession (Matthew 12). Thus, they did not know the time of their visitation.

Because Israel had not recognized that at the proper time the Messiah had come, Israel’s judgment was inevitable. 

Greater details of what happened once Yeshua entered the city are given in Matthew 21:10-11:

And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, Who is this? And the multitudes said, This is the prophet, Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.

The whole city understood the significance of what the people thought about Yeshua and their response to His arrival in Jerusalem. But, once again, the chief priests and the scribes, the Sadducees, and the Pharisees objected in Matthew 21:15-16:

But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children that were crying in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the son of David; they were moved with indignation, and said unto him, Hear you what these are saying?
And Jesus said unto them, Yea: did ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings you have perfected praise?

When the Pharisees objected to the worship Yeshua received, His response was to let them know that the Messiah was receiving from the people what was due to Him. Yeshua’s acceptance of the praise and worship showed that He accepted their claims that He was the Messiah. At that point, Yeshua left Jerusalem and returned to Bethany (v. 17). This all happened on the tenth of Nisan as the Lamb of God was set aside.

From the tenth until the fourteenth, this Lamb would be tested to show that He was indeed without blemish and without spot.

II.  THE TESTING OF THE LAMB OF GOD

After the Triumphal entry, Yeshua returned to Bethany where He spent every night. From this point on, He proceeded to Jerusalem on a daily basis. During the next three or four days, Yeshua was tested by four different groups who tried to find fault with Him. The groups were the following:

(1) The Priests and the Elders, who together questioned His authority. This is recorded in Matthew 21:23 through 22:14.

(2) The Pharisees and the Herodians, who together tried to use the issue of paying taxes to destroy Him politically. This is recorded in Matthew 22:15-22; Mark 12:13-17; and Luke 20:20-26.

(3) The Sadducees, who tried to stump Him with a theological question about the resurrection of the dead. This is recorded in Matthew 22:23-33; Mark 12:18-27; and Luke 20:27-40.

(4) The Pharisees, who used a theological question about the Torah to try to discredit Yeshua. This isrecorded in Matthew 22:34-40 and Mark 12:28-34. In all four attacks, Yeshua silenced his opponents.  So four times the Lamb of God was attacked and tested; four times He responded to show that He was without blemish and without spot.

III. THE TESTING BY THE LAMB OF GOD

Yeshua now turned to all His attackers with a question of His own, recorded in Matthew 22:41-46; Mark 12:35-37; and Luke 20:41-44. According to Matthew 22:42, the question was: ...Christ? Whose son is he? …Whose Son was the Messiah supposed to be? They answered correctly in verse 42: ...The son of David. But then Yeshua threw the trick question at them. If the Messiah was supposed to be David’s son, why, then, in Psalm 110:1, does David call the Messiah, Lord? A father would never address his son as Lord. So in Matthew 22:45,  Yeshua further asked: If David called him Lord, how is he his son?

Yeshua’s attackers could not answer His question because the answer is found in the concept of the God-Man. As to His humanity, He is David’s son; but as to His deity, He is David’s Lord.

CONCLUSION

After His Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, the Lamb of God had been tested four different times by the Sadducees, Pharisees, Herodians, elders, and priests. He was proved to be without blemish and without spot, which meant that He could proceed to the cross and become the final Passover sacrifice (I Cor. 5:7).