Casting about on the internet, I found part of a 2009 sermon by C. Philip Green entitled “Take A Risk.” There he described a game published by Parker Brothers in the 1950’s. It was called “Going to Jerusalem.” (it’s worth $50 on Ebay!)
The players moved little plastic pieces across the Holy Land by looking up answers to questions in a little book of the Gospels provided with the game. Players started in Bethlehem, and moved their three pieces all the way to a “triumphal entry” into Jerusalem to win the game.
Pastor Green took exception to the fact that there was never any Crucifixion or Resurrection following the Triumphal Entry. You just got to Jerusalem and quit. He saw this as very unbiblical, promoting a shallow and impractical expectation of life and a lopsided view of Scripture. Sure, it’s easy to get people to line up to be the life of the party, the “Grand Marshall” of the parade if that’s all there is, but there’s only been one man willing to face pain, humiliation, death, and taking on every other human being’s sin. https://www.sermoncentral.com/illustrations/sermon-illustration-sermoncentral--stories-discipleship-74176?+ref=TextIllustrationSerps
I have to agree with Pastor Green. While the Triumphal Entry makes for a good game, we need to know the whole truth. In the Bible, the Triumphal Entry was not an end in itself, it was the beginning of the events of Jesus’ death and resurrection. What we’ll see this morning is that the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem supports two points: One, Jesus is King, and two, He’s not the king you’re looking for, but He is the King you need!
What if you were there to welcome Jesus?
1. Who would you have been?
Obviously, you’d have been a Jew. You would have been one of thousands of pilgrims attending the Passover; a Jewish feast day and arguably the most important. (If you melded Christmas and July 4th, you’d have a similar vibe: patriotic and religious.) Jewish pilgrims came to the feast from all corners of the Empire.
Passover occurs in the spring, during the Jewish month of Nisan, on the 14th day, which is often in early April. Using astronomical data, our best guess is that THIS Passover was April 3, AD 33 or April 7, AD 30.
The last leg of your trip is from Jericho to Jerusalem, and could be the most difficult part of your journey. Jericho is 17 miles from Jerusalem, but the Roman road goes up and over the Mount of Olives, elevation 2600 feet.
There is a village along this route, but it is so small, off the main road, and so close to the city that not many people ever stop there as they make this journey. So why does Bethany rate a mention in Mark 11:1? Mark tells us that during the days prior to His death, Jesus didn’t spend nights in the city, but stayed in Bethany. Bethany was home to Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead.
This is one of many instances where Jesus is shows He was completely in control of the events leading up to His death. He didn’t want to be handed over to the Jewish authorities too soon; His death had to occur during the Passover. Staying in Bethany kept Him further off the public “radar” until His time had really come.
2. What would you have done?
We could twist our heads around backward trying to make a firm calendar of the events of the last week of Jesus’ life. For example, Mark has Jesus going directly from Jericho to Jerusalem while John has Him stopping in Bethany first. There are ways to reconcile these seeming inconsistencies, but today we’ll skip all those details and look at the sequence Mark offers.
Every faithful Jew was expected to return to Jerusalem at this time every year. If you were wealthy, you probably did. If not, this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Jesus’ coming into the city was something people anticipated and raised the excitement of THAT Passover to new heights. They were familiar with the details of the predictions about the Messiah in the Scriptures, so Jesus’ method of arrival sent an unspoken message: “Here I am! Your King has arrived!”
SO - on this day you greet Jesus as a King, with the great enthusiasms we read in vs. 8-10. You spread your cloak out on the road before Him. This is the ancient equivalent of the “red carpet treatment.” (In 2 Kings 9:13, when Jehu was crowned king, the people greeting him in this way.) Your hope is that this parade will be the first step to Jesus assuming the throne of David, overthrowing the Romans.
You spread out branches cut from roadside fields. In this culture cut branches were associated with joyous times. (For the Festival of Booths, palm branches were cut to make temporary shelters.)
You praise Him by shouting, “HOSANNA!” and “HOSANNA IN THE HIGHEST!” Hosanna means “God saves!” “BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD” was shouted by folks on one
side of the road, while “BLESSED IS THE COMING KINGDOM OF OUR FATHER DAVID” was shouted as a response by folks on the other side of the road. This antiphonal kind of worship was typical among the Jews; the Psalms were recited in this way.
3. Why would this Passover be remembered?
Because it fulfilled Old Testament prophecy and a prophecy from Jesus Himself. Jesus sent His disciples after the COLT as a demonstration of His miraculous fore-knowledge and divine authority over the events as they unfolded (vs. 2-4).
His miraculous foreknowledge is revealed in the fact that the animal was precisely where He said it was and the exchange occurred just as He said it would. The fact that the owners initially objected shows Jesus had NOT made previous arrangements with them. The disciples did not identify themselves or the LORD they represented.
His divine authority is indicated in the fact that the owners allowed the COLT to be taken by strangers who did nothing more than say, “THE LORD NEEDS IT AND WILL SEND IT BACK SHORTLY.”
This is the only time in the Gospels that Jesus rides anything. He walked everywhere else. The distance between Bethany and Jerusalem is just two miles. The COLT is not needed for practical reasons, but was chosen to send a biblical message to the
faithful pilgrims on the road; “Your Messiah has come! God’s Promised One is here!”
You will also remember it because on that day your hopes and dreams were fulfilled. At this time in history, the Jewish people had been under the heel of Rome for nearly 100 years. They were understandably anxious to throw the Romans out of their land. During those years, men would claim to be the Messiah and amass a group of followers. The inevitable result was a rebellion against Rome ending in bloodshed and even worse offenses imposed on the people as a means of punishment and discouraging further rebellion.
To these horrible violations you added with the typical and more personal abuses of authority you’ve experienced at the hands of Romans.
With the city crammed with pilgrims during the Passover, it was a yearly crucible for rebellion, and the Jewish leaders worried terribly about a repeat of past events. You can see how easily a big public demonstration like this would provoke a deadly reaction in a way that Jesus’ teaching or miracles ever did.
One last fact to support this interpretation: when Jesus finally got into the city, what did He do? Not much. Verse eleven tells us He went directly to the temple, but just looked around a bit, then left!
That was surely unexpected and probably felt a little anticlimactic. And it begs the question, why go to all of that trouble just walk in, look around, and walk back out again?
I believe the best explanation for Jesus’ action is because the parade accomplished Jesus’ purpose and there was nothing more to do. He’d already made His point and there was no reason to linger.
Dr. William Craig Lane is a well-known apologist for the Christian faith. I used his article on Mark 11 as a basis for my remarks and will quote a small part of it to conclude. (Go to https://www.reasonablefaith.org/writings/popular-writings/jesus-of-nazareth/the-triumphal-entry/ to see for yourself.)
“What lessons can we learn from the story of Jesus’ triumphal entry? Let me mention two. First, we see the Lordship of Jesus. The crucifixion of Jesus was not an accident that befell him unawares while visiting Jerusalem. Rather, Jesus understood and embraced his calling to undergo so excruciating a death. In fact he deliberately provoked the events that would lead to his execution. Throughout the process he displayed foreknowledge of the events of his passion and announced all these things in advance.
“The second lesson is related to the first: Jesus doesn’t always meet our expectations. The Jews expected a king who would be a great military leader who would establish God’s kingdom by force. But Jesus was radically different than they expected.”
At the beginning of this message I asked,
What if you were there to welcome Jesus?
I hope and pray your answer has come closer to the very message Jesus was trying to send: He came as King, but not the kind of King who meets worldly hopes or fulfills dreams we have written for ourselves.
I hope and pray you have decided to make Jesus YOUR King. That you see in Him the fulfilling of all God’s promises on His terms and in ways that bless and challenge us in ways we didn’t anticipate or want, but have found to be exactly what we needed.
There is no better reaction you can have to the account of Jesus’ triumphal entry than to take your place among the crowds who welcomed Him. No greater act of faith than to welcome Him as your own Lord and Savior.