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Christ’s Triumphal Entry Into Jerusalem<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
David Padfield<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the Sunday before His death on the cross, Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem. Great multitudes of people took palm branches and went out to meet Him, while crying out \u201cHosanna! \u2018Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!\u2019 The king of Israel!\u201d (John 12:12-13). In order to fully understand this passage, we must realize how excited the crowd was. They had come to Jerusalem for the Passover, and along the way had heard about Lazarus, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
National feelings were always high during Jewish feast days. On this occasion the crowds were like dry kindling, ready to blaze up, and Lazarus was a match. The Jewish rulers had already decided to kill Lazarus \u201cbecause on account of him many of the Jews went away and believed in Jesus\u201d (John 12:11).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAt such a time Jerusalem and the villages round about were crowded. On one occasion a census was taken of the lambs slain at the Passover Feast. The number was given as 256,000. There had to be a minimum of ten people per lamb; and if that estimate is correct it means that there must have been as many as 2,700,000 people at that Passover Feast\u201d (William Barclay, Commentary on John<\/em>, p. 115).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Try to picture in your mind the Jews streaming into Bethany to gaze at a risen man and the Messiah they had longed for (John 12:9).<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the jubilant crowds welcomed Christ into the city, they waved palm branches\u2014a symbol of victory and rejoicing. The crowds also shouted, \u201cBlessed is he who comes in the name of Jehovah,\u201d a chant taken from Psalm 118:26. In that Psalm the phrase, \u201che that cometh in the name of Jehovah\u201d meant the worshipper drawing near the temple. The added words, \u201cKing of Israel,\u201d diverted the expression to Jesus. \u201cHosanna\u201d is from a Hebrew word which means \u201csave we pray.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n William Barclay said of this Psalm: \u201cFurther, this was characteristically the conqueror\u2019s psalm. To take but one instance, these very verses were sung and shouted by the Jerusalem crowd when they welcomed back Simon Maccabaeus after he had conquered Acra and wrested it from Syrian dominion more than a hundred years before. There is no doubt that when the people sang this psalm they were looking on Jesus as God\u2019s Anointed One, the Messiah, the Deliverer, the One who was to come. And there is no doubt that they were looking on him as the Conqueror. To them it must have been only a matter of time until the trumpets rang out and call to arms sounded and the Jewish nation swept to its long delayed victory over Rome and the world. Jesus approached Jerusalem with the shout of the mob hailing a conqueror in his ears\u2014and it must have hurt him, for they were looking in him for that very thing which he refused to be\u201d (Commentary on John<\/em>, p. 117).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Earlier in His ministry Jesus had pulled back from the crowds and on one occasion \u201cwhen Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to a mountain by Himself alone\u201d (John 6:15). He had sought every possible way to avoid publicity (John 5:13; Mark 3:1-12; Mark 5:35-43; Mark 9:2-9). Now, Jesus deliberately sets Himself to intensify the excitement of the crowd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus chose to ride into Jerusalem on a donkey, which was a fulfillment of Messianic prophecy. \u201cRejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey\u201d (Zech. 9:9).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The scene presents an interesting contrast between Jesus and the Zealots. The Zealots were ready for a hand to hand fight with Rome, while Jesus chose a slow paced donkey to bear Him into the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWith us the ass is lowly and despised; but in the East it was a noble animal. Jair, the Judge, had thirty sons who rode on asses\u2019 colts (Judges 10:4). Ahithophel rode upon an ass (2 Samuel 17:23). Mephibosheth, the royal prince, the son of Saul, came to David riding upon an ass (2 Samuel 19:26). The point is that a king came riding upon a horse when he was bent on war; he came riding upon an ass when he was coming in peace. This action of Jesus is a sign that he was not the warrior figure men dreamed of, but the Prince of Peace. No one saw it that way at that time, not even the disciples, who should have known so much better. The minds of all were filled with a kind of mob hysteria. Here was the one who was to come. But they looked for the Messiah of their own dreams and their own wishful thinking; they did not look for the Messiah whom God had sent. Jesus drew a dramatic picture of what he claimed to be, but none understood the claim\u201d (William Barclay, Commentary on John<\/em>, p. 118).<\/p>\n\n\n\n To help us further appreciate our Lord\u2019s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, let us notice how a victorious Roman general would receive an official \u201ctriumph\u201d parade upon his return to Rome. \u201cOnly those were eligible for it who had won a campaign in which 5000 of the enemy had been slain; the unfortunate commander who had won with less slaughter received merely an ovation\u2014for him no ox was sacrificed, but only a sheep (ovis). The procession formed outside the city, at whose borders the general and his troops were required to lay down their arms; thence it entered through a triumphal arch that set a fashion for a thousand monuments. Trumpeters led the march; after them came towers or floats representing the captured cities, and pictures showing the exploits of the victors; then wagons rumbled by, heavy with gold, silver, works of art, and other spoils. Marcellus\u2019 triumph was memorable for the stolen statuary of Syracuse (212); Scipio Africanus in 207 displayed 14,000 and, in 202, 123,000 pounds of silver taken from Spain and Carthage. Seventy white oxen followed, walking philosophically to their death; then the captured chiefs of the enemy; then lictors, harpers, pipers, and incense-bearers; then, in a flamboyant chariot, the general himself, wearing a purple toga and a crown of gold, and bearing an ivory scepter and a laurel branch as emblems of victory and the insignia of Jove. In the chariot with him might be his children; beside it rode his relatives; behind them his secretaries and aides. Last came the soldiers, some carrying the prizes awarded them, every one wearing a crown; some praising their leaders, others deriding them; for it was an inviolable tradition that on these brief occasions the speech of the army should be free and unpunished, to remind the proud victors of their fallible mortality. The general mounted the Capitol to the Temple of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, laid his loot at the feet of the gods, presented an animal in sacrifice, and usually ordered the captive chieftains to be slain as an additional thank-offering. It was a ceremony well designed to stir military ambition and reward military effort; for man\u2019s vanity yields only to hunger and love\u201d (Will Durant, Caesar And Christ<\/em>, pp. 82-83).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Brother J. W. McGarvey observed: \u201cIt has been the custom of all lands to bestrew in some manner the pathway of those who are thought worthy of the highest honor. When Lafayette visited our fathers after the Revolution the roads over which he approached our cities were strewn with flowers. Thus over flowers Alexander entered Babylon, and Xerxes crossed the bridge of Hellespont over a myrtle-strewn pathway. Monier tells of a Persian ruler who in modern times made his honored progress over a road covered for three miles with roses. But it is more natural to contrast the entry of Jesus with the Roman triumphs so popular in that day. The wealth of conquered kingdoms was expended to insure their magnificence. We find none of that tinsel and specious glitter in the triumph of Christ. No hired multitudes applaud him; no gold-braided banners wave in his honor. There is nothing here but the lusty, honest shout of the common people, and the swaying of the God-made banners of the royal palms. The rich in purse, the learned in schoolcraft and the high in office were, as usual, not there\u201d (The Fourfold Gospel<\/em>, pp. 576-577).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The entry of Christ into the city of Jerusalem was not only a literal fulfillment of prophecy, but it was a demonstration of the nature of His kingdom (John 18:36). The Prince of Peace entered the city of David while riding upon a donkey, not upon a horse as if ready for war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A few days after His entry into Jerusalem, the tide of public opinion would turn against Christ. Our Savior knew this would happen, for on the day of His entry into Jerusalem He said, \u201cAnd I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to Myself\u201d (John 12:32). John tells us that Jesus said these words \u201csignifying by what death He would die\u201d (John 12:33).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some of the same people who had cut down palm branches to welcome the Son of God into their city would soon stand in front of Pilate\u2019s judgment hall and cry out for the death of the Lamb of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The apostle John records the scene as Pilate presents the innocent Jesus to a stirred-up Jewish mob. \u201cNow it was the Preparation Day of the Passover, and about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, \u2018Behold your King!\u2019 But they cried out, \u2018Away with Him, away with Him! Crucify Him!\u2019 Pilate said to them, \u2018Shall I crucify your King?\u2019 The chief priests answered, \u2018We have no king but Caesar!\u2019 So he delivered Him to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus and led Him away\u201d (John 19:14-16).<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2014 Via Articles from the church of Christ in Zion, Illinois 1) Hear the gospel, f<\/strong>or that is how faith comes (Rom. 10:17; John 20:30-31). Tebeau Street \u201cGo therefore and make disciples of all the nations\u2026teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age\u201d (Matthew 28:19-20, NASB).\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014- Contents: 1) Christ\u2019s Triumphal Entry Into Jerusalem (David Padfield)\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014- -1- Christ’s Triumphal Entry Into Jerusalem David Padfield On the Sunday before […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomastedwards.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomastedwards.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomastedwards.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomastedwards.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomastedwards.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thomastedwards.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":350,"href":"https:\/\/thomastedwards.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249\/revisions\/350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomastedwards.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomastedwards.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomastedwards.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014-<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Steps That Lead to Eternal Salvation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
2) Believe<\/strong> in the deity of Christ (John 8:24; John 3:18).
3) Repent<\/strong> of sins (Luke 13:5; Acts 17:30).
4) Confess faith<\/strong> in Christ (Rom. 10:9-10; Acts 8:36-38).
5) Be baptized<\/strong> in water for the remission of sins (Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; 22:16; Rom. 6:3-4; Gal. 3:26-27; 1 Pet. 3:21).
6) Continue in the faith<\/strong>, living for the Lord; for, if not, salvation can be lost (Heb. 10:36-39; Rev. 2:10; 2 Pet. 2:20-22).
\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CHURCH OF CHRIST
1402 Tebeau Street, Waycross, GA\u00a0 31501
Sunday<\/strong> services:\u00a09:00 a.m. (Bible class); 10 a.m. & 5 p.m. (worship)
Wednesday:<\/strong>\u00a07 p.m. (Bible class)
evangelist\/editor:\u00a0<\/strong>Tom Edwards (912) 281-9917
Tom@ThomasTEdwards.com<\/a>
http:\/\/thomastedwards.com\/go<\/a> (Older version of Gospel Observer website without pictures, but back to March 1990)
http:\/\/tebeaustreetchurchofchrist.org\/<\/a>
http:\/\/ThomasTEdwards.com\/audioser.html<\/a> (audio sermons)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"