Lesson
#8
The Old Testament:
And I will encamp about my house
because of the army, because of him that passes by, and because of him that
returns: and no oppressor shall pass through them any more: for now have I seen
with my eyes. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of
Jerusalem: behold your King comes unto you: he is just, and having salvation;
lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. And I will cut off the chariot from
Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off: and
he shall speak peace unto the heathen: and his dominion shall be from sea even
to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth. (Zech 9:8-10)
The Psalm:
This is the day which the Lord
has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.
Save now [Hosanna], I beg you, O Lord: O
Lord, I beg you, send now prosperity.
Blessed be he that comes in the name of the Lord: we have blessed you
out of the house of the Lord.
God is the Lord, which has shown us light: bind the sacrifice with
cords, even unto the horns of the altar.
The Gospel:
When Jesus and his disciples had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage,
at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, "Go into
the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a
colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you,
just say this, `The Lord needs them.' And he will send them immediately."
This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying,
"Tell the daughter of Zion,
Look, your king is coming to you,
humble, and mounted on a donkey,
and on a colt, the foal of a donkey."
The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; they brought the donkey
and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. A very large
crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees
and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and that
followed were shouting,
"Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!"
When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, "Who is
this?" The crowds were saying, "This is the prophet Jesus from
Nazareth in Galilee." (Matthew
21:1-11)
Description of the Palm Sunday Window
· Top Icon: Bee hive. Notice the striking detail of this window. The bee hive is a historic icon of Christianity.
· Main Window: Jesus, in red, is riding a donkey into Jerusalem. Men, women and children are holding palm fronds welcoming Jesus. Notice that they all have their mouths open as if singing Hosanna. The building in the background is similar to the old city walls of Jerusalem. Inside the door are perhaps Jewish leaders who are planning ways to put an end to Jesus.
· Bottom Icon: Cross surrounded by palm fronds.
Many of us have probably seen children in church on Palm Sunday marching and
waving palm fronds and singing hymns that had the word "Hosanna" in
it. This fun little symbolic play we do every year is based on a text
found in all four of the Gospels (Mat 21:1-11, Mark 11:1-11, Luke 19:28-40,
John 12:12-19). The scriptures refer to it as Jesus' triumphal entry into
Jerusalem. In fact, like his last supper, it was his last trip to
Jerusalem in his human form.
To set the stage, Jesus had decided it was time to go back to Jerusalem.
To prepare his disciples, he had told them that he was going to be imprisoned
and put to death. Peter didn't take this too well and according to the
KJV "rebuked" Jesus for this nonsense. Jesus said to Peter, Get
thee behind me Satan (Mat 16:22-23). You know, that has to really be
bad when Jesus calls you Satan!
Just a week before this triumphal entry, Jesus had raised Lazarus from the
dead. The disciples responded by saying - don't you remember the last
time we were in Judea, they wanted to stone you (John 11:8)? Thomas, in
characteristic fashion, added, Let us also go, that we may die with him
(John 11:16).
The news of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead got quickly back to Caiaphas -
the Jewish high priest. His response was to hatch an incredible
conspiracy to kill Jesus with chilling theological implications. It is
expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole
nation perish not. And this he spoke not of himself: but being high
priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation; and not
for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the
children of God that were scattered abroad (John 11:49-52). They also
hatched a plan to put Lazarus back in the grave (John 12:10)!
With this as the prelude, Jesus sent two of his disciples on ahead to go get a
donkey. It also included instructions for what to do if any questions
were asked. Now, on the surface, this almost sounds like 'horse
stealing'. Well, questions were asked and the answer "the lord hath
need of it" worked. You know, if I needed a Dodge Colt and sent some
of my friends to the next town to get it with that story, there might be some
blue lights on the scene rather quickly. Some think that some sort of
miracle was at work in this acquisition of the donkey while others think these
donkey owners were other disciples with a prearranged plan. I favor the
later argument since similar circumstances and arrangements were also made for
the Passover (Mat 26:17-19).
It is interesting to me that Jesus began his earthly life, albeit in Mary’s womb, riding a donkey to Bethlehem. Knowing how the story ends, we see that he ended his earthly life by riding a donkey into Jerusalem. The crowds gathered at the Jerusalem gate probably had no idea what was to happen in just a week. Even though he told his disciples clearly what was to happen, I wonder just what their reaction was to the crowds that greeted Jesus. I’ll bet they, especially Thomas, thought Jesus had it wrong and now the inauguration of the Messiah was about to take place.
As he rode in on the donkey, the crowd went wild yelling “Hosanna” giving Jesus
a nice welcoming parade. Hosanna is a Hebrew/Aramaic word that literally
means "SAVE NOW". It comes from Psalm 118 quoted above. Notice that the bolded parts are the portions
quoted in the Matthew text as fulfillment of prophecy. When looking at a fulfilled prophecy, I like
to add the verse before and after to give a feeling of context. Whereas the contexts of most scriptures seem
rather foreign, the context of the Psalm starts with the well known, This is
the day that the Lord has made, Let us rejoice and be glad in it. To me, this certainly implies that the crowd
expected a salvation experience on “that day” at that “moment” which is what
“Hosanna” literally means.
If you consider the next verse in the Psalm,
And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from
Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off: and he shall speak peace unto
the heathen: and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river
even to the ends of the earth, you can start to see why all of those people
were so excited. If this Jesus was the
Messiah and this was the day, then it is likely that the crowd thought
Jesus was about to put the Romans out of business. Considering how much the Jews hated the Roman occupation, this
was unbelievably great news. Anyone
would get elected with expectations like this.
It obviously stirred up contention around Jerusalem.
According to John's account, the Pharisees were worried that the whole world
would go after him (John 12:19)? In the
window, there appear to be four men in the
building who are concerned about this parade.
The one in front is holding up his hand as perhaps a caution to the
others behind him. This reminds me of
the reaction of one of the temple leaders in the
window that depicted Jesus as a youth.
In this window, one of the leaders seems to be dismissing Jesus’
answers.
During the parade, some of the Pharisees decided that it was getting a little
too loud. According to the lyric of Jesus Christ Superstar, the Pharisees
sing, What can we do about this Jesus of Nazareth - miracle worker, leader
of fools. What can we say about this Jesus mania, one thing I'll say for
him - Jesus is cool. Shortly thereafter, the Pharisees demand that he
rebuke his disciples for being too loud. Tell the rabble to be quite
we anticipate a riot, this common crowd is much too loud. Tell the mob who sing your song that they
are fools and they are wrong, they are a curse, they should disperse. Jesus responded in the Gospels by saying
that if the crowd could be silenced, the stones would sing out (Luk 19:40, cf
Ps 98:4-9 and Isa 55:12). In Superstar, Jesus sings, Why waste your
breath moaning at the crowd?. Nothing
can be done to stop the shouting. If
every tongue was still the noise would still continue, the rock and stones
themselves would start to sing…Hosanna Heysanna Sanna Sanna Ho-sanna Hey-sanna
Hosanna!
I have a friend who believes that the modern church has quit
praising the Lord as we should. He maintains that God has therefore given
us the knowledge of how to manufacture recording tape which is simple plastic
strip coated with tiny magnetic particles - rocks so to speak. Thus, the
rocks are singing his praise in our absence - according to my friend.
Jesus entered the great golden gate of the walled city on this parade. The golden gate, alleged by many, lead directly into the temple and into the holy of holies. It was a traditional belief of the day that the Messiah was to enter this gate and go straight into the temple. Obviously, it didn’t happen as expected and thus, later in history, several interesting attempts were made to prevent the future Messiah from again parading into Jerusalem. The Muslims (1541) completely blocked up this gate and planted a cemetery in front of it figuring that the Jewish Messiah couldn’t get through a wall nor would desecrate himself in a cemetery.
To this day with some, there is the belief that when the real Messiah comes, he will still enter that gate busting through the door and leading people out of that cemetery in the final resurrection. There is even a web site with live cameras on this wall broadcasting hourly images of this gate hoping to catch the messiah when he comes. It is also believed that this Messiah will walk through and build/restore the new heavenly temple on the temple mount (Ez 43:7). Since we Christians all basically believe in a mystical 2nd Coming, it would be interesting to see if this happens in the future.
Summary
To close, I want to quote some more of Superstar during the Hosanna. In it, the crowd repeats a similar refrain. The first is when he enters the city and they sing Hey JC, JC won't you smile at me? The next refrain is Hey JC, JC you're all right by me? As the crowd gets larger and the music more majestic, they sing Hey JC, JC won't you fight for me? Then the crowd approaches mob proportions and they sing Hey JC, JC won't you die for me? At this, the face of Jesus goes from pure joy to a rather forlorn look. In fact, it is likely that many in this very same mob only FIVE days later yelled to free Barabbas and "Crucify HIM" in response to Pilate's offer (Mat 27:15-23).
If a crowd expects something and gets another, mob rule can often occur. We see it in the news all of the time from China to Serbia and almost here in the United States with this last presidential election. The bottom icon incorporates the palm fronds surrounding a shining cross as a sort of decorative garland. To place this into a context we can understand, this would be like placing a golden electric chair in a garland of victory roses. We are used to shining crosses everywhere. Believers in the first century would recoil at the sight of a shining cross so prominently displayed.
Even so, it is a great visual display of expectations met with the unexpected. The crowd expected a conquering Messiah who almost immediately got arrested by the authorities. The mob, I’m sure, felt everything from astonishment to outright fraudulence. No wonder they turned on him so quickly. For Jesus himself, his then highest point of earthly power was about to quickly degenerate into execution. From God’s point of view, it was an execution of an innocent man for the sins of the world. In the strange ways and means of biblical prophecy, Caiaphas turned out to be one of the few that was correct in his assessment.
It is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not. And this he spoke not of himself: but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation; and not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad" (John 11:49-52)
In memory of Spurgeon Carter Keith. God blessed our marriage of 67 years. Given by Mrs. Spurgeon Carter Keith.
