Join us for Day 1 of our Holy Week Devotional as we reflect on the Triumphal Entry and its relevance to our lives today. Let this video deepen your understanding of Jesus' mission and the heart of His Kingdom.
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Transcript:
Around the year A.D. 30, Jesus went to Jerusalem for the Passover feast. When he approached the city on the colt of a donkey, many people recognized him and hailed him as Israel’s king. For this reason, his entry into the city is commonly known as the Triumphal Entry.
Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on the colt of a donkey in order to fulfill the prophecy of Zechariah 9. The donkey was significant because it was the mount ridden by kings during times of peace when they were confident that there were no threats against them. This symbolic action was intended to display Jesus’ confidence as Israel’s rightful king; to affirm those that were faithful to his kingdom message; and to rebuke those that weren’t.
As Jesus neared the city, the people began to recognize him and to welcome him. In order to honor him, many laid palm branches and even their cloaks on the road, and they praised him loudly. As we read in Mark 11:9-10:
Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted, "Hosanna!" "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" "Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!" "Hosanna in the highest!"
But not everyone welcomed Jesus. He was rejected and opposed by the Jewish leadership, such as the priests and teachers of the law — the very ones who should have been most excited by his arrival. By rejecting God’s anointed one, they proved that their own ministries were opposed to God and his work. Listen to Jesus’ words to Jerusalem when he entered the city, recorded in Luke 19:42-44:
If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace — but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will … not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you.
This rejection continued as the religious leaders spent the early part of Jesus’ final week asking all manner of questions in their attempts to discredit him before the people. They also tried to provoke the Roman authorities to oppose him, and repeatedly challenged Jesus’ identity and authority as Christ.
At his triumphal entry and for days afterwards, the people praised and accepted Jesus while the religious authorities rejected him. Why did people have such diverse reactions to him? Well, we can understand it at different levels. First of all, those who have power want to hold on to it, and Jesus came as a threat to their power. They understood the kingdom of God in a narrow way, in a nationalistic way, in an ethnocentric way, in a tribal way, and they had the most to lose. We also should remember that it’s not very long, it’s late in “Holy week,” as we call it, where everyone, even the crowds that had followed Jesus, cried out for the release of Barabbas instead of Jesus. Jesus came not fulfilling people’s expectations of what they wanted God to do. Instead, he came manifesting what God was determined to do, and that means a threat to our own independence, a threat to our own autonomy. We don’t like to die to self, and so Jesus brought the threat of overturning our human wills, and that’s why he was ultimately, from a human level, rejected.
– Rev. Michael Glodo, Reformed Theological Seminary
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