The Hosanna People

The importance of the triumphal procession

April 12, 1992

Introduction

It was a day of contrasts! A Carpenter being called a King! Little children and happy disciples praising and shouting for joy while worried power brokers frowned and plotted evil! Bright sunshine on a happy parade while black storm clouds piled high on the western sky!

It might have been funny to see a Galilean carpenter sitting on a borrowed donkey being proclaimed as king— except that no one was laughing in that way.

I. THERE WAS REAL POWER BEING DISPLAYED THAT DAY

[When we think of a power parade we think of the times we have seen a May Day parade in Red Square in Moscow, with thousands of booted troops, and massed gun carriers, and tanks by the score, and missiles. But believe me when I say that on a Sunday morning there paraded down Olivet's hill on a little donkey more sheer power than all the massed armies the world has ever seen!]

  1. The Pharisees and scribes certainly were not laughing. They had watched one failed revolution after another, and had managed to hang on to their temporal power by staying out of Rome's bad graces. This Carpenter from Galilee had never seemed too serious a challenge— until He had condemned "religion for profit" and had gone through the Temple like a whirlwind. His teachings seemed harmless enough— until he told the common people that their righteousness had to exceed the righteousness of the religious leaders! Even His miracles had not been too unsettling— until He had raised a well-known man, Lazarus from the dead, and it seemed that every simple, trusting soul in Jerusalem was going to buy into His Messiahship. The religious leaders were not laughing.
  2. The people were not laughing! There was nothing ridiculous in Jesus to them! They saw kindness and they saw hope and they saw power.

    True, they misunderstood the power. They saw this king as an immediate fulfillment to their highest hopes and dreams. They praised Him as best they could.

    These were NOT the same people who cried out "Crucify Him!" Can you imagine John and Peter and James and Mary Magdalene and Nathaniel and Zaccheus and formerly-blind Bartemaus and the widow of Nain and ... crying "Crucify Him!"?

    No, their faith was imperfect; but the believing people were sure that Jesus was Messiah! And every detail of that procession to the cross was a fulfillment of God's Word!

    This procession was a direct fulfillment of prophecy written hundreds of years before, as the prophet Zechariah described in detail:

    Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the war-horses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth. Zechariah 9:9-10

    They rightly acclaimed Him King! God was inhabiting their praise that day!

  3. And Jesus? Jesus was not laughing, either!

    Watch Him as He ascends— then mounts the donkey— then slowly descends Olivet's hill. Jesus knew that He IS the Son of God!

II. THERE WERE STARK CONTRASTS APPARENT THAT DAY

  1. There is PEACE on the face of Jesus! Contrast with the STRIFE in the hearts of those who coveted power. Suspicion, questioning every motivation, giving no one the benefit of the doubt; while Jesus, who knew what was in the heart of every human being still loved them and believed in them. [He said to Peter: "You will fail Me. But when you have returned, go strengthen your brothers!"] Jesus is the Prince of Peace; and He has promised His peace to every one of us! "Peace I leave with you!" How could He do this on the very eve of His crucifixion?
  2. There is LOVE in His face. Contrast with the HATRED of the abusers and the abused. "We've never gotten what we deserve! We will not have You or anyone else pretend to have authority over us! We hate anything or anybody who tells us that we need a savior from sin!"

III. WHY, DO YOU SUPPOSE, WAS THERE A TRIUMPHAL ENTRY?

  1. Because JESUS IS KING! This fact was established to three worlds!

    Jesus - the same Jesus who warns against selfish ambition— remember He said, "When you are invited to a feast don't take the place of honor— take the lowest seat"— this same Jesus permitted, even arranged for this parade, this Triumphal Entry!

    He acknowledges, He answers the representatives of the temple who tell Him He is in danger of inciting a riot. "It is fitting and proper— necessary— that these people cry out! If they are silent the very ROCKS will cry out! The Creator is HERE!"

  2. There is WORSHIP taking place that day in stark contrast to BLASPHEMY AND DENIAL OF GOD. On that day only brief hours away from the Cross the Worship of God and of His Christ looked over the Valley of the Shadow of Death, past Gethsemane and past Calvary, and even past the Resurrection and the empty tomb to say that from Eternity to Eternity "Jesus Is Lord!"
  3. THE COMPASSIONATE KING — Even in establishing His Lordship, Jesus does not betray His own character: There is a COMPASSION in His face as he comes directly across from the Beautiful Gate and looks over the city wall at the Temple of Herod. Jesus weeps!

IV. WHEN THE PROCESSION BEGAN

This procession had begun in the heart of God before the foundation of the earth was laid. It had been in the consciousness of the God-Man for a long time. Just how God the Son limited Himself in becoming one of us, and how His own self-awareness deepened, and how "Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and favor with God and man" we cannot understand. But early on in His ministry He knew that the Redemption of us all would cost His life!

Certainly Jesus knew on the Mount of Transfiguration. In that wonderful hour that can only be recalled with wonder, when His divine glory dazzled Peter and James and John, when Moses and Elijah spoke with Him about the death He would accomplish, even then Jesus knew what He faced in Jerusalem.

Again and again Jesus clarified to His disciples the fact that the Way He had chosen was through the Valley of Sorrow and Death. (Luke 18:31) Somehow the meaning escaped them. We hear what we want to hear all too often!

But as that great Passover of the Eternal Sacrifice came nearer, and Jesus made His way with the disciples to Jerusalem, in full knowledge of what awaited Him there, Jesus continued in character... With the salvation of all mankind on his shoulders Jesus was quick to hear a blind man's cry from the roadside in Jericho; continuing on He looked up into a tree and called Zaccheus down to tell him he was forgiven and loved... all the way to Jerusalem and the Cross.

Conclusion

When does this Triumphal Entry praise end?

  1. It never will!
  2. It must continue in our hearts, imperfect as our understanding may be. If Jesus is Lord, then let our hearts cry out: Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!

Prayer

Hymn