Chapter BY Chapter

Jesus Comes to Jerusalem as King

 

John 12:12-19

 

The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem.  They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,

 

“Hosanna!”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

“Blessed is the king of Israel!”

 

Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written:

 

“Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion;
    see, your king is coming,
    seated on a donkey’s colt.”

 

At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him.

 

Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word.  Many people, because they had heard that he had performed this sign, went out to meet him.  So the Pharisees said to one another, “See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!”

 

*******  

 

Finally, Jesus comes to the Passover festival.  The great crowd that came for this festival all hear that Jesus is on his way, so what do they do?  They take palm branches to meet him.  It was customary in that time to lay down a path of palm leaves for a hero to walk on.  This is similar to how we roll out the red carpet for people today.  Now when I first read this I wondered about the special effort needed to climb palm trees like we have today in Florida.  A lot of scholars wondered about that too.  That is, until some 2,000 year old date palm tree seeds were found in Israel in a clay pot that was dug up.  They planted the seeds, and it grew a date palm tree the trunk of which only grows up to 4 feet tall.  So these palm trees were popular then and the people could easily make a carpet of palm branches for Jesus. 

 

See how the people praise Jesus. 

 

“Hosanna!”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

“Blessed is the king of Israel!”

 

Hosanna Means “Save.”

 

This seems to be a quote of Psalm 118:25-26

 

“25 Lord, save us!
    Lord, grant us success!

26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
    From the house of the Lord we bless you.” (You is plural)

 

This is an acknowledgement of Jesus as the Savior of Israel, a blessing on those that come in His name, and a proclamation of Jesus as the true king of Israel. 

 

However, Jesus does not come on foot.  Nor does he come on a stallion.  Jesus comes in on a lowly donkey.  This is a fulfillment of Zech. 9:9.

 

“Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!
    Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you,
    righteous and victorious,
lowly and riding on a donkey,
    on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

 

How was Jesus victorious?

1. He won the hearts of the people.

2. He spread his gospel bringing more people to God.

3. He lived a perfect life, keeping all of God’s commands.

4. He upheld God’s ethics taught in the Old Testament.

5. He revealed God to the people.

 

Notice that the disciples did not initially realize that this was a fulfillment of prophesy.

 

“At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him.”

 

Notice the words, “after Jesus was glorified.”  We are going to touch upon these words later. 

 

Now, people are highly active at this time, spreading the word about Jesus. 

 

“Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word.  Many people, because they had heard that he had performed this sign, went out to meet him.”

 

So, I can imagine that just about everyone came out to meet Jesus.  They didn’t have Twitter or video games back then to keep people occupied.  They didn’t have You Tube either, so you couldn’t see a recording of it there and play it over and over.  So, if I heard about a man that raised a dead man from the dead, I would want to spend my day going out to meet him too. 

 

These people respond to Jesus as you would expect.  It is typical to honor a man that does good things.  With all the signs that Jesus performed, it could be concluded that he was the Messiah, the Mighty God, and God with us.  It would seem that everyone would be celebrating. 

 

Do the Pharisees act as you would expect?

 

It says here:

 

“So the Pharisees said to one another, “See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!”

 

The phrase for “See, this is getting us nowhere,” is literally, “Do you see that you are not gaining nothing?” 

 

So, the Pharisees are worried about what they can gain. 

 

Sure, there is a double negative there.  One would use a double negative in slang for emphasis back then just as people do today. 

 

Yet, all that the Pharisees care about is what they can gain materially. 

 

Other than what they had to gain materially, what could the Pharisees have gained?

1. A relationship with God, and a relationship with Jesus Christ.

2. Forgiveness of sins.

3. Eternal salvation.

4. A unified country.

5. An outreach to the world for God.

 

It should also be noted that the Passover that year was on a Friday.  This puts the dinner at Simon’s a Saturday, and since this is the next day, it is a Sunday, now celebrated as Palm Sunday.