Palm Sunday 2023 Matthew 21:1-11 Who is This?
Good morning! It’s Palm Sunday in case you weren’t aware. It’s kind of a festal Sunday, the Sunday before Easter, or Resurrection Sunday, it’s a kind of preparatory festival, getting ready for the most important Sunday on the Church’s calendar.
And so with that in mind we are going to lay aside our study in the Gospel of Luke for a few weeks. This morning we are going to look at Matthew chapter 21, and verses 1-11, and that’s on page 826 in the pew Bibles.
Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” 4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, 5 “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’ ”
6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. 8 Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” 10 And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” 11 And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”
Let’s pray.
One of the main difficulties with preaching on festal Sundays like Palm Sunday, and Christmas Sunday, and Easter Sunday is that we get kind of dropped into the middle of an ongoing scene and we have to do a little work to get caught up with the context.
One of the reasons that I prefer to preach expository book by book and verse by verse is that each week we know where we have come from and where we are going. Each sermon builds on the previous text but that isn’t our luxury today.
Today we find Jesus coming from Bethany on His way to Jerusalem. What had happened in Bethany is very important because it has great effect on the context in which we find Jesus.
Can anyone think of a famous family that lived in Bethany? Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.
Bethany was where Jesus was coming from on His way to Jerusalem and that’s important because the folks from Bethany that knew that Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead were most likely part of the crowd shouting their loud Hosanna.
The timing of Jesus’ trip from Bethany to Jerusalem is also important.
Does anybody know what festival the people in Jerusalem were preparing for? Passover.
This meant that there were upwards of 2 million people in and around Jerusalem. The road from Bethany was most likely lined with tents of families that had come to the holy city to celebrate Passover. This would also contribute to the festal atmosphere around the city and these worshippers were also part of the crowd that followed Jesus into the city shouting their loud Hosannas.
Of course Jesus was also followed by the crowds from Galilee as well as His disciples. They had seen His miracles and heard His teaching and they helped initiate this scene that we see played out before us.
But even though they had witnessed the things that Jesus had done and had heard Him talk about the kingdom of God, some form the very beginning of His public ministry, I don’t think that anybody besides Jesus had any idea what was really going on. Not a clue.
I’m not going to try and imagine what the disciples who were sent after the donkeys were thinking, I’m certainly not going to try and imagine what the donkeys were thinking, we only have a faint idea of what this mixed bag of festal crowd members was thinking. I do know that they were all clueless except for Jesus.
So let’s not be like them. They didn’t know what was happening really, but Jesus did, and do you know why? Because He wrote the book, this book, the Bible, Old and New Testaments, so He knew the significance of these events even if everybody around Him didn’t.
That’s one of the advantages that we have over the crowd and even the disciples, we have the book so we can look up the answers. So let’s look at a few that point out the significance of the day and its events.
First, it was the Sunday before Passover. Exodus 12:1-3 says, The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 “This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. 3 Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household.
On the tenth day of the month, in preparation for Passover, each family selects a lamb that will be for them the Passover Lamb. Palm Sunday was the tenth of the month and Jesus is our Passover Lamb.
In verse 2 Jesus sends two disciples down into the village to fetch two donkeys for Him to ride into the city. “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.”
Jesus didn’t ask for the donkeys because it was such a long ride from Bethany to Jerusalem, He wasn’t worn out, He was fulfilling prophecy. The prophecy is found in Zechariah 9:9 and Matthew quotes it in verse 5.
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
The donkey itself is significant too. Entering the city on a donkey was a simple way to symbolize the truth that Jesus did in fact come as King of Israel.
When Solomon became king after David, King David commanded that he ride his favorite mule during the inaugural procession into Jerusalem in 1 Kings 1:33. Now, a far greater "Son of David" rides triumphantly into the city of kings on a donkey.
6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. 8 Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
Why did the crowd shout Hosanna? What does that even mean? Where does it come from?
Good news, it comes from the Bible, the word is defined for us, and the reason the people were shouting it is given to us, all in Psalm 118.
Psalm 118 was one of the Halel Psalms that were sung specifically when entering Jerusalem, it wasn’t at all random that the crowd just started shouting this at this particular moment, but for the first time they had the right person there in their midst to apply it to.
I’ll read just a portion of it and tell me if anything here sounds familiar.
19 Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord. 20 This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter through it. 21 I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. 22 The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. 23 This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. 24 This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. 25 Save us, we pray, O Lord! O Lord, we pray, give us success! 26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We bless you from the house of the Lord. 27 The Lord is God, and he has made his light to shine upon us. Bind the festal sacrifice with cords, up to the horns of the altar! 28 You are my God, and I will give thanks to you; you are my God; I will extol you. 29 Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!
Jesus would enter Jerusalem through the gate called Beautiful and go cleanse the Temple of the money changers.
Jesus is the Cornerstone of the Church, the stone that the builders, the Jewish leaders, rejected.
Save us, we pray, O Lord! Know what the Hebrew word is for this expression? HOSANNA!
The Lord is God, and He has made His light, Jesus, to shine on us.
Bind the festal sacrifice with cords, up to the horns of the altar. Jesus is the festal sacrifice, the Passover Lamb, given for us.
And though the crowd that day was participating in the fulfilling of prophecy verse ten proves the point that nobody but Jesus knew what was really happening.
10 And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” 11 And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”
The city was jammed with people getting ready for the nation’s greatest feast and all of a sudden there is this great procession down the Mount of Olives, through the gate called Beautiful on the east side of the city with people singing and shouting Hosanna and the whole parade is being led by a man on a donkey’s foal. It only stands to reason that people would ask, “who is this?”
And those in the crowd said, “This is the Prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee.”
Were they wrong? No. Were they right? Not completely. Their explanation of who this was and their expectations of what He would do fell desperately short.
The crowd said that Jesus was a prophet, Jesus was saying “I am so much more, I am Messiah.”
The hopes of friends and foes alike were fulfilled by Jesus though not in the ways that they thought.
Jesus suffered death a few days later that He might gloriously conquer it.
In Jerusalem He didn’t receive a throne as the disciples would have wanted but instead received a cross that He might rule from the throne of the hearts of all that would believe in Him.
The crowd shouted, HOSANNA, save us! And that’s exactly what He would do on the cross, not save us from our circumstances but save us from our sin.
Amen.
Psalm 24
1 The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, 2 for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. 3 Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. 5 He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. 6 Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. 7 Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. 8 Who is this King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle! 9 Lift up your heads, O gates! And lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. 10 Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory!
