THE LAMB WHO WOULD BE KING!

When I think of the story of the Triumphal Entry of Jesus a.k.a Palm Sunday, I have to admit, that until very recently I still saw it through the coloring book page I was given in Sunday School as a child. An artist took what they knew and created a pretty picture. But was the artist's rendition accurate to the account in Scripture?

Others perhaps have imagined a modern parade like one they might have experienced as a child.

The whole community came early just to get the best seat with a good point of view. I have seen this event like that as well.

Crowds line the streets along the entire parade route, many wearing special clothing in the colors of the flag RED, WHITE and BLUE. 

Young kids waving flags and grandparents sitting on their canvas camping chairs. Lots of anticipation craning necks to see all the decorated floats, the marching bands, being led by dance teams, and even the appearance of Uncle Sam walking atop a tall pair of stilts. Clowns jugglers, queens, and princesses in evening gowns riding on floats.  

But neither of those pictures is accurate. Jesus was not riding his foal through a narrow crowded city street like my Sunday school coloring page indicated with the people pressed against the walls of buildings. If that picture was accurate, then where would people have spontaneously accessed their palm branches? There was not an abundance of trees in the city streets of Jerusalem.  

John 12:12 says," when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem the great crowd that had come for the festival

(the Feast of Unleavened Bread) went out (out of the city) to meet Him. They left the city and went into the fields and cut fronds from myrtle trees and palm trees. Their actions were premeditated. It required going out ahead of time with the proper tools to cut branches of the trees. They even knew which route He would travel because they had been there at the house of Lazarus in Bethany the day before to see the man Jesus had raised from the dead.  This was well known, the Scripture says the Jews sought to kill Lazarus because the miracle of his rising from the dead was causing the whole nation to go after Jesus. Jerusalem had an estimated population of 80-100 thousand people at that time, plus the great crowd of  Jews who had traveled back to Jerusalem for the Feast as required by law. 

But there was an older story that we could not have known one that happened 33 years earlier. 

Along that same road, the Shephards of Bethlehem were coming from the south, leading the sacrificial lambs sanctified for use in the temple and for Passover. Out of this herd of sheep, once they arrived in the temple, the priests would select the one lamb that would be sacrificed to cover the sins of Israel. This 10th Day of Nisan (the month of miracles) a.k.a Abib = Spring

This great crowd lined the road, coming down from the Mount of Olives and across the Kidron valley. 

Then someone spotted the prophet from Nazareth, the one who had raised Lazarus, who cleansed lepers and healed the sick, the man who fed 5,000 men with only two fish and five loaves. They had heard about this man, and the many miracles he had done. and the authority with which he had taught the Scriptures. Although Scripture tells us the disciples didn't know this until afterward, the crowd was fulfilling a prophecy by the prophet Zechariah written about 500 years previously.  

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!

Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem!

Behold, your King is coming to you;

He is just and having salvation,

Lowly and riding on a donkey,

A colt, the foal of a donkey.

They began to wave their palm branches, and one by one they laid their special Holiday clothes out on the road as a pavement for Yeshua to ride over. Their clothes were laid like we roll out a red carpet for dignitaries.  we see this same action in the coronation of a King in Israel. They saw the enactment of the second part of Zercaraiah's prophecy and their response fulfilled the first part; rejoicing and shouting. The daughters of  Jerusalem even shouted, "Hosanna blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord."  

This shouting from the back of the procession turned heads, it created such a distraction, that the priests stopped and turned to see what was causing the uproar. They became livid that someone was stealing the people's attention away from them and of course four-footed sanctified lambs. 

They even told Yeshua to stop the people from rejoicing and shouting, This reminds me of another parade in Jerusalem where Saul became jealous because of what the daughters of Jerusalem were saying Saul has killed his thousands but David his ten thousand. Jesus answered their jealousy with a simple statement, "if these do not shout then the rocks themselves would cry out."   

As they approached the temple mount the four-footed lambs were led to the Sheep Gate North of the Temple where the sacrificial lambs entered the temple, but Yeshua broke away and entered the Temple through Solomon's porch and entered by the eastern gate, also known as, the Prince's Gate, the Gate Beautiful, just inside the Golden Gate. 

Jesus' (Yeshua's) name means the Lord will provide salvation. By joining the procession of sacrificial lambs He was in fact declaring I am the LAMB of GOD which takes away the SIN of the WORLD when he followed the Pesach four-footed lamb on the road to the temple.  

Because he was riding the foal of a donkey and because he came into the temple by the prince's gate He was also declaring his return, at his second coming as the King of the whole earth ruling from this very city of Jerusalem.  

Jesus presented himself in a very personal way along those narrow streets every eye could see him. it wasn't like the sermon on the mount where they were a long way off. He was only a few feet from their faces. He could look into their eyes and they could look into His.  

In the Scripture, the Hebrews were given instructions about how to come into the presence of God in the temple of God. They were to enter by one gate and exit by the gate opposite the one they came in. . In other words whenever we come into the presence of God we go away changed, we leave different. 

However, the Prince of Israel was to stand in the portico of the eastern gate and observe the sacrifices and then leave the same way he came. When we encounter God we must change but He does not change. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. 

What does all of this mean for us today? 

On this day of selection where every man was required to select the lamb that would cover his family's sin. We must choose Jesus(Yeshua) who = God's salvation. But we must not rush into this if we choose HIm as our sacrificial lamb (our substitute) then we must also accept him as our sovereign LORD.  If we judge ourselves and admit we have sinned and need a Savior, then we must also concede the throne of self-governance and make Him Lord of all. 

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Various writings from the past
The Road Not Taken
At Home In MN