Daily Verse | 2 Samuel 2:4
The the men of Judah came to Hebron and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah.
Welcome to Holy Week 2021. Yesterday was Palm Sunday and this week we celebrate the Passion of the Christ. While there is plenty to be analyzing in the news these days—the destructive Left never sleeps—we must never forget the ultimate Source of our hope, who is Jesus Christ—not the political process or the leaders we (supposedly) elect.
I’m going to present a short vignette from the Bible every day this week that is rooted in the account of Christ’s passion. I’ve found some of these in other sources, so I’ll link you to the article or video where relevant. We’ll start with Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, using the text from John’s gospel as our guide.
The setting is Jerusalem in the first century and the occasion is the annual Passover feast. The Jewish people celebrated Passover (Hebrew: פסח, Pesach) prescribed as a commemoration of their escape from Egypt under Moses’ leadership after 400 years of slavery.
וְהִגַּדְתָּ֣ לְבִנְךָ֔ בַּיּ֥וֹם הַה֖וּא לֵאמֹ֑ר בַּעֲב֣וּר זֶ֗ה עָשָׂ֤ה יְהוָה֙ לִ֔י בְּצֵאתִ֖י מִמִּצְרָֽיִם׃
And you shall explain to your son on that day,
‘It is because of what the LORD did for me
when I went free from Egypt.’
Exodus 13:8
Jerusalem is filled to six times its normal size with Jewish people from all over the world crowding in for the Passover. Jesus arrives on a donkey’s colt as the crowd greets him as a conquering king.
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!”
— John 12:13
A couple of points from a sermon I heard by Peter Englert. First, palm branches were a Jewish national symbol of power and victory over the enemy. Second, the word “Hosanna” literally means, “Save us!” Combine the cries of Hosanna! and the palm branches, and what you have is a crowd who sees Jesus not as the Savior of the world, but as a conquering King who was going to throw off the yoke of Roman oppression.
Yet Jesus shows up on a young donkey to fulfill the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9, “see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.” Entering the city on a donkey symbolized his coming in peace, not as a dashing soldier on a muscled war horse galloping up the road to the very gates of Jerusalem. No wonder the next verse says, “At first his disciples did not understand all this”—although they eventually put two and two together and realized that “these [prophesies] had been written about him.”
What the people were expecting was a military and political leader. But that wasn’t what Jesus was doing. In waving the palm branches and quoting Psalm 118, it is clear that the crowd expected Jesus to:
- Reestablish the reign of the Davidic kingdom—but Jesus intended to establish the reign of the kingdom of God.
- Free them from their bondage to Rome—but Jesus intended to free them from their bondage to sin.
- Deliver a military or political victory—but Jesus intended to deliver a spiritual victory.
Jesus came as a king, yes, but his kingdom, as we learn elsewhere this week, “is not of this world.”
Even though hindsight is 20/20 and we know what Jesus came to do, it’s still easy to misunderstand who Jesus is and what he has done for us. Perhaps the most common is to think we have to “perform” in order to be acceptable to him, but no amount of performing can do that.
There is no one righteous, not even one;
there is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.
Romans 3:11
Jesus takes us right where we are in the condition he finds us in.
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Matthew 11:28
The crowd expected a conquering king. He instead came as the Prince of Peace, making peace between us and God.
“All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.”
2 Corinthians 5:18
When we experience disappointment, it could be because someone let us down. But it could also be because our expectations were misguided. The expectations of the crowd who welcomed Jesus were.
As you think about who Jesus is and what he came to do this week, consider your expectations of him and adjust them where necessary.
[Image: Unknown artist. Will give attribution upon discovery.]