At 6:00 pm, Friday became Saturday, the 9th of Nisan – five days before the Passover, which was a regular Sabbath Day for the Jews.
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- The next morning, Jesus sent two of His disciples to a certain place to find a colt of a donkey, which they were to untie and bring to Him – affirming the Lord’s omniscience and sovereignty overall.
- All four gospel writers record what is called Jesus’ “Triumphal Entry” into Jerusalem, but notice it is on Saturday (the Sabbath) and not Sunday.
- Pilgrims from all over Israel were in Jerusalem for the observance of Passover, and when they heard Jesus was coming into the city, they lined the streets and laid their palm branches down before Him; selfishly proclaiming Him as the Messiah they wanted Him to be, but certainly not the Messiah He had come to be.
- The crowds began to chant the words of the prophet Zechariah 9:9-11: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, humble, and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey. He will speak peace to the Gentiles, and his dominion will be from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth. As for you, because of the blood of My covenant, I have set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.”
In their minds, they were proclaiming Jesus as the nationalistic king they had prayed would come and set them free from Roman oppression.
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- But the promised Messiah was not only coming to the Jews but also to the Gentiles.
- In a few days, Jesus would shed His blood, establishing a new covenant for all people, and as John would later write in the light of prophetic revelation, there will come a day when: “A great multitude, which no one will be able to count, people from every nation and tribes and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches in their hands; crying out with a loud voice saying, ‘Salvation to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.”
- Will you be in that great multitude?
- Will you be dressed in the white robe of the righteousness of Jesus Christ?
- Will you be waving the palm branches in your hand and crying out unto the Lord: “Salvation to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb”?
Jesus entered the old city of Jerusalem, walked around the empty temple, and seeing it was near sunset; He left for the walk back to Bethany where He and the disciples would spend the night, but not before stopping on the Mount of Olives and weeping over the city of Jerusalem.
Join us tomorrow as we continue our journey “From Gethsemane to Golgotha to Glory!”