# Jesus' Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem



## blhowes (Jul 21, 2012)

Mat 21:5-11 Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass. And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them, And brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon. And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way. And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest. And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this? And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee. 

When Jesus rode into Jerusalem, what do you think were the expectations of the crowd? Some have said they expected Him to free them from Roman rule and establish his kingdom? What do you think?


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## rookie (Jul 21, 2012)

I always read it's exactly what they were looking for....they didn't see freedom from being in bondage to sin..they saw freedom from being in bondage to Rome...Can't wait to see the other replies..


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## Peairtach (Jul 21, 2012)

Probably somewhat mixed expectations, but even His disciples after 3 1/2 years of patient teaching by the Messiah, and after His resurrection, found it difficult to get this bee out of their bonnets:



> So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. (Acts 1:6-7, ESV)



Christ's Kingdom would eventually overthrow Rome and the whole godless world order, but slowly, progressively and by spiritual means. That historical process by which the Israel of God (Gal 6:16) and the Commonwealth of Israel (Eph 2) becomes top nation, and "the times of the Gentiles" - i.e. the Gentile domination of God's people that started with the Babylonian exile, and continued with the Medes and Persians, Greeks and Romans, after the less than fully glorious return from exile - come to an end is still going on today. 

The Kingdom and rule of Israel over the nations will never be perfect before Christ's return, but that doesn't mean we can't look for better days before then.


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## rbcbob (Jul 21, 2012)

Even the most spiritually minded Jews had a fuzzy notion of what it was they were looking for. Consider the best of the best, the apostles of Christ who after walking with Him and hearing every sermon and teaching proclaimed by their Messiah still, after His resurrection asked:



> "Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" (Act 1:6 NKJ)


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## Jack K (Jul 21, 2012)

John says they hailed him as a king:



> So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, *even the King of Israel!*” And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written,
> “Fear not, daughter of Zion;
> behold, your king is coming,
> sitting on a donkey's colt!”
> ...



The question remains: did they see him as just _a_ king or as _the_ messianic king? If the disciples missed the donkey-riding imagery from Zechariah at first, one would assume most of the crowd did, too. Still, I find it hard to believe none in the crowd picked up on it. It seems that some must have had Zechariah 9 expectations—the arrival of a conquering king, bringing prosperity: "On that day the LORD their God will save them, as the flock of his people; for like the jewels of a crown they shall shine on his land. For how great is his goodness, and how great his beauty! Grain shall make the young men flourish, and new wine the young women" (Zechariah 9:16-17).

Of course, if they did see Jesus as a messianic king, they read that politically and thought of economic prosperity. Who imagined that the bread and wine this King would give his people would be his own body and blood?


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## Contra_Mundum (Jul 21, 2012)

In the Triumphal Entry we see a good illustration of the topic of another recent thread: the difference between a "theology of glory" and a "theology of the cross."

King Jesus comes into his capital to inaugurate his kingdom and to take his throne--and in every way imaginable, he defies ordinary human expectations. Nothing is what it seems. And it takes eyes of faith to see what God says is right in front of them. More than that, even those who think they see what others (like the Pharisees) cannot are actually overwhelmingly ignorant and confused about what they are seeing and participating in.

In other words, the theology of glory sees a nondescript man, seated on a lowly donkey, surrounded by a rag-tag retinue of redneck Galileans, some fishermen, some outcasts, some fathers/mothers/children, making a big deal about him--a man that (so far as the official representatives of the nation are concerned) is nothing but a troublemaker and a threat. He has no army (ironically), he has no weapons to speak of, by which he may challenge the actual foreign powers who have all the authority they desire, and the residual crumbs that are held tightly in the fists of the local elites, jealous for their meager takings. And for just about everyone else, this is what they see also. Some few people, most of whom are clustered around this man, are seeing things a bit differently; they at least are trying to look through the right, cruciform glass, but darkly, and with very little comprehension.

A clear-eyed theology of the cross would have seen the king of Israel coming in royal estate to take his throne and crown, fulfilling all Scripture in the process. He comes to the highest mountain in the whole earth, Jerusalem. He comes to his decrepit palace, the Temple, and cleans house. At the end of the week--on the day of the beginning of the annual celebration of national deliverance and constitution--he takes his crown upon his head, and is lifted up upon his throne. And no one sees, or understands. But on the third day, some begin to understand.


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## jwithnell (Jul 21, 2012)

> When Jesus rode into Jerusalem, what do you think were the expectations of the crowd? Some have said they expected Him to free them from Roman rule and establish his kingdom? What do you think?


I don't think there can be much question historically that the Romans feared that Jesus would prompt a Jewish revolt and that His entry into Jerusalem stirred these fears. Among the Jews, it doesn't seem likely many were seeing the kingdom of God for all nations being established: that crowd was reduced to a rag-tab bunch of mostly women by the time Jesus was executed. The confusion regarding Jesus ushering an earthly, Jewish kingdom continued until His ascension when His disciples asked: "Lord are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?"


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## Peairtach (Jul 21, 2012)

> I don't think there can be much question historically that the Romans feared that Jesus would prompt a Jewish revolt and that His entry into Jerusalem stirred these fears.



What evidence is there of this? Clearly the Romans were culpable in giving in to the indifference and hostility of the Jewish people, and their leaders, to Christ, but is their really evidence that the Romans saw Christ as a threat? There doesn't seem to be evidence of this at Christ's trial.


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## jwithnell (Jul 21, 2012)

The Jews were hardly pleased to be under Roman rule, and Herod certainly understood the threat of a recognized Jewish king and tried to kill Jesus as a baby. Look at the first question Pilot asks Jesus: "are you the king of the Jews?" The broader historical context provided by Josephus and others underscores the struggles of a people subject to Roman and its leaders attempt to drive the Jews, then the Christians and the temple off the face of the earth.


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