Jesus Is King & Messiah, Lord & Savior
Matthew 21:1-11 — As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.” This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: “Say to Daughter Zion, ‘See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’ ” The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Hosanna in the highest heaven!” When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?” The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”
Today is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week. On this day, Jesus entered Jerusalem. This was not his first visit to Jerusalem but this time things were different. He was on his way to the cross. He entered the city in a very public and spectacular way, stirring up the whole city. His entry into Jerusalem serves the following purposes. First, it presents Him as the King who is coming to his people, as the Lord who rules over all. Second, the entry is the intentional, open, public declaration that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of David. But then it also reveals the nature, the style, the character, and the way of His kingdom and his mission as Messiah, which is very different from the expectations of the Jews and the world. In this passage, and the parallel passages in the other gospels, Jesus encounters the crowds, the world, and us today as King, as Lord of the world, and as Messiah, the Christ, the Savior of the world. What was the response of the crowds? How do we respond to Jesus when we encounter Him and the way of the cross?
1. Jesus Is King!
In verses 1-3 Jesus gave instructions to his disciple regarding the donkey. With these instructions Jesus prepared purposefully for his entry so that it fulfills the OT prophecies of Zechariah 9:9 — Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. And Isaiah 62:11 — The LORD has made proclamation to the ends of the earth: “Say to Daughter Zion, ‘See, your Savior comes! See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him.’”
This also shows us that Jesus is the sovereign Lord. He is in control. Everything was prepared and happening according to God’s plan. He was fulfilling the mission that the Father has sent him to do.
The very act of riding into Jerusalem has both royal and messianic meaning. All four gospels portray Jesus as a royal figure. Matthew mentions “the Son of David” and Mark “the coming kingdom of our father David.” Luke adds “the king” to the quotation of Psalm 118:26 in verse 9, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord.” And John adds “blessed is the king of Israel.”
Jesus enters Jerusalem and encounters the crowds as King, the Son of David. He rides on a donkey, which was used by Jewish kings, including David and Solomon, as a means of transport (1 Kings 1:38–40). The crowds interpreted Jesus’ action a claim to royalty, and they received him as king. And that is why they were carpeting Jesus’ path with clothes and branches, and waved palm branches. Something similar happened in 2 Kings 9:13 when Jehu was anointed as king, and his followers spread their cloaks under his feet as a sign of loyalty. Two hundred years before Jesus, Judas Maccabaeus was welcomed in Jerusalem by a crowd waving palm branches after he conquered the pagan armies that oppressed Israel. Jesus is King!
2. Jesus Is Messiah!
But with this royal procession, Jesus was not just received as king. He also encountered the crowds as the Messiah. The people understood that He was declaring Himself to be the Messiah. So they were very excited and shouting. They were singing Psalm 118, one of the psalms that were usually sung during the Passover festival. With this, they welcomed Jesus as the promised Messiah.
Hosanna is a Hebrew expression that is a cry or plea for help. It means “save now” or “save us.” Here this cry for salvation is directed first at Jesus as the Messiah and then to God the Highest. The Passover celebrated the great rescue from Egypt in the past, as well as the hope of a present or a future liberation from Roman rule. For so long the Jews had been waiting, praying, and hoping for a king like David, the Messiah, to arrive and save them from oppression. Surely, they thought, this was him. This was the moment!
So they welcomed Jesus for what he in truth is, the Son of David, the Messiah of Israel. Jesus is the Messiah! Yet it is precisely as such that they rejected Him. What went wrong? In their excitement, they missed a very important point that Jesus was making during his entry. This is the point about the nature of his kingdom and his mission of salvation; what his rule and mission are really about.
3. Jesus Is the King of Peace
Yes, Jesus is King. Yes, He is the Messiah. But He also came to Jerusalem and encountered the crowds as the King of Peace, the meek, humble Servant. The crowds did not get the meaning of his humble entry. Their thoughts, understanding, and passions were dominated by political and cultural understandings of the Messiah. Is that not what we also do today?
They allowed their personal views, selfish interests, cultural values, and political passions to cloud their judgment. They misinterpreted and misunderstood God’s Word. This created wrong understandings and expectations of the Messiah and his kingdom. They focused only on part of the prophecy, on some verses, and ignored the rest that did not fit their views. Is that not what we sometimes also do today with God’s Word?
I think that might have happened here. Matthew quotes Zechariah 9:9 to show that Jesus fulfilled the prophecy. But the crowds forgot the rest of the prophecy, verse 10 — I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the warhorses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth.
Jesus did not enter the city as a warrior general on a white stallion or on a war-horse. He was riding on a donkey which was a symbol of peace. So he came as a king on a mission of peace, bringing peace, not war. Jesus came as the Meek, the Gentle, the Humble One. He came as the Suffering Servant to die on the cross. He came not in wrath to take vengeance, but in mercy to work salvation. He came to save not just from worldly oppression and powers. His salvation is much more fundamental, deeper, and comprehensive. He saves us from all forms of oppression, physical as well as spiritual, from our sins, from eternal death. He came to establish his kingdom, which is not of this world, but very, very different. His is a power and kingdom that rules through love, grace, gentleness, meekness, humility, righteousness, self-sacrificing service, and peace. He came to reconcile people to God and people with one another. Jesus is the King of Peace!
4. The Response of the Crowds
How did the people respond to this encounter with Jesus? The crowds consisted of different groups. There were many pilgrims who came from all over the world to Jerusalem for the Passover. With Jesus were the crowds of disciples who followed him from Galilee to Jerusalem. And then there were the residents of the city. Not all of these city dwellers knew Jesus as well as those from Galilee. City people can be snobbish. Who is going to pay much attention to a prophet from such a faraway and backward rural place as Galilee? In verse 10 we read that the whole city was stirred, the same word in Greek that is used for an earthquake. Someone was entering the city as a king, and some even said that he is the Messiah. This caused quite a stir, an earthquake, and those who do not know Jesus, were asking, “Who is this?” And the crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”
An interesting answer. Why identify him only as a prophet and not as the Messiah or King? Did they see him simply as a prophet? Was it a form of respect? Did they believe he was the promised prophet from Deuteronomy 18:18? Or despite his royal and messianic entry, they still did not believe that He is the King and Messiah, and just one more prophet in a long line of prophets? The reasons are not clear but we can assume that this answer was perhaps what saved Jesus from being arrested immediately. His very public, royal entry, and procession was a direct challenge to the Jewish and Roman authorities.
But this answer was also a sign of what was to come, the way of the cross. In Matthew 23:7 Jesus grieved over Jerusalem, the city that had a reputation for killing God’s prophets, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you.” Soon, Jesus, another prophet sent by God, would be killed on the cross.
On Sunday, the crowds treated Jesus as royalty and welcomed him as King and Messiah. On Friday, they were shouting for his blood. On Sunday, they shouted hosannas and blessed is the king. On Friday, they shouted, “Crucify him!” Why?
They were disappointed because Jesus did not meet their expectations. He was not the Messiah they wanted. For the world the picture of the meek, humble, king of peace willingly going to his death on a cross is too pathetic, weak, foolishness. Christ crucified is a stumbling block, a scandal for the Jews, and foolishness for the Gentiles. They could not stand this image for a king. They were ashamed of their King. They caved in to political, cultural, and religious pressures. And, they rejected Jesus.
5. What Is Our Response?
What is our response to Jesus Christ, the Lord and Savior of the world? We have several choices. We can be ashamed of him and reject him because he does not meet our expectations. We can refuse to follow Him because he is asking us to follow him in the way of the cross — die to myself, take up my cross, give over complete control to him as Lord, leave everything behind. That’s just asking too much.
We can turn to Jesus in times of crisis or when we are in dire need of something. There is a natural disaster. Please help us, Lord! There is war. Give us peace, now! Save the life of my sick child, and do it right away! Give me a job, tomorrow would be nice, Lord! And as soon as the crisis is over, as soon as the Lord has helped, we forget about him, and continue with our own lives, without him. We continue being lords of our own lives.
We can take out Jesus as an insurance policy for heaven against hell. So, we accept Him only as Savior to make sure that we will go to heaven and not hell, but in this life and world, we remain lords of our own lives and live as we want.
No, these should not be our responses. We are called to faith, to believe that the Meek One, the humble Servant, is the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior of the world. He is the King of kings, the Lord of lords. And He is the King of Peace! We are called to make a choice for Jesus, and accept him as Lord and Savior. We should give him his rightful place as King, as Lord of all of our lives.
But we must be aware of the implications when we choose him. When we choose to follow and be associated with this King the world will laugh at us. The world will hate us. The world will persecute us. Because His way, the way of the cross, is very different than the ways of the world. To follow Jesus in the way of the cross means that we must be willing to take up and bear our crosses. It means to be humble, vulnerable, and to give up all our rights, to give up everything. We now belong to Him. He bought our lives dearly with his suffering and his death. And we will most likely suffer for Him in one way or the other. The way of the cross, our Lord, calls us to be poor in spirit, meek, and humble, to mourn, to hunger and thirst for righteousness, to be merciful and pure in heart, to be peacemakers. And to rejoice when we are persecuted because of Him.
Still, we must always proclaim Jesus Christ, who through the weakness of the cross, the humiliation and death of the cross, saved the world, brought God’s kingdom into this world. He was resurrected and glorified as Lord of lords. If we want to enter into his kingdom we must believe and accept him Lord and Savior. He is that already. Just believe and accept Him. Recognize him and receive him as your King and Messiah. Jesus is King and Messiah, Lord and Savior. What is your response to Him?