Today is Palm Sunday – the Sunday before Easter. This is the Sunday when we remember how Jesus was received into Jerusalem as a king that would save his people – only to have the religious leaders and most of the people kill him a few days later. Jesus came to Jerusalem as the city was getting ready to observe The Passover. Passover is a time when Jews remember a critical event in their history – God liberating them from slavery in Egypt. Passover is more than just a remembrance of what God did. It is also a reminder of what God does – he delivers his people from slavery. Passover also had an element of prophecy in it – it was also a picture of what God would do in the future. And, two thousand years ago Israel was looking for someone who would again be God’s instrument of salvation – they were under Roman rule and could not seem to escape. Israel was looking for the Messiah. Passover was an appropriate time for Israel to anticipate God’s rescue.

In Passover Psalm 118 was a song that was center to their hope of rescue.

Psalm 118 – ^1-6Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever! Let Israel say, “His steadfast love endures forever.” Let the house of Aaron say, “His steadfast love endures forever.” Let those who fear the Lord say, “His steadfast love endures forever.” Out of my distress I called on the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me free. The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?^8-9It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes. ¹⁴The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. ^21-29I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Save us, we pray, O Lord! O Lord, we pray, give us success! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We bless you from the house of the Lord. The Lord is God, and he has made his light to shine upon us. Bind the festal sacrifice with cords, up to the horns of the altar! You are my God, and I will give thanks to you; you are my God; I will extol you. Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!

Now, hundreds of years later, God, through the cross, would rescue his children again – not from physical slavery – but from eternal death. God, through the cross, would kill the power of sin that enslaves humanity. This is the real rescue – an eternal rescue. This is the rescue that all of Scripture points too. This is the rescue that is imaged when God freed the slaves the first time.

Mark 11:1–10 – Now when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately.’ ” And they went away and found a colt tied at a door outside in the street, and they untied it. And some of those standing there said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” And they told them what Jesus had said, and they let them go. And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it. And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!”

There was GREAT anticipation when Jesus made his entrance. He was being welcomed by crowds that were more than ready to accept him – after all had proven himself time after time. He did what only God could do:¹

• Psalm 107:28–29 – Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed. (Jesus calmed the stormy sea)
• Job 9:8 (NIV84) – He alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea. (Jesus walked on water)
• Deuteronomy 8:16 – [God] fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end. (Jesus fed 5,000 men and their families from five small loaves and two fishes)
• Psalm 68:20 – Our God is a God of salvation, and to God, the Lord, belong deliverances from death. (Jesus raised a widow’s son from the dead, Jesus raised Jairus’ – a leader of the synagogue – from the dead, he brought Lazarus back to life)
• Psalm 146:8a – the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. (Jesus healed two blind men – Matt 9, a blind man in Bethsaida)
• Psalm 103:2–3 – Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases… (Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law, he healed people with leprosy, he healed the centurion’s servant, he healed a woman with a blood disease, he healed many in Gennesaret)

So, what happened? How is it that one day Jesus is welcomed as the Messiah – with all the proof one could want – and a few days later the crowds were ready to kill him?

This is not what we need, this is not what we expect, this is not what we’re willing to accept. Jesus may have wonderful gifts, and wisdom, and insight but we have our minds made up.

Predisposition of human thinking – sinful orientation

Leadership – Matthew 23:13 – “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.”

God’s purpose

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The first time Jesus came he came on a donkey as the One who would give his life so that the real enemy – Satan and evil – would be concurred. The next time he comes it will be on a white horse.

Revelation 19:11–16 – Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.