The Significance Of Palm Sunday

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The crowd recognized the importance of the event, but not it’s purpose

The crowd came because Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead but it was not to them He came.

They cried out a Messianic Psalm – 118.

“Hosanna” comes from Psalm 118:25. Notice a few important things from that Psalm if they had but paid attention:

:08 It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man (yet in man they would trust)

:14 The LORD is my strength and my song, He has become my salvation (Jesus would become our salvation)

:19 Open to me the gates of righteousness ... this is the gate of the Lord (Jesus entered through the Eastern Gate. This gate would be shut by the Turks years later trying to stop Jesus from coming back)

:22 The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone (Jesus would be rejected by the Jews but became the cornerstone of all salvation)

:25 Save us we pray O LORD! O LORD, we pray, give us success! (They wanted military and social and economic success – Jesus provides success in life by saving us)

They thought He was coming as a king to free them from Rome, instead of a Savior to free them from sin. The same people who welcomed Him on Palm Sunday rejected Him just days later at the insistence of the Scribes and Pharisees.

God came in peace

In the past, meeting God meant death. But the fact that He came on a donkey meant He was coming to make peace with us, not war. All throughout the Old Testament, we find instances of fear when people realized they had come into God’s presence – fear for their life. We see it in Exodus, in the story of Gideon, of Samson’s parents and others. But this time, God comes in peace, to save life, not to take it. How? By riding in on a donkey.

The riding of a donkey by the King of Israel was prophesied by Zechariah:

Zechariah 9:9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!

Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!

behold, your king is coming to you;

righteous and having salvation is he,

humble and mounted on a donkey ,

on a colt, the foal of a donkey . ESV

His position (king), his character (righteous), his purpose (salvation), and his attitude (humble – Hebrew = afflicted)

A king riding in on not just a donkey, but a foal, would not be a military threat. He is proclaiming Himself as the king of Israel (later He would confirm that to Pilate (Luke 23:3 – and the inscription over the cross). But despite being King, He comes not with a sword, but to offer His own righteous body to be afflicted for the salvation of others.

Compare this coming of Jesus as King to another time when He will arrive in Jerusalem:

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. 12 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. 13 He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. 14 And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. 15 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. 16 On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. ESV