Jesus Enters Jerusalem

           Mark 11:1-10

Holy Week begins today with the celebration of Palm Sunday.  On this day a long time ago, the time had come for a great revealing.  Jesus came to Jerusalem and boldly revealed himself to everyone.  No one that day could mistake what he was saying to the world.  The Romans would understand and watch him carefully.  The Chief Priests and the Pharisees would clearly understand what he was saying.  The people would understand.  Even the disciples who had a difficult time understanding who Jesus is would understand.  Jesus came into the city on the day we call Palm Sunday as a king coming in peace, as the Messiah.  No one could mistake his message.

A major prophetic understanding of Messiah was that he would enter Jerusalem on the road from Bethphage less than a mile from the city.  The Gospel account makes it clear that Jesus’ entry and the manner in which he entered the city was no accident.  He carefully planned the entire event.  In the village of Bethphage, he has arranged for the loan of a donkey.  He sends his disciples ahead to get the animal.  He tells them where it is and that if anyone questions them to give them these simple words, “The Lord needs them.”  This ancient Messianic tradition goes back to the prophet Zechariah.  The prophet proclaims, “Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey (Zechariah 9:9).” The King, the Messiah, comes to Jerusalem.  He possesses righteousness and salvation for the people.   The Messiah is a king coming in peace to bring God’s righteousness and salvation to the nation.  As they watched Jesus coming into the city, no one would mistake his Messianic claims.

Jesus comes down the Mount of Olives on a donkey.  A large crowd is present.  This is the time of the festival of Passover.  The city is crowded with people who have come from all around the Roman world to celebrate the Passover.  Jesus picks the time when Jerusalem would be swelled with tens of thousands of pilgrims.  How did the people react?  The crowd of people responded with joy by spreading their cloaks on the road in front of him.  They wave leafy branches.  Excitement is in the air.  As he comes into the city they shout out, “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 heaven! (Mark 11:9-10).”  Again we have Jesus being addressed as a king from the lineage of David who comes to save.  The crowd is jubilant as they recognize him as Messiah.  They are excited and welcome him with a Messianic greeting.  Something big is happening and everyone is in on it.  Jesus enters and the whole city is in turmoil. 

Jesus did not quietly slip into Jerusalem.  He entered the city in a dramatic way which got everyone’s attention and which turned the city upside down.  He immediately got the attention of the people and also of those who had serious issues with him.  Through his entry into Jerusalem, Jesus revealed his claim as Messiah and confirmed the worries of the temple leaders.  They begin to meet seriously in order to figure out what they must do to quiet Jesus.  The Jewish leaders feared that Jesus would stir things up and that they would face the power of Rome against them.  In their minds there is really only one satisfactory answer to the problem of Jesus.

The political situation in First Century Jerusalem was extremely tense.  The entire country was under Roman occupation.  Rome was in charge and their goal was to keep the peace at all costs.  Pilate, the chief Roman official, had no problem violently destroying those he saw as a threat to Pax Romana, the Peace of Rome.  He was a brutal official and carefully watched the country for any signs of insurrection.  The Roman military occupied a fortress on the northwest corner of Temple Mount which towered over the Temple itself and from that vantage point they watched all the activities going on in the temple precincts and the city.  Soldiers would quickly be dispatched at any sign of rebellion. 

While Rome dominated the land, it permitted Jewish leaders a great deal of political rule.   The Sadducees were the wealthy upper class who collaborated with Rome and ran all the profitable activities of the Temple.  Their concessions generated a great deal of money for the ruling families.  Of course, they wanted no one to disrupt their businesses and political ventures.  Their goal was appeasement with Rome.  They went along and got along quite well. When they saw Jesus coming into the city as a king coming in peace, as the Messiah, they realized that they must take action against him or face the loss of their profitable temple businesses and their political activities.  Normally the Sadducees and the Pharisees were at odds with each other.  They had significant theological differences.  For example, the Pharisees believed in the resurrection of the dead but the Sadducees did not.  However, when it came to the problem of Jesus, they formed a coalition in order to deal with him.

Jesus entered the city in a dramatic way which got everyone’s attention.  What did he do next?  He went to the temple area and did something which also got everyone’s attention.  As I noted, the temple was big business.  People needed perfect animals to sacrifice so there were vendors present who would sell them proper unblemished sacrificial animals.  Some say that if you brought your own animal for sacrifice it would come under great scrutiny and may be rejected for having some kind of blemish.  However, if you purchased from the authorized animal sellers you would have no problem having it accepted by the priests in charge of the sacrifices.  In a similar way, if you brought money as an offering you first had to have the money changed into coin acceptable to the temple authorities.  No coin with images of people could be used in one’s temple offerings.  If you brought Roman or Greek coins, you had stop at the moneychangers.  They would, for a fee, give you temple approved bronze, silver or gold coins in exchange for your pagan money.  According to Mark, “Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there.  He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts (Mark 11:15-16).”  He taught them, “Is it not written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’?  But you have made it a ‘den of robbers’ (Mark 11:17).”  Jesus had no patience with people who used religion to enrich themselves at the expense of God.  He was not immediately arrested but remained on temple mount healing physically disabled people and the blind.  According to Matthew, the children continued to shout, “Hosanna to the Son of David (Matthew 21:15).”  When the temple leaders heard this, they were angry and confronted Jesus.  He replied, “Yes, have you never read, ‘From the lips of children and infants you, Lord, have called forth your praise’ (Matthew 21:16)?”

Throughout the week Jesus continued coming to the temple.  He taught in parables.  During the week he alienated the three most powerful groups in Israel.  First, he alienated the Sadducees as he wrecked their money making concessions.  Secondly, he alienated the Pharisees and the scribes by denouncing them.  He tells the people to follow the teachings of the Pharisees. They knew the Bible and were trusted teachers.  However, he warns them against modeling their lives after them because they did not live what they taught.  He denounces them as hypocrites.  The third group he alienates is the revolutionary Zealots.  Today we would call them insurgents or terrorists.  They plotted against Rome.  One of their favorite activities was to stab a Roman soldier in a crowded marketplace and slip away quietly. When the Pharisees tried to trick Jesus by asking him if it is okay to pay taxes to the Emperor, his response alienated the Zealots.  The question was a trap because to answer, “Yes,” would anger the Jewish people and to answer, “No,” would get him in trouble with the Romans.  He responded to the question by asking to see a coin.  He asked them whose head and whose title was on the coin.  They acknowledged that it was the Emperor’s.  Therefore, Jesus advised, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s (Mark 12:17).”  At this point the Zealots wrote off Jesus.  By Thursday none of the major groups would come to his aid.  In fact, the two major groups would conspire to arrest him and kill him.

Judas Iscariot had his own expectations of Jesus.  Some say he was a Zealot.  The New Testament witnesses report he was a thief who kept the disciples’ purse and took money from it for his own personal use.  He went to the chief priests and made a deal with them.  For thirty denarii he would betray Jesus to them.  For thirty day’s wages he would betray Jesus into the hands of his enemies.  Judas cooperated with the temple authorities’ plans to kill Jesus.  Some who see Judas as a Zealot believe he was just trying to force Jesus’ hand.  They believe he was trying to manipulate Jesus into taking action to set up his kingdom.  Regardless of his motives, Judas betrayed Jesus to his enemies with a kiss of peace.

At the beginning of the week the crowd welcomes Jesus as Messiah.  At the end of the week, he is arrested.  He is bounced from the Chief Priest’s house to King Herod’s palace to the palace of the Roman governor.  After trying to pass the buck, the governor gives the people of Jerusalem the decision.  “Whom do you want me to release for you, Barabbas or Jesus who is called the Messiah?”  The crowd cries out, “Barabbas.”  Pilate then asks what he should do with Jesus.  The crowd cries out, “Let him be crucified!”  Pilate questions them, “Why, what evil has he done?”  But the crowd shouted all the more, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” (Matthew 27:20-23)  And Jesus was then severely beaten, walked through the city as a spectacle, and nailed to a cross to slowly die.

The several powerful groups of Jerusalem had quite different perceptions of Jesus.  The Sadducees saw him as a danger to their power.  The Pharisees and scribes saw him as one who insulted and berated them.  The Zealots saw him as just another religious nut that would do nothing to free Israel from Rome.  On the day of the Triumphal Entry the crowd praised him as Messiah but on Friday called out for his crucifixion.  If you look closely at the Gospel account, it was the crowd that sent Jesus to the cross.  Who is the crowd?  Perhaps it is you and me.

Each group had their own expectations and perceptions of Jesus.  In all three cases the way they saw Jesus conflicted with their goals and objectives and they did not see God’s plan being carried out in their midst.  The followers of Jesus had a similar problem.  When Jesus was crucified, they thought all their hopes and dreams were crucified with him.  Two of the disciples are quoted in Luke as saying, “But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.”  Even though Jesus told them about his death and what would follow they did not understand.

We come to Jesus with our own perceptions and expectations.  If those are not grounded in Scripture, in who Jesus really is, then we too are in trouble.  God often works in ways and on a time table which is quite different from what we may expect or desire.  In Jesus, God sent the Messiah.  However, the perceptions and expectations of the people got in the way of their recognizing that he was the One who was promised Messiah.  They looked for a military leader to drive out the Romans and God sent the Savior of the world.  They looked for an earthly king and God sent the Lord of all.

Sometimes we pray expecting God to answer our prayers in a specific way and when God does not live up to our expectations by giving us what we want then we say God did not answer our prayers.  People prayed for the coming of the Messiah but when God sent them a Messiah which did not fit their expectations they were so disappointed and angry that they crucified Jesus.  Today we crucify Jesus when we live seeking our own comfort and goals rather than being obedient to him.  Today we crucify Jesus when we center our lives on ourselves rather than centering them on him.  Today we crucify Jesus when we seek to please others at the expense of pleasing God.  Jesus offers us new life and transformation of our inner being.  The world offers us death.  The crowd crucified Jesus.   One day they honored him.  A few days later they wanted him dead.  They wanted him crucified.  In Jesus, God offers us genuine salvation, love and even life eternal.  Jesus continues to call people to become disciples.  He continues to call people to follow him.  He is calling you right now to follow him.  Will you follow him regardless of where he leads or will you call out like the crowd, “Crucify him!” 

We cannot be indifferent to Jesus.  His very presence calls for a decision.

Sermon preached by CH (COL) Michael W. Malone, USA RET

at Veterans Memorial Chapel on 13 April 2025, Palm Sunday