Palm Sunday

English: East Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives. Towards the right is the Temple Mount, including the Dome of the Rock, with the rest of the Old City behind. The Mount of Olives Jewish Cemetery is in the foreground.

Good morning, beloved!

I wake up this morning with Hosanna on my mind. We sang that last night with joy! Yet the verse that sprang to mind while we sang (which brought my heart dropping like a stone) was John 2:24 But Jesus [for His part] did not trust Himself to them, because He knew all [men]; 25And He did not need anyone to bear witness concerning man [needed no evidence from anyone about men], for He Himself knew what was in human nature. [He could read men’s hearts.] [I Sam. 16:7.]

Do those verses make sense to you? I love these verses about my Jesus. Your Jesus. He knows the hearts of men. He read their hearts. He reads our hearts. He never gave His whole heart away. He loved/loves them/us. Yet, He knew His ENTIRE trust belonged with His Daddy. His Abba. God.

Can you imagine what Jesus was feeling as he rode that donkey? I can’t. When I praise Him, with my hands extended, yet God knows the next day, I’ll sin…how does He love me anyway? The great mysteries of my loving Abba…

We have our children run in wildly waving palm branches yet do we know what Hosanna means? We sing it in praise but originally it was a cry for help. God! Please save us!  And yet, Jesus knew, they had no idea how far He was about to go on their behalf. To hell and back. Pause and think on that.

Old Jerusalem ruins of Saint Stephen armenian monastery and palm tree - Ha-Tkuma Garden (גן התקומה = Garden of the Resurrection)

Here’s the meaning of Hosanna from Blue Letter Bible: in the Hebrew, means “save, we pray.” The word seems to have become an utterance of praise rather than of prayer, though originally, probably, a cry for help. The people’s cry at the Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem (Mat 21:9,15; Mar 11:9, 10; Jhn 12:13) was taken from Ps. 118, which was recited at the Feast of Tabernacles (see FEAST) in the great Hallel (Psalms 113 to 118) in responses with the priest, accompanied by the waving of palm and willow branches. “The last day of the feast” was called “the great Hosanna;” the boughs also were called “hosannas.”

Let’s walk through Mark 11. Much of the credit for the following information will have to go to my pastor, Shane Farmer. He did an amazing job with this text last night at Willow Creek.

Mark 11

¹WHEN THEY were getting near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, He sent ahead two of His disciples.

²And instructed them, Go into the village in front of you, and as soon as you enter it, you will find a colt tied, which has never been ridden by anyone; unfasten it and bring it [here].

³If anyone asks you, Why are you doing this? answer, The Lord needs it, and He will send it back here presently.

⁴So they went away and found a colt tied at the door out in the [winding] open street, and they loosed it.

⁵And some who were standing there said to them, What are you doing, untying the colt?

⁶And they replied as Jesus had directed them, and they allowed them to go.

⁷And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their outer garments upon it, and He sat on it.

⁸And many [of the people] spread their garments on the road, and others [scattered a layer of] leafy branches which they had cut from the fields.

⁹And those who went before and those who followed cried out [^[a]with a cry of happiness], Hosanna! [Be graciously inclined and propitious to Him!] Praised and blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord!

¹⁰Praised and blessed in the name of the Lord is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna (O save us) in the highest [heaven]!

¹¹And Jesus went into Jerusalem and entered the temple [^[b]enclosure]; and when He had looked around, surveying and observing everything, as it was already late, He went out to Bethany together with the Twelve [apostles].

Let’s begin..shall we say…at the beginning. So the first verse starts with where Jesus starts His walk. Near the Mount of Olives..(we’ll get to the donkey in a second..) look at the picture at the beginning of my blog.  Now that isn’t the Jerusalem Jesus would have seen, this is modern day but you get the drift. In the foreground is the Mount of Olives.

Jesus was entering through the East Gate and there was a LONG STANDING tradition that Messiah would come through the East Gate. This was from Ezekiel 44: 1, 2 ¹THEN the man [an angel] brought me back the way of the outer gate of the sanctuary which faces the east, and it was shut. ²Then the Lord said to me, This gate shall be ^[a]shut; it shall not be opened and no man shall enter in by it, for the Lord, the God of Israel, has entered in by it; therefore it shall remain shut. 

So, are you with me? What Ezekiel is prophesying and what the Jews understood and were waiting for and saw as Jesus strode through the East Gate…the Lord! the God of Israel has entered! The Messiah has finally come!!! Alright bring it on! (Okay…maybe they didn’t say that…) Read this footnote from biblegateway.com:

Ezekiel 44:2 In Christ’s time the Golden Gate was the principal eastside thoroughfare. Through it the Prince of Peace would naturally make His triumphal entry. But by A.D. 1542-3, when Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem, tradition says that the road which once led to this gate had fallen into disuse, and what is now St. Stephen’s Gate was the accepted entrance. So the Sultan walled up the Golden Gate with its double entrance, and it has remained so ever since. (And what that means is that the second part of Ezekiel’s prophesy rings true: Messiah walked through and the gate is SHUT tight!!)

Onward we go!

⁷And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their outer garments upon it, and He sat on it…

Two Donkeys
Isaac Israëls (1865–1934)

If you didn’t know better, it seems that Jesus is asking His obedient disciples to steal this little donkey.  Yet, in this instance, Jesus is ready with his defense before they ask their normal questions. IF someone asks…;) The scene begins, can you see it in your mind? They lay their coats on the donkey and Jesus climbs on her back.  The disciples, the crowds all know what I’ve told you about Ezekiel and they also remember Zechariah 9:9

⁹Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O Daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King comes to you; He is [uncompromisingly] just and having salvation [triumphant and victorious], patient, meek, lowly, and riding on a donkey, upon a colt, the foal of a donkey.

And the crowds go wild! They begin cutting the branches of palm trees, laying down their coats, their Messiah has come! He is making His triumphal entry in Jerusalem to take it by force. Um, right?

Tomorrow…part two…

Pray on, friends, pray on!!