And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, 
“Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
Matthew 21:9

Matthew 21:1–11 – Matthew
Palm Sunday – April 5, 2020 (am)
   

Greetings, Grace Church, and Happy Palm Sunday to you! I trust God is meeting you right where you are today, each and all. And I hope you know you are deeply loved, by me, by the Elders, staff, and Deacons. And I hope there is evidence in your interactions with one another even during these days that persuade you of your love for each other within this body of believers.

We’re approaching the end of the Lenten season which has historically been identified as a time of lament, marked by lack which is crafted to stoke our longing for the deliverance of God, for the salvation of our Lord.

In the best days of this life, though, we can actually be tempted to wish that the Day of our Lord’s return, the Day of His deliverance and final salvation, would hold off a bit, that we might spend a little more time in this present world. But God has blessed us with a gift during this Lenten season. We have all experienced lack together. And we have not chosen it. Rather, He has placed it upon us by His sovereign hand. He has shown us the sort of disruption, the sort of deprivation, the sort of profound experience of lack that a simple little microscopic virus can bring into this world and into our lives.

If we’re not longing for one another’s fellowship by now, and longing for it with a deep ache in our souls, there is good reason to question whether we’ve truly been reconciled to God and to one another by the sin-cleansing death of His Son and the regenerating work of His Spirit.

And if that hasn’t happened, may God do that miraculous work within us this very day through the ministry of His Word.

And His Word has something to say to us today on this very subject. We just read Matthew 21:1-11, why were these people so excited?

They were celebrating Jesus as if He were their promised Messiah, the One anointed by God to be their Deliverer, the promised One who would not only occupy David’s throne in fulfillment of God’s covenant promise to him (2Sa.7:16), but would also somehow deliver them from their sins, like God promised in the very giving of His name—He’s the God Who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness …, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will be no means clear the guilty… (Exo.34:6-7). And His promised Messiah would somehow also be pierced for our transgressions; He’d be crushed for our iniquities; and with his wounds we [would be] healed (Isa.53:5).

Israel wasn’t sure how all that would happen, but the mystery of it all was wrapped up in the mystery of their God. The hope of it all was folded together with their expectation of the arrival of their promised Messiah. And their excitement here in this event was the overflow of that hope-filled expectation that perhaps this Jesus was that promised Messiah!

And their excitement was magnified as they saw Jesus not just walking into town as He usually would, but [riding] on a donkey, just like the prophet Zechariah had said Messiah would do (5; Zec.9:9).

So, what’s going on here? A couple of things.

First, these people would have had some general familiarity with the image of rulers [riding] on a donkey in times of peace (Jud.5:10; 1Ki.1:33 [Carson 494), sort of a contrast to their riding on a war horse in times of conflict (cf. Rev.19:11). So, so there was an aura of peace over this whole scene, along with humility as the prophet had said (5).

But second, then there was the whole description from this quotation (5), which actually combines passages from both Isaiah (62:11) and Zechariah (9:9). This crowd was openly identifying Jesus as a prophet (11), but Matthew is suggesting here that they were seeing Him as more than just that. We’ll get to that in a moment. But as Matthew adds in the quote from Isaiah-and-Zechariah, he’s saying that Jesus was intentionally proclaiming his messiahship (Carson 494) by setting up this scene through the explicit instruction He gave to the two disciples (1-3), which they then obeyed (6).

So, Jesus is entering Jerusalem in humility as a king in times of peace, and not just as any king, but as God’s anointed Messiah!

And the people actually picked up on all this as He entered the city. 8 Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road—something they would do for a king (cf. 2Ki.9:13). 9 And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” Hosanna is a word that once meant God save us, but at this point it was likely just a cry of praise to [God] (Blomberg B&C 65). So, they were saying something like: Praise God for sending us His King! Or better, praise be to the Messianic King (Hagner in Blomberg B&C 65). In Matthew’s opening verse he presented Jesus as Messiah (Christ), the Son of David (Heir to David’s throne), the son of Abraham (through Whom all the earth would be blessed [Gen.12:3]). And now, here (8-11), the crowds are recognizing and affirming just that here in Jerusalem!

Their long-awaited Deliverer and King had finally arrived! And He was entering their city in peace, just as the prophets had foretold! We can feel the excitement of that day all the way across the twenty centuries that have accumulated since it happened! But you know what? That still doesn’t fully answer our question. It doesn’t fully explain their excitement.

Their Messiah wasn’t just any old king. In their minds He was a King Who would deliver them from all their enemies! He was a King Who would throw of the yoke of their Roman oppression and re-establish the throne of David! He was a King Who would restore the glory and fame of Israel!

So, they were excited to see their Messiah not just because it was the next and climactic stage in a great story! They were excited to see their Messiah not just because the credibility of their theology and the reliability of God’s Word was at stake! They were excited to see their Messiah because they were a people in need! They were a people mired by lament! They were a people marked by lack! They were waiting for deliverance, and Deliverance had finally come!

Or so they believed. Almost certainly they thought this special event they were celebrating meant freedom from Rome right then and there! But just six days later when Jesus had been beaten and was hanging on a cross, that excitement had melted. I even believe some of those who were shouting, Hosanna to the Son of David on Palm Sunday were among those who were shouting Crucify Him on Good Friday. The disillusionment that must have flooded in on them as they saw the events of that week unfold could turn any heart.

But what they didn’t realize is that, what Jesus accomplished that week, and especially what He went through between Friday and Sunday, achieved the greatest act of Deliverance ever conceived! Jesus didn’t immediately deliver Israel from Roman occupation, but what He did was even greater! He provided for their reconciliation with God! He opened the way for a whole new relationship with God, a whole new covenant agreement with Him in which the sacrifice Jesus provided surpassed the old covenant sacrificial system that was just holding off God’s wrath. And He provided a once-for-all sacrifice that actually removed God’s wrath! It fully absorbs any expression of God’s judgment in the lives of all who will receive by faith what Jesus provided on the cross that Friday!

And all who do received Jesus by faith as their sin-Bearer before God will also live eternally with Him in heaven once this life is finished!

So, to give the full picture, Jesus didn’t just make provision for Israel’s deliverance from Rome that Friday in Jerusalem, He made provision for the deliverance from all oppression of everyone from any nation who will receive His death as payment-in-full for the penalty of their sin before God, which then entitles them to eternal life with Him in the presence of God—[f]or God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (Joh.3:16).

The celebration that was happening on that day Jesus entered Jerusalem is a shadowy promise at best of the celebration that will happen on the day we enter heaven, because by then we will all realize that the Deliverance He actually provided for back then is immeasurably greater than the one that crowd was expecting!

And it was applicable to far more people than just those first century Jews and their progeny. It is available to you today! Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest! (9)