The Jews were once again preparing for the celebration of the Passover. Jesus and His disciples also journey to Jerusalem to keep the Passover Feast. It was a time of great joy and excitement for the Jews, but how heavy the burden must have been upon the heart of our Lord, as He contemplated the terrible suffering He would bear in the few days to follow.
Under the careful instruction of His parents, Jesus grew in the knowledge of the Old Testament scriptures. As He grew older, Jesus saw more and more clearly what His work was as the Messiah, the Anointed One. His frequent journeys to the mountain to pray for strength and guidance from His Father reveal to us how awesome and almost overwhelming His responsibility was to Him. Throughout His life on earth, Jesus was preparing for the suffering and death He would have to bear in order to save His people from their sins. The Lamb of God was now ready to sacrifice Himself in the Passover to which all the other Passovers had pointed.
On the first day of the week, which we now call Palm Sunday, the Lamb of God arrived in Jerusalem as King. In Luke 19:28-48, we read of three incidents in which Christ displays His authority as the promised Messiah of the Old Testament. These three incidents are His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, His foretelling of the destruction of Jerusalem, and His cleansing of the temple. In each of these acts, Christ refers to the Old Testament to show that He was the fulfillment of all the law and the prophets.
“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion: shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass,” Zachariah 9:9. Five hundred years after Zachariah’s prophecy, Christ enters Jerusalem surrounded with the multitude crying, “Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord!” Many of the people had heard of and seen the might works which He had done and are filled with awe and admiration. When the Pharisees from among the multitude tell Jesus to quiet the people, Jesus answers them with prophecy found in Habakkuk 2:11, “For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it.” Even the very rocks would testify of the salvation from God which the King had come to bring for His people.
The people are filled with anticipation of once again having their own king. But, they do not understand the true meaning of Christ’s Kingship. Even His disciples fail to understand that He comes to Jerusalem not to rule an earthly kingdom but to sacrifice Himself on the cross as the Saviour of His people (John 12:16). This explains how the people were to change so quickly within a few days to cry, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” Christ shows to them that His Kingship was not the type which they desired. He once again refers to Old Testament prophecy to show them that He came not to restore the glory of the Jerusalem on earth. Christ uses the prophecy of Jeremiah 6:3, 6 to describe the terrible destruction of Jerusalem; “They shall pitch their tents against her round about; they shall feed every one in his place….cast a mount against Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited; she is wholly oppression in the midst of her.” How Christ must have stunned the people with these words of their coming ruin instead of promises of a glorious Jerusalem on earth!
After entering Jerusalem, the King goes not to the palace but to the temple where He immediately casts out the buyers and the sellers. He would not allow His Father’s house to be corrupted. He uses the Old Testament prophecy of Jeremiah 7:11 to show that He possessed the authority of God, “Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it saith the Lord.” The temple of the Old Dispensation was a type of Christ, the Lamb of God, who is the Mediator between God and His people: “For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.”
The time was at hand for the Lamb to be slain. In a week, the Old Testament law and prophets were to be fulfilled at last. The Messiah had arrived in Jerusalem for the final Passover sacrifice.