Palm Sunday is a very significant day in the Christian community. Palm Sunday marks the “triumphal entry” of the Lord Jesus Christ into Jerusalem. It is also the traditional beginning of “Holy Week,” which is most sacred for Christians around the world as they commemorate the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
As Jesus enters the city of Jerusalem, the Scripture says, “The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” (John 12:12,13). Hosanna means “save now, we pray you.” The triumphal entry has great significance for Christians each year.
The prophet Zechariah prophesied the triumphal entry of Jesus and introduced Jesus as the King. Zechariah declares, “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.” (Zechariah 9:9). The gospel of John 12:12,13 is the fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecy.
“Your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he.“ is most noteworthy. Jesus is God’s provision for man’s salvation. Because of sinful man’s rebellion after sin came into the world through Adam, God has provided Jesus and His death and shed blood to re-establish the relationship that man once had with God before sin entered the world.
Jesus is righteous means “For our sake he [i.e. God] made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21). God has provided Jesus Christ to be our righteousness.
The salvation Jesus offers means deliverance from sin and its consequences. “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16).
Jesus also entered Jerusalem mounted on a donkey. This means that though a King, yet Jesus is the ‘humble’ King of Peace. He “emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:7,8).
Zechariah says Jesus “shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.” (Zechariah 9:10). Jesus assured His disciples, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” (John 14:27). Anyone who accepts Christ as Savior will experience peace with God “which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:7). Christians can commit all anxieties and concerns to God because of peace with God.
Wonderful gift from above,
Oh, wonderful, wonderful peace,
Sweet peace, the gift of God’s love!
Peter P Bilhorn
All this points to the reconciling work of Jesus Christ on the Cross which enables God to show mercy where His judgment was deserved. God is now able to change man’s rebellious attitude because “through him [i.e. Jesus] to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace through the blood of his cross.” (Colossians 1:20).
Because of sin, we were strangers to God and his grace and hostile in mind and practice toward Him. But because of the reconciling work of Jesus Christ on the Cross, we are now reconciled to God. The word reconcile means “to change thoroughly.”
Glory be to God. “In Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:19).
Thus saith my Lord and King.
“Oh, be ye reconciled to God.”
— E. Taylor Cassel
The Scripture is clear, it man that must be reconciled to God and not God to be reconciled to man. God is holy, just, and righteous. Man is unholy, unjust, and unrighteous. God’s intervention brought about the necessary change.