John 12:12-13

I have to believe the chief priests were standing aghast at the sight of our Lord being honored in the way portrayed by our verses for today. Having already a fixed mindset to have Jesus put to death, they now see Him exalted by the crowds. The events portrayed here would have been a very unusual sight in the ministry of Jesus. Prior to this time He had never allowed the limelight to shine on Himself or His ministry. He always withdrew from public notice and the accolades of man, retiring rather to the wilderness when the crowds desired to elevate Him and make Him an earthly king. We find earlier in John:

15 Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself. John 6:15 (NIV)

Yet here we see Him making a very public entrance into Jerusalem with a great throng of people waving palm branches and shouting “Hosanna”. The explanation is rather simple - the time of our Savior’s departure had now fully come – He was the Lamb that was to be slain – the true High Priest for all mankind. He was to procure a transaction that would be very public on Calvary, at a time when all the tribes would have been assembled at Jerusalem and He had caused the eyes of Israel to be fixed on this event – just as He wants ours to be.

Interestingly, the men honoring our Lord were obviously not the religious leaders of the day or the great and prominent men of high standing rather the common people. Those who were paying their respect were not the inhabitants of Jerusalem but those of the countryside. Christ is often honored by the multitudes rather than the magnificence of His followers as He values men by their hearts and souls rather than their names or titles. I am reminded of the words in 1 Samuel regarding this:

7 But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." 1 Sam 16:7 (NIV)

Indeed, throughout the gospels the throngs that followed our Lord were often the infirmed, the diseased, the demon-possessed and the lame. Prior to the Sermon on the Mount we find:

23 Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. 24 News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and he healed them. 25 Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him. Matt 4:23-25 (NIV)

It is no wonder then that it should be the likes of these that are bringing our Lord honor. He had even stated that He came not for the healthy but for the sick – which by the way includes us all through sin even though some yet remain blind to their illness. The first step in coming to the Lord is to realize that we all have a desperate need. Jesus tells us in Matthew:

12 On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." Matt 9:12-13 (NIV)

Waving palm branches as a symbol of victory and triumph and shouting “Hosanna” meaning salvation, they acknowledge our Lord to be King over Israel. Unbeknownst to them, Christ, by His death, was about to conquer and disarm the powers and principalities of the dark world – enabling them to become free from their bondage to sin and death. Paul tells us in Colossians:

13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. Col 2:13-15 (NIV)

Yes, even if these throngs had not proclaimed our Lord’s majesty at this time of His-story, the earth would have stepped up to the plate by honoring Him in crying out. All of history had pointed toward this spectacular event when the Messiah would publically present Himself and God desired this fact to be acknowledged.

39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples!" 40 "I tell you," he replied, "if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out." Luke 19:39-40 (NIV)