The Triumphal Entry (Matt 21:1-11)

Introduction

If you have your Bible, please turn it to Matthew 21:1-11.

As you turn there, let me explain a little bit of why we’re in this passage. Today is Palm Sunday, which is historically the day that the universal church both celebrates what we refer to as the Triumphal Entry and it is the day that kickstarts what’s called Holy Week. Today starts a week-long reflection on the last week of Jesus’ life as we think on Jesus’ death on the cross prior to His resurrection. And this week-long reflection on the last week of Jesus’ life starts here, in Matthew 21:1-11 with the Triumphal Entry.

Now, I know, if you’ve been a part of a church for any length of time—you’ve probably heard about the Triumphal Entry multiple times throughout your life—in fact, some of you who might have grown up going to church have heard sermons about the Triumphal Entry dozens or maybe even 50-60 times. And it could be tempting to just sort of stare off into space as we work through this text yet again but let me encourage you not to—Jesus coming into Jerusalem before His crucifixion is important, that’s why we keep reiterating it over and over again.

So, we’re in Matthew 21 and this, from all human perspectives, seems to be the apex or the climax of Jesus’ short three-and-a-half year ministry on earth—He has preached the sermon on the mount, He’s preached other sermons, He has spontaneously and miraculously healed people, and it seems like He’s gathered together a large group of disciples (or so it seems).

And at the time of Matthew 21, Jesus and his closest disciples are traveling to Jerusalem—His disciples assume that they’re there simply for the Passover but Jesus knows He’s there for far more than to just celebrate the Passover—He’s there for His death, burial, and resurrection (and we know He knows because He’s God).

So, our text this morning is split into two parts but it speaks about the same event: (1) The Fulfillment of Prophecy (1-7) shows us how the whole scenario at hand occurred because God’s Word said it would and (2) The People’s Response to Jesus (8-11) shows us how the crowds surrounding Jesus during His triumphal Entry appeared to respond. What we’ll learn this morning is actually rather simple—but there are profound implications for it and it is this: the Triumphal Entry proves to us that God keeps His Word even when it comes to seemingly minute or little details; thus, we need to simply trust God and praise Him.

Prayer for Illumination

The Fulfillment of Prophecy (1-7)

Our text starts with this concept of the fulfillment of prophecy. Let’s read vv. 1-7:

Matthew 21:1–7 ESV

1 Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” 4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, 5 “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’ ” 6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them.

So, Matthew writes of a group of people drawing near to Jerusalem when there is a need presented by Jesus.

We know that this is referring specifically to the group of disciples that Jesus was closer with, we can base that on the context, Jesus didn’t typically travel with large groups of people but rather those that he held dear—particularly those that we will later refer to as the apostles.

And he sends two of these disciples to go into Bethphage and to find a donkey with a colt (a young donkey), to untie them and to bring to Jesus.

Now, all this sounds vastly unusual, especially since it seems that they really aren’t going to ask, they’re just going to do it and v. 3 says that “if anyone says anything . . . then you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.”

So, just think of the situation with me from a purely human, logical standpoint. Jesus and his closest disciples are walking into Jerusalem but Jesus stops them and tells two of them to go and get a donkey and a colt.

He doesn’t tell them the reasoning behind any of this but Matthew tells us why Jesus told them to do this. In v. 4, we read that “This [meaning the whole scenario concerning the donkey and the colt] took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, ‘Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’”

The reason why, according to Matthew, this happened was to fulfill what had been prophesied in the Old Testament, and then he gives us that prophecy—that their king is coming and he’s going to be mounted on a colt.

Now, there’s a little bit of symbolism there—typically a king would ride into a city on a warhorse as a conqueror not a colt, but the colt in the Ancient Near Eastern context symbolized peace—as in Jesus is the King who is bringing peace.

And with hindsight, we know that He is the King who brought us peace between we who are sinners and our Almighty, holy God.

This prophecy was quoted by Matthew, it’s quoted from Zechariah 9:9, which was written about 550 years before Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a colt. Which tells us two great details about God:

That if He says He’ll do it, He will—He is trustworthy

And even if it takes 550 years for Him to do, we can still trust Him because He is faithful.

And we see this fulfillment in vv. 6-7. The disciples obeyed Jesus, they got him the donkey and the colt, and he sat on the colt and rode into the city.

Just think of what an amazing scenario this would’ve been to witness—again, think of the context of Matthew 21.

Jesus has healed people, He’s preached the Kingdom of God, He has fed the multitude, and really John 21 tells us that Jesus did so many amazing miraculous things on earth during His earthly life and ministry that if it were all written down, the world couldn’t contain the book.

And remember, that most of the people who were following Jesus at this moment and had heard about Jesus were Jewish people, so they would’ve been very familiar with Zechariah’s statement concerning the coming King.

They knew that the Old Testament had prophecies concerning a Messiah coming to save them.

And Jesus, seems to fit their whole idea of what their Messiah was to look like.

So, their response is that of great praise and worship and adoration. They shout and they cheer and we get to see this response that looks absolutely amazing—let’s read vv. 8-11.

The People’s Response to Jesus (8-11)

Matthew 21:8–11 ESV

8 Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 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!” 10 And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” 11 And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”

Jesus riding on a donkey that symbolizes peace, starts into the city of Jerusalem.

And the people are spreading their cloaks on the road and some are spreading branches on the road before Him while shouting “Hosannas” and other phrases that represent their understanding of who Jesus is.

It looks and sounds like an amazing scenario to experience. The cloaks and branches spread across the road before Him is a concept very similar to how a conquering military power would be welcomed back into the city.

Even the phrases that the people are shouting carry this same idea:

Hosanna — save us now

Son of David — referring to the kingly title of the Messiah.

Of course, when something like this is happening, when there are large amounts of people shouting and celebrating and laying their cloaks and branches on the ground before Jesus, it elicits a response from more than just the Jewish people.

V. 10 tells us that when Jesus entered the city, “the whole city was stirred up” and they questioned “who is this?” and all of the people who are shouting, praising, and celebrating respond with “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”

It all sounds and looks like an amazing situation or scenario to experience but if you’re reading this carefully and you’re thinking of all this in the context of what’s about to happen over the last week of Jesus’ life on earth, you start to notice something.

While some of the people who are shouting praise and laying their cloaks and branches out on the road are legitimately worshipers and believers of Jesus.

But it seems clear throughout the Gospels that most people even though they witnessed Jesus doing miracles, they heard Him preach and teach, and saw Him spontaneously heal people, they didn’t really understand that Jesus was and is actually the Messiah.

Consider when Jesus says to those who were following after He fed the multitude, John 6:25-26 “25 And when they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, “Rabbi, when did You come here?” 26 Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me . . . because you ate of the loaves and were filled.”

Or in other words, they’re only following Him for the benefit or reward of following Him—they get food.

Or think of how even the closest disciples to Jesus, the twelve, will struggle over the next week of Jesus’ life questioning whether it was worth even following Jesus as they watch Jesus get arrested, tried, and convicted as an innocent person.

It begs the question then, what exactly are these people shouting hosanna and “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord” for?

Remember the context, these are primarily Jewish people that are all in Jerusalem to worship Yahweh during Passover.

They’re all familiar with the stories and the Scriptural accounts of what the Messiah was going to do—or so they thought.

They knew what they had been told by rabbis and the Sadducees and Pharisees and the typical understanding of what exactly the Messiah was to do in the first century was that the Jewish Messiah would come—He would take control of the nation of Israel, declare His kingdom on earth, and conquer the Romans who were at the time controlling them.

Or in other words, they’re shouting hosanna and “blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord” and they’re laying their coats out and laying branches down because they thought that Jesus was this great political Messiah that was about to save them from the Romans.

And what we see as we continue in the next week is that Jesus didn’t come the first time to set up an earthly kingdom, He came to bring peace between God and those who repent, call on the name of Jesus, and follow Him.

The Jewish people in Matthew 21 are celebrating Jesus but they aren’t celebrating Him for the right reason—and thus, when Jesus doesn’t do what they think He should do, many of them leave and some of them join in with the crowd shouting for Jesus to be crucified.

Which brings us this morning, in our last few minutes, to our application. What ought we to do with an account in Scripture that is so very familiar to most of us who have either grown up in church or who have at least spent quite a bit of time in church? And really, with a passage like this, our application is really apparent—And I think you can see it plainly but let me help you apply it specifically.

Application

The Fulfillment of Prophecy (1-7) — In the first seven verses, we see almost an obscure prophecy from a small (what we consider a minor prophet) from the Old Testament. It is literally one sentence about how Israel’s king is coming and He would ride into the city on a donkey—a symbol of peace. It sounds so unusually minor of a detail that it seems almost inconsequential and yet, Matthew makes a point to highlight how Jesus fulfilled this prophecy as He entered into the city of Jerusalem.

This teaches us something that is simple and yet profoundly important and it’s this—God always keeps His Word even when it seems like a minor, unimportant detail.

Like the fact that the king rode in on a donkey instead of a warhorse—if God is able and willing to remember a minor detail like that, how much more likely is it for Him to keep His larger promises?

For instance, the promise in Romans 10:9 “9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;” If God is willing to keep a minor detail like the donkey, certainly, He’s going to keep a major detail like your salvation.

Or when we’re told in Philippians 1:6 “6 that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” If God is willing to keep a minor detail.

Or when we’re told that the Holy Spirit is given as a seal for all those who believe until the day of redemption.

Or when we’re consistently reminded throughout Scripture that Jesus will return in His own time and in His own way.

If God can keep the minor promises, how much more able is He to keep the major promises?

God will always do what He says He will do—even if it seems like an obscure or meaningless prophecy.

Thus, you can and should have complete faith and trust in Him—you need to trust God.

Even when life is difficult or is filled with trial or great tribulation, you should still trust Him (just like you trust Him when life is great with little issue or concern).

For instance, holidays like Easter can be filled with great times especially when you have plenty of family around and they all get along. Holidays like Easter can also be times of great trial and tribulation especially when you have plenty of family around and they don’t get along.

Or they’re times in life when you are almost forced to remember what life used to be like—when your loved ones were still on this side of eternity

Or before your children decided to stop following Jesus.

This week of reflection on Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection can bring about great memories of family or it can cause great pain and sorrow.

When life is difficult or it’s filled with trial or great tribulation—remember this, that your God is faithful and He keeps His Word—He will always do what He says He will do—trust Him.

The Response of the People (8-11) — in the last bit of Scripture that we had for this morning, we saw how people responded to Jesus coming into the city of Jerusalem. I mentioned that while it seemed like something that was great—where everyone was cheering and celebrating Jesus coming in; the reality is that most of the people that were there believed something about Jesus that wasn’t true—they assumed He was there to save them politically when in reality He was there to save them spiritually—they wanted an earthly king, whereas, He came to be King of their hearts.

Really, what we see then is a potent warning to be sure that the Jesus you’re following is the Jesus of God’s Word and not the Jesus that you constructed in your own mind with your own desire.

Or in other Words, it is easy for us to construct a false god to worship—John Calvin said that the human heart is a factory of idols—meaning, our hearts are always creating new things to worship that aren’t actually Jesus.

That might mean that we’ve created a political Jesus like the Jewish people did

Or it might mean that we’ve created a social justice Jesus like many people in our world today do.

And really, we can do this in a plethora of different ways: for example: the patriotic Jesus, the magician Jesus—that only does what you ask Him to and when He doesn’t, you get angry, the prosperity gospel Jesus.

The only Jesus worth following is the Jesus of the Bible. Thus, be sure that your understanding of who Jesus is is predicated on what Scripture says, not what you make up in your own mind or heart.

Make sure that the Jesus that you’re worshiping is who the Bible describes.

In conjunction with this idea that God always keeps His Word, our application is this, make sure that the Jesus you trust is the Jesus of God’s Word and not the Jesus that you made in your mind or in your own desire.

And then be sure that you respond to the biblical Jesus in the right way—not because you want Him to do something for you, not because you have false ideas about who He is, but because you know who He is according to His Word, and you love Him, so you shout hosanna and cry out with “blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.”

Put simply, what Palm Sunday reminds us of (what Matthew 21:1-11 teaches us) is this: (1) it is very easy to construct a false version of Jesus in your mind or your heart, so make sure that your idea of Jesus is who God’s Word says He is—praise the biblical Jesus; and (2) God always keeps His Word, so trust Him.

Palm Sunday reminds us that God’s Word calls Jesus our King and the biblical Jesus is absolutely and completely trustworthy so trust Him.

Pastoral Prayer