Palm Sunday 2025 (John)

Intro

Today we are going to be dealing with themes of humility and greatness, and I want to set something straight before we get started, because I think it will help us better contextualize what we are about to hear.

Today, we are discussing the King of all creation, Jesus Christ. He is perfect in every way; he is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-present. As we speak now, he is without weakness in any way and is full of all the glory of God. Right now, he sits upon his throne at the right hand of the Father with his enemies as his footstool. He is the picture of glory.

I hope that this leads us not only to worship him, but also to a greater appreciation of what we just heard read and are about to consider together.

Large portions of the gospel of John can be viewed as having a few main characters that are driving the narrative. There is Jesus, who the gospel is centered around. He can be seen as the “main character” of the gospel account. He is often being opposed by the Pharisees or religious elites, who can be seen as the primary “antagonists” of the gospel account. And among others, we often see this third character vacillating between Jesus and the Pharisees which John is content to call “the crowds.” In this text we have this exact setup before us: we see Jesus triumphantly entering into Jerusalem to finish his work and claim his throne. We see the crowds, which in this text are playing an important role as they usher Jesus into the city of Jerusalem. Finally, we also see the Pharisees drowning in their prideful indignation at Jesus.

This is a pivotal moment in the life and work of Jesus, this can be viewed in many ways as the entering of the endgame of God’s plan of redemption. In this event, there is much that is revealed about Jesus as our King and about ourselves as a sinful people. Of Jesus, we see that he is determined to accomplish our redemption as our humble King. Of ourselves, we will see that the humility of Jesus is in stark contrast to our sinful desires, which are so obsessed with chasing worldly greatness.

Our Flesh Desires Worldly Greatness

The Crowd

John 12:12 ESV

The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.

This is a significant verse to help us realize what is going on. As I mentioned briefly earlier, Jesus coming to Jerusalem is no minor fact. This is of monumental significance. Remember: Jesus is a wanted man right now. The religious leaders, who are centered in Jerusalem, have made public plans to arrest Jesus and private plans to kill him.

When Jesus shows up at the dinner on the outskirts of Jerusalem, the crowds begin to gather together in anticipation. When, on the next day, he begins to march towards Jerusalem, it is with a weighty momentum of expectation and imminent conflict. What the crowds do next is significant:

John 12:13 ESV

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!”

This is such a wonderful scene for us to imagine: this is why this passage gets the title “the Triumphal entry.” As Jesus nears Jerusalem and the certain conflict that awaits him there, the crowds have clearly championed him. They adore him, and in fact are borderline worshiping Jesus as he enters. They cry out “Hosanna!” Which is a term of praise, meaning something like, “Save us!” They call him Blessed, recognizing that Jesus comes not of his own accord but in the name of the Lord. This crowd is ready to crown Jesus the King of Israel!

And while this seems to be a very positive reaction to Jesus, we are going to see that it is somewhat superficial and hollow. The crowds have expectations of Jesus that don’t match up with reality, or with what Jesus is about to do. In a few weeks, we will continue preaching on this chapter and we will see that the crowds are going to change their tone when they find out what Jesus is here to do. When Jesus reveals to them his intentions, they will quickly reveal that they aren’t interested in who Jesus really is, or what he really came to do, but only in their idea of Jesus, and what they want him to do.

When the crowds in this text shout Hosanna!, they want Jesus to save them from Roman rule.

When the crowds crown Jesus the King of Israel, they are intending to march him straight to a throne where he could take a crown and a scepter, immediately inaugurating the messianic rule that will last forever.

John adds to this their motivation for being here:

John 12:17–18 ESV

The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign.

They have been paying attention to the trajectory of Jesus’ ministry, which has recently culminated in resurrected a dead man. From their perspective, this is surely the long-awaited time when the prophesied Son of David takes the throne and rules forever. Maybe this even means that death is no longer a factor, for their new King clearly has power over death!

The crowds were so close to seeing the truth, but they were missing a crucial point: sins had not yet been paid for. They were ready to usher in eternity before their sins had been dealt with. They wanted Jesus to do something other than what needed to be done; they wanted glory, but they wouldn’t accept suffering.

Apply: And lest it seems that I am being too harsh on the crowds here, I should mention that we also often try to make Jesus something that he isn’t. We desire things from him that he doesn’t intend to give us. We will sing his praises, but sometimes under the impression that Jesus is somebody quite different from who he actually is.

We see this often in prosperity gospel churches; people will praise the name of Jesus, under the assumption that Jesus intends to make them happy, healthy, and comfortable.

We see this in overly-politicized churches; people will sing the praises of Jesus, assuming that Jesus is a republican, or a democrat, and affirms all of their political positions.

We see it in all kinds of theological traditions, which are far more interested in promoting their own agendas then in humbly submitting themselves to the Jesus of the Bible, the Jesus who lives.

Who he is is much better than we can imagine, and his gifts are far better than anything we would have asked for. But we will discuss this in more detail soon enough. First, we recognize that the crowds aren’t the only ones with misguided expectations of Earthly glory: there are also the pharisees.

The Pharisees

John 12:19 ESV

So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.”

State:

As the Pharisees look out upon these happening in Jerusalem, they begin to burn with jealousy. You can imagine them looking on from a distance, looking to one another, and determining once and for all that this ends now.

Here they realize that any hope that have for earthly glory only exists in a world without Jesus. If Jesus is allowed to continue his ministry, then the pharisees can kick their positional standing in society goodbye. This is simply too much for them to handle.

This is in contrast to John the Baptist’s statement in chapter 3 verse 30 : “He must increase, but I must decrease.” What John the Baptist acknowledged with humble faith, the Pharisees acknowledge with prideful disdain: “See, he is increasing and we are decreasing.” The loss of the glory they received from people was such a massive blow to them that it threw them into a bloodthirsty rage.

Apply: Isn’t it true that we sometimes feel that we deserve our version of greatness? We feel that we have a right to our own version of happiness, and we can even become angry with God when we don’t achieve that vision of success.

Are we truly willing to suffer personal loss if it leads to the glory of God? Are we willing to suffer for the cause of Christ? Or do we prioritize our own position over Christ’s glory?

While we, like the crowds and the pharisees, can be so preoccupied with earthly glory, let us consider Christ, who shows us true greatness.

Jesus Shows Us True Greatness

State:

John 12:14–16 ESV

And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!” His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him.

Jesus does something here that seems incredibly strange and even out of place. John doesn’t include the longer story about how Jesus gets this donkey, but Matthew goes into great detail; suffice it to say, Jesus chose a donkey to sit on with great purpose — this makes the situation even more odd.

In a triumphal entry, being paraded by crowds and ushered with palm branches, it would have been expected to have the King sitting on a much more dignified animal; a war horse or camel something similar. It is not so here, and in fact Jesus chooses the lowliest of animals to sit upon. He chooses a beast of burden, not a beast of glory and might. Why does he do this?

We are told that his disciples did not understand at first, but the prophecy from Zecheriah helps us understand. Not only was it prophesied that Jesus would do this, but the reason was also foretold: this was an act of great humility on the part of Jesus.

If Jesus desired mere earthly glory, he would have chosen a different steed, but his choice of steed foreshadowed what Jesus would do in the city of Jerusalem.

The crowds expected Jesus to enter the city, claim the throne of David, along with the crown and scepter, thereby overthrowing the shackles of Rome and inaugurating a new age for Israel.

Instead, Jesus claimed a crown of thorns, and for his throne he chose a cross. Instead of breaking the shackles of Rome, Jesus set his course to break the shackles of sin and death.

Do you see the greatness of Jesus? Do you see how different he is, how wonderful, how magnificent! While everyone around him was so focused on earhtly glory, Jesus enters as a humble servant.

John says that after Jesus was glorified, by which he means after he was crucified, this whole series of events in the triumphal entry all of a sudden made sense to them. They finally realized that his mission was far greater than anyone dared to expect. They realized that Jesus was not merely in pursuit of an earthly glory, but of a godly one achieved through suffering.

Apply:

Do you realize that when Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey, to claim a crown of thorns and crucifixion for his enthronement, he did it for you? Do you realize that as Jesus presses forward towards the cross, he is doing it with your salvation in mind? Do you see what he endured for your sake? What love! What glory! What greatness! What a savior! What a king!

This is your savior and your king: not one who came to us with a show of earthly glory, but clothed in humility.

Christian, this King is calling you into his service. Jesus has called that we turn from our obsession with Earthly glory and come, and follow him. He bids us pick up our own cross. When we face the hatred of the world, he reminds us that it hated him first.

The life of a Christian is modeled after the life of our Christ

FCF: We seek after Earthly glory

CFC: As our King, Christ showed us true glory through his humble love

Call: Forsake worldly greatness; follow Christ, our humble King and Savior

We have come to behold a King who embraced thorns and nails, who pushed forward to suffering because of what he knew lay on the other side of it.

As his followers, we can expect much of the same. Our King has not set us up to live merely pleasure-filled and luxurious lives in this life, but he has called us to come and follow him; to pick up our cross and bear the shame.