Sermon Tone Analysis
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Palm Branches and Red Carpets
Luke 19:28-40
Have you ever considered the Triumphant Entry from a Hollywood point of view?
Do we have any
such occasion in our culture today?
Jesus, as He came into Jerusalem, was greeted by massive crowds and an
Oscar-like enthusiasm.
But it remained to be seen whether this celebrity, this Jesus of Nazareth, would be
praised or picked apart.
Glitter, glamour and gossip; the three G’s of the Hollywood red carpet treatment.
Did anyone see the
most recent annual Academy Awards a couple of weeks ago?
There you would have seen the three G’s in all
their glory.
Now we have four G’s.
Thousands of fans awaited the arrival of the movie stars, to get but a
glimpse and to gawk as they passed by in gowns and gaudy garb.
Do we have enough G’s yet?
I think you get
the picture.
Did you know that the Academy Awards show has become the most-watched television event in
the world, drawing hundreds of millions of viewers in over 200 countries?
Imagine that, nearly one in every six
members of the human race is glued to the TV on Oscar night.
It’s amazing what we find important.
Glitter,
glamour and gossip and grab; it seems we can’t get enough.
But this is nothing new.
Think of today, Palm Sunday, as a sort of pre-show for Holy Week.
A
superstar was coming to town, so the people of Jerusalem spread their cloaks on the road, giving Jesus the red
carpet treatment.
The crowds cheered and waved palm branches, exhalting their approval and Jesus’ popularity.
A major event was underway, a Passover Festival that drew 2.5 million pilgrims to Jerusalem.
The city was
electrified with Oscar-night enthusiasm.
However, instead of being called to the stage and receiving the
acclamation of your peers and the world audience, Jesus enters Jerusalem, cleanses the temple — and it’s the
end of His career.
Jesus was aware of all this.
He knew exactly what He was getting into.
He expected a hero’s welcome
on Palm Sunday, but He also knew how this was all going to turn out.
He had been alluding to it for weeks, to
the dismay of His disciples.
What they say about Hollywood was probably true in Jerusalem as well; “People in
Hollywood are always touching you – not because they like you, but because they want to see how soft you are,
before you take a fall.”
Jerusalem, no less, was a tough town with a tough crowd.
So, here we have Jesus riding into town on a donkey.
Is there any significance to these proceedings?
You bet.
Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem is rich with imagery and intended to call to mind the coronation
of Israelite kings and to portray Jesus as the royal representative of the Israelite people.
There are at least five
separate images from the Old Testament echoed here in these proceedings.
First, we have the matter of the donkey.
Did you know that David and Solomon and the early kings of
Israel preferred donkeys over horses?
They were better for the terrain, more sure-footed, and very good as
2
beasts of burden, more manageable.
Donkeys and their riders could run away into the mountains when the
horses and chariots came storming down the plains.
Zechariah 9:9 is the first prophetic passage being fulfilled
here, that, the promised Savior and King of Jerusalem would be a humble monarch riding on an unbroken and
virgin donkey.
I Kings 1:32-35 reinforces the notion that the donkey was the preferred royal animal of the Judean kings,
with the coronation of David’s own son, King Solomon.
Jesus was intentionally identifying Himself with both
the use of the donkey in their earliest history and with the coronation of David’s lineage as King over Israel.
A third image is that of the crowd throwing garments on the road before Jesus.
This custom comes from
II Kings 9:6-13 with the inauguration of Jehu, the victor over Ahab’s dynasty and claimant to the throne of the
Northern Kingdom.
The prophet said, “I anoint you king over Israel,” at which point everyone standing around
takes off their cloaks and spreads them under the king’s feet.
Likewise, the people of Jesus’ day honor Him as
the victor and king over Israel with paving the road with their cloaks.
This was really getting under the skins of
the Pharisees, all this rich and in-depth parallel to David’s line, royal donkeys and rulers’ inaugurations.
But
Jesus wanted to leave no doubt who He was associated with and who they would ultimately reject.
They could
not claim ignorance to not knowing who He was.
The fourth allusion to the Old Testament was this age-old custom of profession and praise for all the
mighty acts of God prior to the renewal of the covenant.
Luke 19:37 says again, “the whole crowd of disciples
began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen.”
Moses, before he begins to give
the Law, spends several chapters describing what great deeds God has done.
Joshua, Samuel and Solomon also
list God’s deeds of power prior to charging the nation to renew their covenant with God (Joshua 23-24; I
Samuel 12; I Kings 8).
There were three covenants renewed with these acts of profession and praise; namely,
those between God and the people, between God and the King, and between the people and the King.
Jesus was
to begin a new covenant with His disciples.
He would unite the three into one and He would be their Lord and
Savior, King over Israel, and One with the Father and One with the people through the Holy Spirit (John 17).
Finally, after the works of God‘s power is professed and praised, there is the proclamation.
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