Palm Sunday 2022

John 12:12-16 New King James Version

John 12:12a

1. The next day a great multitude that had come to the feast,

a. The next day – Sunday

b. a great multitude that had come to the feast – Passover pilgrims

John 12:12b-13

1. (v.12) when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem,

2. (v.13) took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him,

a. 1 Maccabees 13:51 (NRSV)On the twenty-third day of the second month, in the one hundred seventy-first year, the Jews entered it with praise and palm branches, and with harps and cymbals and stringed instruments, and with hymns and songs, because a great enemy had been crushed and removed from Israel.

3. and cried out: “Hosanna! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ The King of Israel!”

a. Psalm 118:25 Save now, I pray, O Lord; O Lord, I pray, send now prosperity.

b. Psalm 118:26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We have blessed you from the house of the Lord.

i. The exclamation “Blessed is the One coming in the name of the Lord!”65 comes directly from Psalm 118:26 (LXX), preceded by the words “O Lord, save now! O Lord, prosper now!” (Ps 118:25). The Hebrew expression “Hosanna,” or “Save now,”66 used there as a petition,67 has become here (as in Mark and Matthew) an expression of praise to God.68 In Psalm 118, the last of the Hallel Psalms (Pss 113–18) sung at both Passover and the Tent festival, the phrase “coming in the name of the Lord” was customarily understood to refer to each pilgrim in festal procession entering the temple. Here the expression takes on messianic overtones, made unmistakable by the added phrase, “even the King of Israel.”[1]

ii. Psalm 118 appears to have been a royal processional psalm, perhaps sung in the temple during an autumn festival, begun outside the temple and continued inside (cf. Ps. 100:4). The psalm celebrates the king’s vice-regency within the context of Yahweh’s ultimate kingly reign. After the opening thanksgiving liturgy (118:1–4), the king is depicted as surrounded by his enemies but as eventually delivered by the power of Yahweh. In its original context Ps. 118 conferred a blessing on the pilgrim headed for Jerusalem (Brown 1966–1970: 457), with possible reference to the Davidic king (Carson 1991: 432). Verse 22, with its reference to “the stone that the builders rejected” that “has become the cornerstone,” is quoted or alluded to repeatedly in the NT (Matt. 21:42; Mark 12:10–11; Luke 20:17; Acts 4:11; Eph. 2:20; 1 Pet. 2:4–7; see also Isa. 28:16).[2]

John 12:14 Then Jesus, when He had found a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written:

John 12:15 “Fear not, daughter of Zion; Behold, your King is coming, Sitting on a donkey’s colt.”

John 12:16 His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about Him and that they had done these things to Him.

1. Zechariah 9:9 “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.

Four Reasons to Rejoice that Jesus has Come - He is:

1. Righteous - just

2. Savior - having salvation,

3. Humble - Lowly

a. Matthew 11:28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

b. Matthew 11:29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

c. Matthew 11:30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

4. Peace - riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.

a. In Bible times, kings rode horses to war and donkeys in triumph.

b. Zechariah 9:10 I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim And the horse from Jerusalem; The battle bow shall be cut off. He shall speak peace to the nations; His dominion shall be ‘from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth.’

1 Corinthians 11:26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.

1 Corinthians 11:27 Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

1 Corinthians 11:28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

1 Corinthians 11:29 For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.

1 Corinthians 11:30 For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.

1 Corinthians 11:31 For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged.

1 Corinthians 11:23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread;

1 Corinthians 11:24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”

1 Corinthians 11:25 In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”

65 Gr. εὐλογημένος ὁ ἐρχόμενος ἐν ὀνόματι κυρίου. LXX The Septuagint, or Greek Version of the Old Testament. 66 Heb. הושּׁיצה נא; Aram. הושּׁצנא. 67 It is so understood in the LXX as well (σῶσον δή). 68 Mark has the simple “Hosanna,” as here (11:9), while Matthew has “Hosanna to the son of David” (21:9; compare Didache 10.6, “Hosanna to the God of David”). Both conclude by repeating, “Hosanna in the highest.” Luke avoids the expression altogether by paraphrasing it as “praising God joyfully with a loud voice” (19:37), and concluding with “peace in heaven and glory in the highest.” (For a more literal translation of “Hosanna” as praise, see Rev 7:10, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”) Modern examples of how a petition can easily become a blessing or an ascription of praise include “God bless you!” and “God save the queen!” [1] J. Ramsey Michaels, The Gospel of John, The New International Commentary on the Old and New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, UK: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2010), 676. NT New Testament [2] Andreas J. Köstenberger, “John,” in Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI; Nottingham, UK: Baker Academic; Apollos, 2007), 470.