Holy Week series: Part 1 of 3

Over 2,000 years ago, in 33 A.D., the greatest Empire in the world was Rome, and it constantly expanded by the edge of the sword. Smaller nations crumbled in the wake of the great power of Rome, and unrest was a steady undercurrent beneath the image of total peace. In the city of Jerusalem (a nation no longer in control of its sovereignty), the Jews cried out for freedom. Where was their great promised Messiah?

It was during this time that the Jews were questioning the promises of God. Jerusalem and the temple had been destroyed several hundred years before this time, in 586 B.C., when the Babylonians had taken the Jews captive. The prophet Jeremiah had foretold of a captivity of 70 years and then a restoration afterward. This prophecy is actually the context of one the most misquoted verses today, Jerimiah 29:11. When looking at the surrounding verses, many might question using this passage so frivolously:

For this is what the Lord says: “When 70 years for Babylon are complete, I will attend to you and will confirm My promise concerning you to restore you to this place. For I know the plans I have for you”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. You will call to Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

The people had undergone the captivity, and the Lord had, in his sovereignty, prepared a way for the temple to be rebuilt and the people to re-enter the land (as seen in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah). However, as the temple was being rebuilt and the land repossessed, there was much hardship. The Jews had imagined a new age, the coming of the Messiah, and no more work. Now it was 500 years later, in 33A.D., and although there was a new ruler in Jerusalem, it was not the Messiah, rather, it was Rome.

During this time, there was still a hope that those in Jerusalem held onto. When the Jews had originally returned to the city after their captivity and started rebuilding, there was a prophet named Zechariah that became a voice of prophecy for the nation. The Jews had come to Zechariah questioning the promise of God that Jeremiah had foretold. The book of Zechariah starts where Jeremiah had left off, concerning the 70 years. In chapter 1:3, the verse that sums up the book, Zechariah explains that if the people return to God then He will return to them:

“This is what the Lord of Hosts says: Return to Me”—this is the declaration of the Lord of Hosts—“and I will return to you, says the Lord of Hosts.”

Zechariah then outlines what the future will look like for God’s people, in a series of dreams and commands (chapters 1-8). However, it was the second half of the book of  Zechariah that became the hope of Jerusalem (chapters 9-14). The end of the book is a set of prophecies of a coming shepherd king that will restore Gods people. Because those that initially inhabited the city did not fully return to God when prompted, there had now been hundreds of years of silence and waiting.

Through the silence of the ages, the Rabbis taught of this king constantly. Starting in chapter 9:9 there is the promise of the king that would announce himself by riding into the east gate of Jerusalem on the back of a donkey.

“Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!
Shout in triumph, Daughter Jerusalem!
Look, your King is coming to you;
He is righteous and victorious,[a]
humble and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

This verse was so prevalent that it was said in those days, “if anyone saw a donkey in his dreams, he will see salvation.” This Messiah would come into Jerusalem and usher in a new age. This was not the complete story of the Messiah, as finished in Zechariah chapters 10-14, but chapter nine is the most easily accepted verse in the face of oppression.

This is where we see the prophecy of the beginning of Holy Week.

In the past three years, starting in 30 A.D., there had spread the name of a Rabbi from Nazareth; this man named Jesus had been healing the sick, feeding the hungry, and raising the dead. Wherever he walked, miracles followed, and although this was not the first time miracles had happened by the hands of a Rabbi, there was something unique about this man. Word was spreading that this man could be the hoped-for Messiah and the leader of the rebellion that would restore the nation of Israel, from the temple in Jerusalem.

As Passover approached, the thought of redemption from the hands of the Egyptians must have been on everyone’s mind (when God had prepared a way for the people to escape and be victorious over the burdensome Egyptians). However, now, they knew that salvation would not come from plagues, but rather through the form of the king on the back of a donkey.

We pick up this story in each Gospel, in an event called  Palm Sunday or the Triumphal Entry. This story, found in Matthew 21:1-17, Mark 11:1-11, Luke 19:28-48, and John 12:12-50 is the story of the fulfillment of Zechariah 9:9. Jesus, starting outside of Bethpage, at the mount of Olives, tells his disciples to go into the village where they will find a donkey that has never been ridden, to bring back to him. If anyone asks them about taking the donkey, they are only to explain that the Lord needs it, and they will have no problems. The disciples go into Bethpage and find the donkey, bringing it back to Jesus. Thus begins the triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

The word spreads that Jesus is coming through the east gate on a donkey, signifying the coming of a king. People line the streets waving palm branches and spreading clothes on the ground for the procession to ride over. They chant:

“Hosanna to the Son of David! He who comes in the name of the Lord is the blessed One! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

As David, the mighty warrior king had ruled, so too would Jesus, destroying the Romans and ending the oppression.

As the crowds followed Jesus in exaltation for what they thought would happen, we find that Jesus, the one they thought would be the warrior king, is crying, lamenting over Jerusalem.

“If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”

Jesus knew what the crowds did not.

He foresaw the destruction of the temple that would take place in 70 A.D. and how much it would destroy those that did not realize that the king had come, but not for the reasons they wanted at that moment. The importance of his entrance was not to destroy Rome and not to set up an earthly kingdom of ease and pleasure. No, Jesus was entering Jerusalem as a servant to set into motion the events that would lead to him conquering the real enemy: Sin and Death.

All those that thought they would be free, with different rulers, did not realize that they could only be free when sin and death were defeated by God coming to Earth as a man and taking the punishment they deserved. Jesus knew that many of those worshiping him that day would later reject him in that same city five days later and call for His death.

Looking back at the prophet Zechariah, it was he that foretold that those that would praise the Shepherd King would reject Him. Zechariah knew that the enemy was not the oppressors, the Babylonians or the Persians, or the future Romans, but the enemy of man, sin and death. Zechariah 12:10 shows that the King will be pierced for the people, and 13:1 gives the purpose of Jesus, the one who would be pierced, hanging on a cross to die for the sins of man.

“On that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the residents of Jerusalem, to wash away sin and impurity.”

Jesus, on Palm Sunday, was not announcing that He had come as an earthly king, but as the eternal King. The one who would defeat sin and death by taking the punishment of man on himself. If those that celebrated Zechariah 9:9 had read further, they would have understood the words of the prophet and truly worshiped Jesus. But, instead, many only saw what they wanted from a savior, earthly prominence.

Today, as we step into the beginning of Holy Week, we should reflect on the true motivation of Jesus:

“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

The importance of Palm Sunday is to reset our perspective, clarify what matters, and worship without wavering the savior who willingly entered Jerusalem, knowing that He would die for the sins of his people. Zechariah's prophecy came to fruition in the form of the servant king, Jesus, and the world would never be the same!