Connecting The Dots - Week 13 Notes

             “Triumphal Entry”

Key Verse: “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” (Matthew 16:15 NIV)

Palm Sunday, the day referred to as the “Triumphal Entry” of Jesus into Jerusalem, was a day of celebration for all of those awaiting their King and redeemer. They believed rightly that their savior had come, however many of them misunderstood three very important things.

1. How he would come. (Zechariah 9:14-16), (Acts 1:6-8), (Luke 2:12)

2. Why he came. (Deuteronomy 18:17-20), (Matthew 1:21), (Matthew 16:21-23)

3. What God intended their deliverance to be. (Micah 5:4-5), (Isaiah 61:1-3)

  They expected splendor, power, and deliverance from bondage. They got all three, just not in the way they supposed. Many times we make the same mistake, we come to Jesus expecting Him to be many things, but viewing him according to our desires rather than God’s desires for us. I can imagine that was why Jesus had this reaction while overlooking Jerusalem:

“When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes.” (Luke 19:41-42)

Jesus’ triumph and his victory for all of us began in obscurity with a healthy dose of ambiguity, exactly the way God intended. The “real” Jesus came precisely as Isaiah prophesied:

“Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.” (Isaiah 53:1-2)

There will never be any question as to the conquering and glorious nature of our Savior, only in how we view him. By the Holy Spirit, Simon Peter had his answer ready when Jesus asked even if he did turn around a moment later, speaking by his flesh, and leave a wholly different impression.

 “He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:15-16)

 With the one, Peter, as with the many on Palm Sunday, the only questions remaining while you prepare to bow down and shout “Hosanna to the King of Kings”, are these: “Who is Jesus to you?”, and “How do you see him?” . Your answers could be the difference between “Blessed are you” and “Get behind me Satan”. Extreme? Yes! But very important, because they will color every other presumption you make about God from here on forward to the Cross.

More ref. scriptures: (Mark 11:9-11), (John 12:12-15), (Isaiah 9:6-7), (Daniel 9:24-25), (Psalm 22), (Psalm 91:4-16), (Mark 8:31-32), (1 Corinthians 15:20-26), (Romans 5:14-19)