The King and the Cross - Palm Sunday 2024
John 12:12-16
Introduction: The story of Palm
Sunday recognizes a moment of celebration as Jesus came into Jerusalem to the
cheers of the crowds. It is exciting to read, and to imagine what it must have
been like to have been there. Were the disciples thinking the moment was at
hand when Jesus would reveal himself as the promised Rescuer of Israel, the
long-awaited Messiah? Were the crowds beginning to believe that Jesus is the
Messiah, and that soon the Davidic Kingdom would be re-established?
Of course, we
know the full story. We know that Gethsemane is coming. We know that there would
be betrayal, desertion, and denial by some who were closest to Him. So we
acknowledge the celebration, but we also feel the irony. We know that,
according to the Divine plan, Friday was coming. It was Passover, and God
had provided the Lamb. The disciples did not yet understand, even though,
as we’ve seen in our study of Mark, Jesus had repeatedly told them what was
coming. So we join in celebrating King Jesus, but in a deeper, more profound
sense than they possibly could have that first Palm Sunday. This King is our Rescuer,
and His sovereignty extends to every detail.
Some of the phrases that the crowds used to
laud Jesus were particularly offensive to His opponents. Son of David? King
of Israel? Who did this itinerant rabbi think he was? The story was coming
to a climax, and Christ, our Passover, would be sacrificed for us. We started
our Mark series a couple of years ago, on Palm Sunday, with Mark’s account of
the triumphal entry. We got back to Mark’s account of the Triumphal entry in its
context in August, so for today I decided to turn to another witness, the
Gospel of John. Like today, in Jesus’ day there were a lot of different ideas
about the Messiah. The four Gospels tell us the truth about Jesus. The God who
is has spoken! Today we’ll look again at the story of the Triumphal
Entry of Christ into Jerusalem in John 12:12-16.
On the one hand,
we want to join with the revelers celebrating Jesus, the coming King. But we
celebrate Jesus from a different perspective than the Jerusalem crowd that day,
almost 2000 years ago. We have the whole story... we know what they did
not yet understand: the King was also the Lamb, He was both the Sovereign and
the Sacrifice that would open the way for us to enter the Kingdom as citizens
and sons by giving Himself for us! He is Lord, He is in control, no one
could take His life, rather it was His plan to lay down His
life for His sheep.
John especially
wants us to understand the deity of Christ and to worship Him. He wants us to
marvel at His love demonstrated in the Cross and to love Him in return. He
invites us to believe in Him: to submit to His Lordship and obey
Him. In the Bible we see hundreds of prophecies that were made
about the Messiah fulfilled explicitly in the life, ministry, death and
resurrection of Jesus. God had a plan, that plan was revealed, in
part, in advance, in these Old Testament texts, yet most people simply did not
yet get it. Palm Sunday leads us into the last week of Jesus’ life before the
Cross. The story unfolds exactly as God had planned it—confirming Jesus’
identity, inviting us to consider how we should respond to
Him.
Context: Let’s set the
context in John’s Gospel. After the raising of Lazarus in John 11, the Jewish
leadership conspires to put Jesus to death. Unwittingly, the High Priest even
prophecies the substitutionary death of Jesus (11:49-51). John 12 begins
with a reminder that Passover was only six days away. Since the first
chapter the reader of the Gospel has had to struggle with the idea that Jesus
is both Messiah (1:41) and “the Lamb of God” (1:29,36). How could this fit
together? And what did the approach of Passover portend? Both the
anointing of Jesus “for his burial” (12:1-8) and the plot to also kill
Lazarus (12:9-11) sound an ominous note as the chapter begins. The
crowds, even the disciples, did not understand the full meaning of what was
happening, what it really would involve for Jesus to fulfill His role as the
“King of the Jews” (see 12:16). As we consider this first Palm
Sunday, we’ll see the King who is both Sovereign and Sacrifice…
The BIG Idea: Celebrate Jesus, King of Kings, and the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! We''ll consider that from three perspectives,
1. Jesus is King... so much more than the crowds understood;
2. He is the King... and He came as promised, in fulfillment of the Scriptures, and
3. He is the King... and the Lamb, the Passover-King.
I. Jesus is the King of Kings, so much
more than the crowds understood! (12:12-13).
The next
day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to
Jerusalem. 13 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!"
The irony runs
deep in this scene. The Jews were expecting a Messiah, a King, a greater Son of
David who would restore the kingdom to Israel. They had somehow lost
sight of the truth that the coming King was also to be the Suffering
Servant. The title “King” doesn’t show up a lot in John’s Gospel, that is
until chapters 18, 19 when in Jesus’ trial and crucifixion it is the charge for
which He is executed. Earlier in the Gospel, it appears twice, at key moments in
the story, there are clues that John gives us early on about the kingship of
Jesus…
The first time Jesus
is called “King” in this Gospel occurs in the very first chapter, in the confession
of Nathaniel in John 1:49, 49 Nathanael
answered and said to Him, "Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are
the King of Israel!" Before this confession
however, the reader has already heard John the Baptist, not once, but twice,
calling Jesus God’s Lamb. In John 1:29 we
read, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the
world! Then again, in John 1:36, “And looking at
Jesus as He walked, he said, "Behold the Lamb of God!" We
read that and take it for granted, we’ve heard the phrases and this language
applied to Jesus in church. We sing songs about it. But imagine
the disciples when they first heard it, imagine John’s readers
when they first read this Gospel: for a Jew in the 1st century, “Lamb”
whatever else it might mean, implied sacrifice. Lamb and King?
Both Sovereign, and Sacrifice? How could this be?
The second
time in John’s Gospel that the word “King” appears, is in Chapter 6,
and comes in response to Jesus miraculously feeding the 5,000 with five small
loaves of bread and a couple of fish. John 6:14-15 says,
Then
those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, "This is
truly the Prophet who is to come into the world." 15 Therefore
when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make
Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.
In response to this miraculous provision, they
wanted to make him king by force. Jesus knew their thoughts, what they
intended to do, and went away. It wasn’t time for the king to be
revealed. John had reminded the reader of the Gospel, just a few verses
earlier: John 6:4 “Now the Passover, a feast of the
Jews, was near.” After hearing John the Baptist call Jesus the
lamb, we have a clue as to what is coming – the disciples still don’t
understand. He is the King – but also the Lamb.
The third use of “king” in
John’s Gospel comes that first Palm Sunday, in John 12:13, at the triumphal entry. The crowd
quotes from Ps 118:25-26 which says,
“Save
now [hosanna], I pray, O LORD; O LORD, I pray, send now
prosperity. 26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the
LORD! We have blessed you from the house of the LORD.”
Notice that quoting from that passage they add something to
the text in John 12:13, they “…took branches of palm trees
and went out to meet Him, and cried out: "Hosanna! 'Blessed is He who
comes in the name of the LORD!' The King of
Israel!" What they said was
correct, and this time Jesus allows it, even though there is little doubt the
crowd was still clueless as to what was about to happen, what had to
happen. John is preparing the reader of his gospel. We’ve just been
reminded in the near context:
1. Passover was coming in just a few
days; the Lamb would soon be sacrificed (12:1).
2. Mary had just anointed Jesus,
and he said it was “for his burial” (12:2-8).
3. The chief priests were
plotting also to kill Lazarus, because his being raised from
the dead was irrefutable proof that Jesus was from God, and they wouldn’t hear
it (12:9-11). Even raising a man from the dead could not convince them. Their
minds were made up, they would not consider the evidence that Jesus was the
Messiah (see Acts 2:22).
Part of the irony here is
that the crowd, in quoting from Psalm 118 had forgotten part of the
context: Ps 118:22, “The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone.” That rejection would reach its
climax in just a few days when the leaders insist: “We’ll not have this man to be our king! We have no king
but Caesar!” They were
looking for a king like the nations around them. Jesus is King,
much more so than any merely human king. He is the King of kings, the
Lord of all creation, our creator and redeemer. A merely human king can
demand our obedience, but not our heart. Jesus is the Shepherd-King who
would lay down His life for his sheep. God showed us his love, in
that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That is the Big
Idea: Let’s celebrate Jesus, King of Kings, and the Lamb of God who takes away
the sin of the world!
II. He is the King, and He came in fulfillment of the
Scriptures (12:14-15). John takes us from the
shouts of the crowd, which were ironically true, even though they didn’t
understand correctly who Jesus was, to the actions of Jesus, taken in
deliberate fulfillment of Scripture:
Then Jesus, when He had found a young donkey, sat on it; as
it is written: 15 "Fear not, daughter of
Zion; Behold, your King is coming, Sitting on a donkey's colt."
God had a plan,
and every action of Jesus was taken in submission to and in fulfillment of the
Father’s will. This week would lead to Calvary. The cross was not a failure, it
was not an accident, it wasn’t “plan B.” Peter said on Pentecost that
Jesus was delivered up by the predetermined purpose and foreknowledge
of God. That speaks to God’s love for us. That is reason to
celebrate!
It also speaks to the
reliability of His Word. The Scripture written centuries before was fulfilled precisely:
He is the King. All four of the Gospel writers point out the
fulfillment of prophecy, Scriptures written centuries before Jesus’ birth,
as one more witness to the messianic identity of Jesus. Ironically, even as He
was rejected by the leaders of the Jews, their rejection of Him fulfilled the
Scriptures! Remember, after the resurrection, when Jesus appeared to the
disciples on the road to Emmaus. And as they recounted to this “stranger” who
walked with them what had happened in Jerusalem, revealing their confusion and
shattered hopes. Jesus said,
"O
foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have
spoken! 26 Was it not necessary that the Christ
should suffer these things and enter into his glory?" 27 And
beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in
all the Scriptures the things concerning himself… (Luke 24:25-27).
Rather than causing one to doubt Jesus’
identity, the Passion vindicated His messianic
claim! They needed to understand God’s plan: the Messiah is King, He
is also our Passover who was sacrificed for us. John leaves out a
word from Zechariah’s prophecy: “Lowly” or “humble.” He was emphasizing
Jesus’ power, control, sovereignty, and glory. He is the King of
Kings! He is in control. Later, when they come to arrest Him in the
Garden, we’ll see that they couldn’t even touch Him unless He allowed it. When
He said, “I am He” [ego eimi] they all fell backward! But this King, the Sovereign
who created and rules the universe, had chosen to give himself as the
Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. That’s the Big Idea: Let’s celebrate
Jesus, King of Kings, and the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
III. He is the King, the Passover King, both Sovereign and
Sacrifice (12:16).
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.
John steps back for a moment and explains from his position
years later what he and the other disciples were thinking at this point in the
story, at first, they did not under-stand. It was only when “...Jesus
was glorified, then they remembered that these things.” Even though he had
repeatedly, explicitly told them about the necessity of his death and
resurrection, they couldn’t grasp it. It was only “…when Jesus was glorified
then they remembered…” In John, its especially on the cross that
Jesus is glorified (see John 3:14,15). The cross was his lifting
up, his exaltation, his glorification, because it proved who he was, fulfilling
the Scriptures, and it accomplished what he came to do, giving his life for our
sins. The fulfillment of prophecy was a vindication of His identity,
proving, from the Law, that is was necessary for the messiah to suffer (Lk
24:44).
Notice a little
further down in the near context, John 12:27-28,
"Now
My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, 'Father, save Me from this
hour?’ But for this purpose I
came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name…"
In John 18:36-37 as
Pilate questioned Him about His kingship, Jesus answered,
"My
kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My
servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but
as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm." 37 Therefore
Pilate said to Him, "So You are a king?" Jesus answered,
"You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born,
and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth.”
He is the King, the Passover-King, King of Kings, and the Lamb
of God. Celebrate Him!
What is God saying to me in this
passage? Let’s celebrate Jesus:
King of Kings, and the Lamb of God, in Him we have hope! What the crowds
said on Palm Sunday was true, but they didn’t grasp the full implications.
Jesus was not a victim. He was in control. And as Sovereign, he fulfilled the
Scriptures, and came to give his life as a ransom for many.
In Revelation 1:5
we read that He is “…the ruler over the kings of the earth… [He] who
loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood…” In Revelation
5, John in his vision sees Him as He appears, “…in the middle of the
throne as a lamb that had been slain…” (Rev 5:6; cf. Rev 5-7, 22:1-3).
A Lamb on a throne, the Passover-King exalted on the throne of heaven,
worthy to open the scroll and loosen its seals. Worthy is the
Lamb that was slain! The One who was, who is, and who is to come.
What should we respond? If
we know Him, we will love Him and worship Him as Lord.
1) Our response can
only be to stand in awe of the matchless grace of God, and to love the One who
so loved us. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? If today you feel
hope welling up in your heart, it may be that God, by His kindness, is drawing
you to repentance and faith. The Bible says whoever calls on the name of the Lord
will be saved! Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and
they follow me. I give to them eternal life and they shall never perish.” He
willingly gave His life, so that we could
have life. Trust Him, receive Him.
2) If we believe
in who He is, we must also recognize His authority. Later in this Gospel He
will tell his disciples: “As the Father sent me, so send I you…” In the
Gospel of Mark, we saw before this final trip to Jerusalem He warned them, “If
anyone would be my disciple, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and
follow me…” (Mk 8:34). We are not our own, we were bought
with a price. We belong to God.
3) A part of
that is recognizing our calling is to love our relatives, neighbors, and
friends so much that it becomes part of our life mission to point them to Jesus.
Remember when Jesus healed the Gadarene demoniac? Freed from bondage, the man wanted to go with Jesus and the disciples on
the boat… Jesus said “No, go to your own people and tell them what God has
done for you.” Who can you invite next week to hear the Good News of the
Resurrection? The King is Coming! And until then, we are His ambassadors,
we have a part in His mission! AMEN.
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