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Why the Triumphal Entry?
The account of the “Triumphal Entry” of Jesus into Jerusalem is included in every gospel account in the New Testament (Matt. 21, Mark 11, Luke 19, and John 12). In each of these accounts, we find Jesus riding into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, with the crowds shouting “Hosanna” and laying down their cloaks and palm branches in the road in front of Him. In short, they spoke and acted as if the “King of Israel” (John 12.13) were entering the city.
One reading the gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are however left with one essential question: Why all the fanfare? Yes, we understand that the instance and manner of Jesus’ arrival into Jerusalem had been prophesied long before: “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!” (Zech. 9.9). But Jesus fulfilled several prophecies concerning Himself without so much as a batted eye from the general public. Furthermore, Jesus had entered Jerusalem many times during both His childhood and His adult life. So what’s the difference here?
Other than the gospel of John, Luke’s gospel comes the closest to explaining what all the “hubbub” was about. “…the whole multitude of His disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen,” (Luke 20.37b). This still can leave one curious: Why now? Wouldn’t the calming of the storm (Mark 4) certainly be noteworthy enough to inspire these sorts of praises? What about the feeding of thousands of people (John 6), the healing of the man born blind (John 9) or perhaps even the raising of the widow’s son (Luke 7)? What did Jesus do that caused such a commotion?
John’s gospel, written many years after the first three, answers this question quite well. There was one sign that was greater than all the rest, that was undeniable and proclaimed widely among the people. In fact, John’s gospel includes exactly seven (always a good Biblical number) signs of Jesus before His resurrection, and our Lord saved the best for last: the raising of Lazarus.
John spends a great deal of time in John 11 convincing us of the certainty of Lazarus’ death. “Then Jesus told them plainly, ‘Lazarus has died’” (John 11.14a), “Lazarus had been in the tomb four days.” (John 11.17b), and both Martha and Mary tell Jesus “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” (John 11.21, 32), just to name a few. Again and again John hammers one crucial point home in chapter 11: Lazarus is DEAD. We know how the story goes from here (Lazarus is raised from the dead), but it’s what follows afterwards that is very compelling.
If John 11 is spent trying to convince us of Lazarus’ death, John 12 does the complete opposite: Lazarus is ALIVE: “where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead” (v.1), “Lazarus was one of those reclining at table with Him” (v.2), “Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead” (v.9), and “He called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised Him from the dead” (v.17). And if that somehow weren’t enough, the Jewish leadership “made plans to put Lazarus to death” (v.10), which is awfully hard to do with a dead man. It was the raising of Lazarus that caused many people to believe in Jesus! “Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what He did, believed in Him” (John 11.45).
So why the “Triumphal Entry”? It was Jesus’ raising of Lazarus from the dead that is to blame for such a celebration for His arrival to Jerusalem: “The crowd that had been with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. The reason why the crowd went to meet Him was that they heard He had done this sign.” (v.17-18) And no greater cause to celebrate could be imagined even today: Jesus raises the dead back to life! If this does not give us cause to celebrate and motivation to spread the news about the gospel of Jesus Christ, we need to revisit the Gospels and rediscover who Jesus is!
Jesus entered Jerusalem like a conquering king, having just demonstrated His superiority over physical death in the raising of Lazarus from the dead. But He had one thing more to accomplish, one final act that would leave all other events in human history shivering and awestruck in the vast cold shadow of its magnificence: He would conquer Death itself. “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Cor. 15.20-22).
Jesus would accomplish what the great prophets of old had long foretold the Messiah would do: “And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken” (Isa. 25.7-8).
