Luke 19:28-44 tells the story of Palm Sunday and Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Allow me to call your attention to four parts of the story.
1. Jesus commanded and controlled the happenings.
In the Palm Sunday narrative, Jesus wasn’t responding to happenings, He was making things happen. He chose the time of His entrance. It coincided with the time that countless crowds of people would travel to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. He chose the place of His entrance. (Read verse 29 again.)The Mount of Olives was more than just a geographical marker. The Mount of Olives had Messianic implications. He sent two of His disciples into a village and told them to look for a young donkey that would be tied up. Each of these pieces had been prophesied hundreds of years earlier.
2. Jesus corrected the clerics, not the crowd.
The visible and audible acts of praise pointed to the mission of Jesus. In their praises they spoke of a king. They talked about peace. They sang of God’s glory. Pretty cool is the striking similarity between the message the angels heralded at Jesus’ birth and the message the people were shouting in praise of Him that day. That didn’t sit well with the religious leaders, the Pharisees. They weren’t ready to give up their position or authority to any Messiah. They told Jesus to tell the people to pipe down and to turn off their praise.
Jesus wouldn’t have it. He corrected the Pharisees, the religious clerics of the day. While at other times He tried to stay incognito, while at other times He asked people to keep their miracles a sort of secret, while at other times Jesus tried to slip into the shadows, today wasn’t that kind of day. This was a dramatic change for Jesus as Jesus was calling all the shots and was deliberately declaring Who He was.
3. Jesus cried over those who didn’t recognize Him for who He was.
Verse 41 tells us Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem. He was weeping over lost souls; not only the souls in Jerusalem, but I have to believe He was weeping over the souls through the ages that would be lost forever. Does Jesus weep for you?
4. Jesus cleaned house.
Jesus wasn’t too happy with the happenings at the temple. Look again at verse 45: 45 Then he entered the temple area and began driving out those who were selling. 46 “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be a house of prayer’; but you have made it ‘a den of robbers.'”
The clergy of the day had turned the place of worship into a place where they could cheat people and pursue personal gain. The religious leaders were using the services of the holy temple to cover up their sins. It’s almost as if they believed that if their deceitful practices were being “done in church” or “done in the name of religion” that they wouldn’t be found out. What does God say about sin? Numbers 32:23 tells us our sin will always be exposed. God will not be mocked. God will not be misrepresented. God will not tolerate wickedness by people who claim to have spiritual authority.
Do you realize this is the second time Jesus cleansed the Temple? The first cleansing took place after His first miracle where He turned water into wine at the wedding in Cana. So at the beginning of His ministry the temple was cleansed and three years later at the end of His ministry, almost like bookends the temple was cleansed. Was Jesus making a statement about the hearts of people and the need for God’s ongoing cleansing in our own personal temples?
Verse 48 tells us that the people were hanging on His words. Do we hang on Jesus’ every Word? Do we respect His authority? Do we give Him our praise? Does He have our hearts and lives? Do we recognize Him for Who He really is?
Most of what Jesus did on on Palm Sunday, He wants to do today. In fact, He wants to do it right now. He wants to take charge of your life and mine. He wants to give specific direction to us regarding His will. He wants to accept our praise. He wants to cleanse us in the temple of our souls and make sure His Spirit is honored in every part of our lives. The only thing He wouldn’t want to do is weep over your eternal destiny, to mourn over your desire to stay in your sin rather than to seek the peace, joy and relationship with God that comes through our Savior Jesus Christ.
