Palm Sunday - The entry triumphal

Today is Palm Sunday, which commemorates Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem at the beginning of Holy Week.  This event is recorded in all four of the Gospels and considering that each Gospel was written by different individuals, the details of the event in all of the Gospels are remarkably the same.  There are minor additions to the story in the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke.

Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem was not only to announce to the Jewish people that the Messiah had come, but it also fulfilled Old Testament prophecy.  In Daniel 9, Gabriel the archangel gave Daniel the prophecy that foretold when the Messiah would arrive.  Gabriel didn't give exact dates, however; he said that 70 weeks had been decreed for the Jewish people and for Jerusalem.  Bible scholars have determined that each "week" equals 70 years.  After sixty-nine "weeks," the Messiah would be "cut off," or put to death. Chuck Missler did the math (Thanks, Chuck! Math was my worst subject in school) and determined the following:

This includes a mathematical prophecy. As we have noted in previous articles, the Jewish (and Babylonian) calendars used a 360-day year; 69 weeks of 360-day years totals 173,880 days. In effect, Gabriel told Daniel that the interval between the commandment to rebuild Jerusalem until the presentation of the Messiah as King would be 173,880 days.

Chuck then gives us even more important information:

The commandment to restore and build Jerusalem was given by Artaxerxes Longimanus on March 14, 445 B.C. . . .This [the Triumphal Entry - DMS] is the only occasion that Jesus presented Himself as King. It occurred on April 6, 32 A.D. When we examine the period between March 14, 445 B.C. and April 6, 32 A.D., and correct for leap years, we discover that it is 173,880 days exactly, to the very day!

That's really incredible, but as we all know, God does all things in His own way.  He does give us clues in His Word, and we just have to dig them out.

Another Old Testament prophecy that Jesus fulfilled was in Zechariah 9:9 when He rode into Jerusalem on a colt.  "Colt" in those days referred to a young donkey and not a young horse like we think of in modern times.

Titus Kennedy, in an Adventures blog post on the website Drive Thru History titled "The Triumphal Entry," compared Jesus' entry into Jerusalem to the triumphal entry of ancient Israeli kings and the triumphal entry of Roman emperors.

According to the list of Triumphs on the Fasti Triumphales, which concludes with a triumph in 19 BC, by the time of Augustus the triumph had become part of the Imperial cult, and only the Emperor could receive this honor and recognition as king and divine (Dio Cassius; Suetonius; Pliny). In a comparable fashion, Jesus began the Triumphal Entry outside the boundaries of Jerusalem in Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, rode on a donkey like the kings of ancient Israel, descended down the road into the Kidron Valley, entered the city through the Susa Gate, then went to the Temple where He cleansed it of merchants and moneychangers. The similarities to the Roman Imperial Triumph and the ancient Israelite kinship procession are obvious. Therefore, the Triumphal Entry of Jesus had significance and implications for both the cultures of Israel and Rome, as Jesus carried out traditions associated with both an ancient king, conquering victor, and the Divine all in one procession. 

So Jesus' triumphal entry proclaimed that not only was He the Jewish Messiah and King, He was also the spiritual King of the Gentiles as well.  The Jewish people recognized on Palm Sunday that Jesus was the Messiah.  Yet five days later, those same people chanted for Jesus to be crucified and that His blood would be on them and on their children.  Because the people rejected Jesus as their Messiah, the prophecy in Daniel 9:26 (". . .and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.") would be fulfilled in AD 70 when the Romans (the people of the prince that shall come) destroyed Jerusalem.  

Dear reader, has Jesus made his triumphal entry into your heart?  Is Jesus your Lord and Savior? He died for you on the Cross - all you have to do is repent of your sins and ask Jesus to rule in your heart and life. 

That's all for now. Thanks as always for reading!

Diane

Bibliography:
Chuck Missler, "Daniel's 70 Weeks:  The Precision of  Prophecy,"
https://www.khouse.org/articles/2004/552/
Titus Kennedy, "The Triumphal Entry - Drive Thru History,"
https://drivethruhistoryadventures.com/the-triumphal-entry/