John 12:12-19

Jesus Enters Jerusalem in Triumph (John 12:12).

John deals with this subject very succintly. Again he knows that his readers are aware of the facts from the tradition behind the other Gospels, so he concentrates on the significance of what happened.

We know that annually when the people gathered at Jerusalem for the Passover every year they would be in an excited and festive mood, and they would regularly greet other pilgrims ecstatically, waving palm branches and crying out with words from the Old Testament ‘Save us (hosanna), we beseech you, Oh Lord, --- Blessed is he who enters in the name of the Lord' (Psalms 118:25), and similar phrases. Enthusiasm would abound and extravagant things be said as people arrived.

However it is also clear that Jesus was given special treatment because He was seen by many as a great prophet. Thus He was welcomed rapturously by a people riding on a tide of emotion. Perhaps some did see Him as the potential Messiah (in the wrong sense of a leader against the Romans), but mainly, in their excitement and ‘holiday' mood, they welcomed Him as the great teacher and healer, the man of God.

The other Gospels make clear that Jesus had a deliberate purpose in His actions (compare Luke 19:40). He went out of His way to enter Jerusalem on an ass, not as a warlike leader, but as a king of peace. This was a deliberate enacting of the prophecy in Zechariah 9:9 to reveal once and for all that He was the promised King. But He did not try to capitalise on the event. The message was intended to be absorbed, not to be flaunted. He wanted all to ponder on what He had done and see by this in their hearts that He was indeed the One who had come from God to save His people. He also wanted them to know what kind of a Saviour He had come to be, not one of warlike action, but One Who came in humility and peace.

It was a never to be forgotten scene and many  would  later ponder it in their hearts, as John tells us. But there is no suggestion that the crowds made any attempt to use it as a means of insurrection. By most it was soon over and forgotten. They did not really recognise Who He was. They were carried along by the emotion of the moment. Even the disciples did not grasp its significance at the time. To every Christian, of course, its meaning is crystal clear. Here was the King Messiah entering Jerusalem to face His rejection and triumph.