THREAD: Palm Sunday

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Jerusalem: Between two “Blesseds”

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Rejection, Reconciliation, Acceptance, and Resurrection (Romans 11:15)

To give an overview of this thread, I am really intrigued by this slight reversal:

Jerusalem's declaration "Blessed is he..." prematurely
Jesus' mourning over Jerusalem

to

Jerusalem's mourning over Jesus
Jesus' ultimate triumphal entry to the declaration "Blessed is he..."

And so I thought I would indulge in an extra-long Palm Sunday thread to unpack it a little.

Feel free to join me on this meandering journey through the Gospels and the prophets.

The account of Jesus’ triumphal entry through the streets of Jerusalem is documented in all the gospels (Matt 21:1-11, Mark 11:1-10, Luke 19:28-38, and John 12:12-18). The air must have been thick with anticipation.

You can see the connections being made in the minds of the crowd as they shout “Hosanna!” Could this be the fulfillment of what the prophet Zachariah spoke concerning Zion’s king arriving on a donkey (Zachariah 9:9), ushering in a Messianic age of unprecedented peace, security,

and prosperity for the city of Jerusalem (Zachariah 9, 10)? Shall the inhabitants of Jerusalem welcome this promised son of David with a song of David (Psalm 188), saying, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord”?

However, Jesus immediately snuffs out these hopeful speculations. Instead of relishing his triumphal entry and announcing the establishment of his Kingdom and sitting on the throne of his father David, he instead reacts in lament and weeping over Jerusalem,

because she “did not know the time of her visitation” (Luke 19:44), and consequently her “house will be left to her desolate” (Matt 23:38, in an echo of the prophesied declarations of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel).

After this lament, Jesus then prophetically promises to Jerusalem, “You will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

Strange indeed, since those were the VERY WORDS just employed to receive Jesus at his triumphal entry into Jerusalem earlier. Apparently, this first recitation was not effectual in welcoming the Messiah, because the true meaning of the words was hidden from the Jerusalemites,

and they refused to accept the full implications of their declarations. “For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize him nor understand the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, and fulfilled them by condemning him.” (Acts 13:27)

In light of this tragic—yet not unforeseen—set of circumstances, Jesus sits on the Mount of Olives (Matt 24) overlooking the City of the Great King, and expands on what he meant by Jerusalem’s “house shall be left desolate.”

He explains about the destruction of the temple and the signs times of the end, which are severe: a great tribulation and an abomination which causes desolation (Daniel 9).

"The trouble will be so great," Jesus somberly observes, "that if the days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved."

So heavy was the thought of Israel’s future trouble, that even as he was being led away to be crucified, Jesus turned to women who were mourning for him, and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, don’t weep for me, but weep for yourselves and your children.” (Luke 23:28)

After his crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus presented himself alive by many proofs, appearing to his disciples for 40 days, and teaching them about the Kingdom of God.

At the end of this time, they asked him, “Is now the time that you will restore the Kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6) “Not yet,” was his reply. And as he ascended into heaven on that same Mount of Olives where he had so clearly spelled out the signs of his appearing

in his Olivet discourse just a couple months earlier, two angels appeared to the disciples saying, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven will come the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

This will fulfill the words of the prophet Zachariah, who said, “I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle and the city shall be taken…then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle.

On that day, his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two…And the LORD will be king over all the earth…Jerusalem shall dwell in security.” (Zachariah 14)

Conclusion: we—and more importantly, Jerusalem—are in this time between, bookended by the two “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,” declarations.

The first was trying to force a fulfillment and was ultimately an insincere declaration that led Zion’s true king to weep at her hardness of heart, and long for when she would truly and wholeheartedly acknowledge that all her hope is in Messiah, and desperately cry, “Hosanna!”.

The second declaration, at the end of this present evil age, we find Jerusalem powerless and at the end of herself, just as her prophets from Moses (Deuteronomy 32:36) have foretold. It is at this desperate point that her salvation is at hand.

On that day, when his feet stand on the Mount of Olives, Jerusalem shall look upon the one they have pierced, mourn, burn their idols, and say, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” (Zachariah 12, 13; Matthew 23:39)

Amen. Maranatha.