Post by Admin on Aug 31, 2023 15:04:30 GMT -5
Pulling together all of the particulars pertaining to Jesus’ ride into Jerusalem is the
first step in interpreting its significance. One cannot determine the meaning of a
thing without first identifying its features and qualities. And identifying the
particulars of this episode includes situating them within their historical and
salvation-historical contexts. The issue isn’t merely what happened, but why it
happened: Why did Jesus and His Israelite counterparts do what they did; what
factors and considerations (historical, cultural, religious, etc.) provoked and
framed their actions and what were they trying to convey by them? Such
questions must be answered before matters of meaning and significance can be
addressed. For, whatever the particulars surrounding the Triumphal Entry
signified, they had that signification to those who were party to them.
First of all, and with respect to Jesus’ action in riding into Jerusalem, the accounts
are explicit that He was identifying Himself with Zechariah’s prophecy.
Specifically, Jesus wanted His disciples and the multitude to identify Him with
the regal messianic figure promised by Zechariah: Zion’s king whose coming
represented Yahweh’s return to establish His kingdom and reign over all the
earth. By explicitly connecting Himself with Zechariah’s coming king, Jesus was
showing the people of Israel that they were to interpret His actions, climaxing
with Calvary, in terms of Zechariah’s larger prophecy and the work and outcome
it described. If Jesus was the regal figure of Zechariah 9:9, then He was the
Branch of David, the Priest-King, True Shepherd and Cornerstone (3:1-10, 6:9-
15, 10:1-4, 13:7-9) and Yahweh’s theophanic presence come to purge Zion of her
guilt and defilement (3:1-10, 5:1-11) and restore her sanctuary and habitations so
that she should at last be a fit dwelling place for her children and her covenant
Husband (2:1-13, 6:9-15, 8:1-23, 12:1-14:21). Thus He was also the messianic
figure Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel and the Twelve spoke of (cf. Isaiah 9:1-8,
11:1-3, 40-55; Jeremiah 23:1-8, 33:1-26; Ezekiel 34, 37; Daniel 2, 7; Hosea 1-3;
Joel 2-3; Amos 9:11-15; Micah 5:1-5; Zephaniah 3; Haggai 2; Malachi 3; etc.).
Riding into Jerusalem on a donkey’s colt, Jesus was proclaiming Himself Israel’s
messianic King with all that that truth encompasses and implies. And, for the
most part, the crowd that gathered to welcome Him recognized Him as such. They
hailed Him as the Son of David and chanted from the closing part of the Hallel
(Psalms 113-118), an extended song of praise celebrating Yahweh’s purposes for
and through Israel, His covenant faithfulness in view of those purposes and
Israel’s resultant sure hope of deliverance (“salvation”) and restoration in
connection with the coming messianic “day” (ref. esp. 118:22-29). The crowd’s
embellishments showed that they believed that day had dawned: Jesus was the
messianic Son of David, and this meant that the kingdom Yahweh promised to
David was at hand (cf. Matthew 21:9; Mark 11:9-10; Luke 19:37-38). And if
Yahweh was indeed now raising up David’s fallen tabernacle (Amos 9:11-15) and
restoring his throne and kingdom (2 Samuel 7)), then Israel’s long night of exile
and bondage was coming to an end. Yahweh was visiting His people to destroy
the enslaving powers, free the captives, renew Zion’s fruitfulness for bearing Him
a multitude of children and take His throne in His sanctuary (ref. Luke 1:67-79).
243
The praises accompanied Jesus into Jerusalem as He made His way to the temple.
Matthew recorded that the children took up His praise in the temple courts, even
as He began healing the infirmed who gathered to Him (21:14-15). (Matthew’s
account mentions these activities after Jesus cleared the temple, which he and
Luke seem to indicate took place on the day of the Triumphal Entry. Mark, on the
other hand, has the temple clearing occurring on the following day.) Both of these
had prophetic significance: Yahweh’s return to Zion in His messianic Servant
would bring healing to Israel and the nations (cf. Matthew 21:10-14 with 11:1-5;
also Isaiah 35:1-10, 42:1-7, 57:1-19; Jeremiah 31:1-14, 33:1-16; Ezekiel 47:1-12;
Malachi 4) and this renewal – by which mankind would at last attain its true
stature as image-son and so fulfill its calling to sum up the creation’s praises to
God – would appropriately see praise on the lips of even the youngest children
(ref. Matthew 21:15-16 with Psalm 8; cf. also Hebrews 2 and Luke 19:37-40).
Whether Jesus cleared the temple on the day He rode into Jerusalem or the
following day, all three of the synoptic writers closely connect this action with the
Triumphal Entry: Jesus was Zion’s returning King, but He was coming first to
condemn her. Zion was a harlot whose unfaithfulness had provoked her Husband
to leave her desolate and send her children away into exile (Isaiah 50:1-3; Ezekiel
16, 23-24; Hosea 1:1-9). And though a remnant of those children had returned to
Canaan, their harlotry continued, epitomized in their defilement of Yahweh’s
sanctuary. Nearly two centuries after cleansing the temple of its pagan defilement,
Zion’s children were committing the same sin. Jesus’ actions in the temple
attested this truth and also prefigured the fate that awaited the idolatrous city and
its defiled sanctuary (cf. Matthew 21:12-13 and parallels with Luke 19:41-44).
The children of Israel were longing for their God to arise – in connection with His
Messiah – to deliver them, restore David’s kingdom and return to His sanctuary.
But that outcome presupposed due recompense. For covenant violation had
caused Yahweh’s departure and Israel’s exile and subjugation, so that reversal of
those circumstances depended upon satisfaction, forgiveness and purging.
Comfort was coming to Abraham’s covenant house, but not before indignation
(ref. Malachi 3:1-5, 4:1-3). This principle was at the heart of the second temple
doctrine of the messianic woes. This doctrine held that Messiah would arise and
deliver Israel and bring its exile to an end when its time of woe (i.e., its long
season of tribulation initiated by the demise of the covenant kingdom) reached its
climax. Israel’s deserved woes were indeed to reach their climax in connection
with Messiah’s coming, but by being concentrated in Him as the Servant who
embodied Israel and took upon Himself the nation’s guilt, tribulation and
punishment. He’d come to liberate Abraham’s children and end their exile by
completing their woe by bearing it completely in Himself (Isaiah 49-53).
Israel didn’t discern Yahweh’s plan and so rejected His Servant. Thus the nation
and the symbols of its idolatry – Jerusalem and its temple – were consigned to
destruction, not because their covenant guilt hadn’t been addressed, but because
they were again refusing their God and the covenant renewal He’d effected.
244
Thus Jesus’ temple action was the immediate and primary interpretive framework
for His triumphal ride into Jerusalem. He was the Son of David, Israel’s longawaited Messiah-King who’d come to fulfill the messianic mission revealed in the
Scriptures. He had come to establish Yahweh’s kingdom and reign as the outcome
of judgment and retribution, but in an unexpected way.
- Israel expected the Messiah to vanquish the subjugating power that was
Rome. Yes, the covenant nation needed to be purged and forgiven, but
they’d suffered long centuries of bondage and affliction under a
succession of Gentile powers. Even if an especially intense season of
suffering awaited them before their final vindication, surely that
vindication at Messiah’s hand would see Rome’s destruction.
- But Jesus was going to conquer the power behind Rome – the true power
which enslaved Israel (and the entire creation) regardless of which nation
or empire held sway over it (Luke 22:52-53; John 12:31; Colossians 2:15).
And conquering that power meant dealing conclusively with Israel’s rebellion and
alienation – its idolatry, epitomized in the city of Jerusalem and its temple. Jesus
rode into Jerusalem as its messianic king to pronounce judgment and destruction
upon it and its revered sanctuary. He would restore and reconsecrate Yahweh’s
dwelling place, but not in connection with a physical city and structure. Jerusalem
and its temple were appointed for destruction, not merely because of their
corruption and guilt, but because Yahweh purposed to rebuild His habitation in
the person of His Son (cf. Isaiah 2:1-4 with 11:1-13, Isaiah 28:16 with Mark 12:1-
11 and Zechariah 4:1-10 with 6:9-15; also Hebrews 9:1-11, 11:8-16, 12:18-24).
The great mystery Jesus was unveiling was that Israel in its present form was
passing away – not by abrogation, but fulfillment (Matthew 5:17-19). Thus the
covenant house would obtain its vindication and exaltation, not merely through
the Messiah’s work, but in His person. Israel had proven to be a fruitless tree; it
could not fulfill its role as the Abrahamic seed and so brought itself under the
curse of condemnation (cf. Matthew 21:18-19; Mark 11:12-14). Yahweh’s
commitment to His covenant with Abraham thus demanded a new and faithful
Israel – more precisely, Israel being embodied in a particular son of Abraham
(Isaiah 49:1ff). This “Servant Israel” would embody Israel as faithful son, but also
take up in Himself Israel’s unfaithfulness and bear Yahweh’s judgment against it.
Jesus had come to Jerusalem as her Deliverer-King; He had done so according to
the Scripture and would fulfill all that the prophets had spoken concerning the
Messiah. Israel and its covenant with Yahweh were to be renewed, not just by
Him, but in Him, even as He took up in Himself Israel’s failure and recompense.
In Him, Israel would fulfill its calling on behalf of the world. Thus the Triumphal
Entry looked beyond Zion’s destruction to her glorious renewal; it looked to the
fulfillment of the Passover in a new exodus and new ingathering – the summing
up of all things in Jesus (cf. Isaiah 51-55, 65; Ephesians 1:9f; Colossians 1:19f
first step in interpreting its significance. One cannot determine the meaning of a
thing without first identifying its features and qualities. And identifying the
particulars of this episode includes situating them within their historical and
salvation-historical contexts. The issue isn’t merely what happened, but why it
happened: Why did Jesus and His Israelite counterparts do what they did; what
factors and considerations (historical, cultural, religious, etc.) provoked and
framed their actions and what were they trying to convey by them? Such
questions must be answered before matters of meaning and significance can be
addressed. For, whatever the particulars surrounding the Triumphal Entry
signified, they had that signification to those who were party to them.
First of all, and with respect to Jesus’ action in riding into Jerusalem, the accounts
are explicit that He was identifying Himself with Zechariah’s prophecy.
Specifically, Jesus wanted His disciples and the multitude to identify Him with
the regal messianic figure promised by Zechariah: Zion’s king whose coming
represented Yahweh’s return to establish His kingdom and reign over all the
earth. By explicitly connecting Himself with Zechariah’s coming king, Jesus was
showing the people of Israel that they were to interpret His actions, climaxing
with Calvary, in terms of Zechariah’s larger prophecy and the work and outcome
it described. If Jesus was the regal figure of Zechariah 9:9, then He was the
Branch of David, the Priest-King, True Shepherd and Cornerstone (3:1-10, 6:9-
15, 10:1-4, 13:7-9) and Yahweh’s theophanic presence come to purge Zion of her
guilt and defilement (3:1-10, 5:1-11) and restore her sanctuary and habitations so
that she should at last be a fit dwelling place for her children and her covenant
Husband (2:1-13, 6:9-15, 8:1-23, 12:1-14:21). Thus He was also the messianic
figure Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel and the Twelve spoke of (cf. Isaiah 9:1-8,
11:1-3, 40-55; Jeremiah 23:1-8, 33:1-26; Ezekiel 34, 37; Daniel 2, 7; Hosea 1-3;
Joel 2-3; Amos 9:11-15; Micah 5:1-5; Zephaniah 3; Haggai 2; Malachi 3; etc.).
Riding into Jerusalem on a donkey’s colt, Jesus was proclaiming Himself Israel’s
messianic King with all that that truth encompasses and implies. And, for the
most part, the crowd that gathered to welcome Him recognized Him as such. They
hailed Him as the Son of David and chanted from the closing part of the Hallel
(Psalms 113-118), an extended song of praise celebrating Yahweh’s purposes for
and through Israel, His covenant faithfulness in view of those purposes and
Israel’s resultant sure hope of deliverance (“salvation”) and restoration in
connection with the coming messianic “day” (ref. esp. 118:22-29). The crowd’s
embellishments showed that they believed that day had dawned: Jesus was the
messianic Son of David, and this meant that the kingdom Yahweh promised to
David was at hand (cf. Matthew 21:9; Mark 11:9-10; Luke 19:37-38). And if
Yahweh was indeed now raising up David’s fallen tabernacle (Amos 9:11-15) and
restoring his throne and kingdom (2 Samuel 7)), then Israel’s long night of exile
and bondage was coming to an end. Yahweh was visiting His people to destroy
the enslaving powers, free the captives, renew Zion’s fruitfulness for bearing Him
a multitude of children and take His throne in His sanctuary (ref. Luke 1:67-79).
243
The praises accompanied Jesus into Jerusalem as He made His way to the temple.
Matthew recorded that the children took up His praise in the temple courts, even
as He began healing the infirmed who gathered to Him (21:14-15). (Matthew’s
account mentions these activities after Jesus cleared the temple, which he and
Luke seem to indicate took place on the day of the Triumphal Entry. Mark, on the
other hand, has the temple clearing occurring on the following day.) Both of these
had prophetic significance: Yahweh’s return to Zion in His messianic Servant
would bring healing to Israel and the nations (cf. Matthew 21:10-14 with 11:1-5;
also Isaiah 35:1-10, 42:1-7, 57:1-19; Jeremiah 31:1-14, 33:1-16; Ezekiel 47:1-12;
Malachi 4) and this renewal – by which mankind would at last attain its true
stature as image-son and so fulfill its calling to sum up the creation’s praises to
God – would appropriately see praise on the lips of even the youngest children
(ref. Matthew 21:15-16 with Psalm 8; cf. also Hebrews 2 and Luke 19:37-40).
Whether Jesus cleared the temple on the day He rode into Jerusalem or the
following day, all three of the synoptic writers closely connect this action with the
Triumphal Entry: Jesus was Zion’s returning King, but He was coming first to
condemn her. Zion was a harlot whose unfaithfulness had provoked her Husband
to leave her desolate and send her children away into exile (Isaiah 50:1-3; Ezekiel
16, 23-24; Hosea 1:1-9). And though a remnant of those children had returned to
Canaan, their harlotry continued, epitomized in their defilement of Yahweh’s
sanctuary. Nearly two centuries after cleansing the temple of its pagan defilement,
Zion’s children were committing the same sin. Jesus’ actions in the temple
attested this truth and also prefigured the fate that awaited the idolatrous city and
its defiled sanctuary (cf. Matthew 21:12-13 and parallels with Luke 19:41-44).
The children of Israel were longing for their God to arise – in connection with His
Messiah – to deliver them, restore David’s kingdom and return to His sanctuary.
But that outcome presupposed due recompense. For covenant violation had
caused Yahweh’s departure and Israel’s exile and subjugation, so that reversal of
those circumstances depended upon satisfaction, forgiveness and purging.
Comfort was coming to Abraham’s covenant house, but not before indignation
(ref. Malachi 3:1-5, 4:1-3). This principle was at the heart of the second temple
doctrine of the messianic woes. This doctrine held that Messiah would arise and
deliver Israel and bring its exile to an end when its time of woe (i.e., its long
season of tribulation initiated by the demise of the covenant kingdom) reached its
climax. Israel’s deserved woes were indeed to reach their climax in connection
with Messiah’s coming, but by being concentrated in Him as the Servant who
embodied Israel and took upon Himself the nation’s guilt, tribulation and
punishment. He’d come to liberate Abraham’s children and end their exile by
completing their woe by bearing it completely in Himself (Isaiah 49-53).
Israel didn’t discern Yahweh’s plan and so rejected His Servant. Thus the nation
and the symbols of its idolatry – Jerusalem and its temple – were consigned to
destruction, not because their covenant guilt hadn’t been addressed, but because
they were again refusing their God and the covenant renewal He’d effected.
244
Thus Jesus’ temple action was the immediate and primary interpretive framework
for His triumphal ride into Jerusalem. He was the Son of David, Israel’s longawaited Messiah-King who’d come to fulfill the messianic mission revealed in the
Scriptures. He had come to establish Yahweh’s kingdom and reign as the outcome
of judgment and retribution, but in an unexpected way.
- Israel expected the Messiah to vanquish the subjugating power that was
Rome. Yes, the covenant nation needed to be purged and forgiven, but
they’d suffered long centuries of bondage and affliction under a
succession of Gentile powers. Even if an especially intense season of
suffering awaited them before their final vindication, surely that
vindication at Messiah’s hand would see Rome’s destruction.
- But Jesus was going to conquer the power behind Rome – the true power
which enslaved Israel (and the entire creation) regardless of which nation
or empire held sway over it (Luke 22:52-53; John 12:31; Colossians 2:15).
And conquering that power meant dealing conclusively with Israel’s rebellion and
alienation – its idolatry, epitomized in the city of Jerusalem and its temple. Jesus
rode into Jerusalem as its messianic king to pronounce judgment and destruction
upon it and its revered sanctuary. He would restore and reconsecrate Yahweh’s
dwelling place, but not in connection with a physical city and structure. Jerusalem
and its temple were appointed for destruction, not merely because of their
corruption and guilt, but because Yahweh purposed to rebuild His habitation in
the person of His Son (cf. Isaiah 2:1-4 with 11:1-13, Isaiah 28:16 with Mark 12:1-
11 and Zechariah 4:1-10 with 6:9-15; also Hebrews 9:1-11, 11:8-16, 12:18-24).
The great mystery Jesus was unveiling was that Israel in its present form was
passing away – not by abrogation, but fulfillment (Matthew 5:17-19). Thus the
covenant house would obtain its vindication and exaltation, not merely through
the Messiah’s work, but in His person. Israel had proven to be a fruitless tree; it
could not fulfill its role as the Abrahamic seed and so brought itself under the
curse of condemnation (cf. Matthew 21:18-19; Mark 11:12-14). Yahweh’s
commitment to His covenant with Abraham thus demanded a new and faithful
Israel – more precisely, Israel being embodied in a particular son of Abraham
(Isaiah 49:1ff). This “Servant Israel” would embody Israel as faithful son, but also
take up in Himself Israel’s unfaithfulness and bear Yahweh’s judgment against it.
Jesus had come to Jerusalem as her Deliverer-King; He had done so according to
the Scripture and would fulfill all that the prophets had spoken concerning the
Messiah. Israel and its covenant with Yahweh were to be renewed, not just by
Him, but in Him, even as He took up in Himself Israel’s failure and recompense.
In Him, Israel would fulfill its calling on behalf of the world. Thus the Triumphal
Entry looked beyond Zion’s destruction to her glorious renewal; it looked to the
fulfillment of the Passover in a new exodus and new ingathering – the summing
up of all things in Jesus (cf. Isaiah 51-55, 65; Ephesians 1:9f; Colossians 1:19f