The King who is Worthy of Forever Praise

John 12:12-15, 19:12-16

The first one of the our two texts chosen for today was the record of our Lord
Jesus’ last entry into Jerusalem. People who were gathered in Jerusalem hailed
Jesus, they held palm branches in their hands and they shouted for our Lord
Jesus who was coming into Jerusalem. The waving of a palm branch is the
practice of the people who want to declare the victory they won over a war and
who want to hail for their war hero. Thus, the people who took the palm
branches for our Lord Jesus knew for sure that they were treating Him as their
king. And they were expecting that Jesus would drive out the Roman soldiers
and would put an end to the Roman rule over them, restoring Israel.

We can’t say that these people were just dreaming. For they already confirmed
several times the power of Jesus manifested through the miracles he
performed. The miracles Jesus performed were turning water into wine, feeding
of more than five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish, (also,
there were 12 basketful of leftovers), driving out all kinds of demons and curing
all kinds of disease, even raising of the dead, walking on water, and stilling the
stormy sea and high wave with a command. All these miracles were enough
signs to convince them to want and make Him a king. They probably thought
that since the time of Moses no one was a greater leader than Jesus. They
thought even the formidable Roman army wouldn’t be a match for Jesus. In
Galilee alone, a crowd of about five thousand followed him every day.

If he declared the war for independence against the Roman government, it was
an easy thing to gather tens of thousands of people from all over the country.
With this size of gathering, they could outnumber the Roman army. Food for this
rebel force would become none of their concern, because Jesus could multiply
food unlimitedly. Neither the injury from the war, because Jesus could heal them
all. Nor even the death toll, because Jesus would resurrect the dead. If the
situation requires, Jesus could command storm and thunder to strike the
Roman army in a rout. They were envisioning a repeat of the miraculous
victories during the time of Joshua, Gideon and Samuel and Hezekiah. This
time it is the war and victory against Romans.

To those who took the palm branch and went out to see Jesus, Jesus was the
very messiah God sent to them. To them this event in which Jesus enters into
Jerusalem is an opportunity for them to beg to be liberated from Roman rule
and their days of trial. So they couldn’t help but scream for our Lord Jesus:”

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Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed is the
king of Israel!” Hosanna means “Save us now.” Then we see in the second of
our passages, that event taking a dramatic turn in its direction. The people
captured Jesus and took him to the Roman governor Pilate and screamed
before him, “crucify him!” and Pilate ordered Jesus to be crucified. What an
incredible turn of events. Of course, there was instigation and backing from the
Jewish leaders including the high priests who couldn’t afford to lose their
position and status they acquired through their compromise with the Roman
Empire.

Still it was outrageous betrayal that they took Jesus to Pilate for execution when
they had hailed him as their messiah only days before and expected him to
drive out the Roman army for them and to give them independence. It showed
the people’s denial in that they are the same people who hailed Jesus as their
king. When the governor Pilate found no guilt in Jesus he wanted to release
Him, but they shouted “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar.
Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.”

They gave up being Jews and instead they became royal subjects to the
Roman emperor. They shouted “Hosanna![a]”“Blessed is he who comes in the
name of the Lord!”[b] “Blessed is the king of Israel!” But now they are shouting:
“take him away, crucify him.” “Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked. “We have
no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered. The leaders of the God’s
chosen people took lead in discarding their identity as God’s people and their
pride altogether. And their sudden changed behavior was to kill the Son of God.

The crucifixion was ordered when the high priests in the temple finished their
preparation for the Passover lambs. They killed Jesus at precisely the same
time of the day that the Passover lamb is killed in the temple. How precise was
the timing our Lord made for Him to become the Passover lamb sacrificed for
the salvation and redemption of mankind! We should say this kind of sharp turn
of events was due to the people’s misunderstanding of who Jesus Christ was
and the wrong expectation they had about Jesus. The Jews didn’t know that
although Jesus surely was a King of all, yet they didn’t know that he was a not a
worldly kind of king who used political and military power. The Jews didn ’t know
that the kingdom of Jesus, the Messiah would not fight for political and
economic restoration but in unfolding of God’s truth and eternal life. Jesus said
to Pilate,“My kingdom is not of this world. but the Jews mistook the God’s
kingdom for the one in this world.”

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Jesus came into Jerusalem riding on a young donkey. Why is it? It was to fulfill
the prophesy of the prophet Zechariah (Zechariah 9:9). While verses 14-15 of
the text say “Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written: “Do not
be afraid, Daughter Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey ’s colt.”
The book of Matthew chapter 21:4-5 specifically says that the reason our Lord
Jesus rode on young donkey into Jerusalem was to fulfill Zechariah: This took
place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: “Say to Daughter Zion,
‘See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, and on a colt, the
foal of a donkey.’” Let’s take a look at Zechariah chapter 9, verse 9: “Rejoice
greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to
you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of
a donkey.” We must take note of the part saying king who comes to you,
righteous and victorious, lowly. It doesn’t say He is the king on a horse who had
a sword. The Bible often times depicts a proud person who will not trust God as
the man on a horse. And it depicts the peace and humility as the donkey. Our
Lord Jesus intentionally rode on a donkey to show that He was not a king of this
world who wields the political and military power. The crowd didn’t understand
that so they screamed, “crucify him” as their expectation from him turned into
despair.

We need to understand that the humility of our Lord Jesus is not the kind of
humility when we think of a person who does not brag. Rather the humility of
our Lord has deeper meaning theologically and in terms of salvation. The
apostle Paul says in Philippians 2:6-8, “Who, being in very nature[a] God did
not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7
rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature[b] of a servant, being
made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he
humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!” That
is, what our Lord Jesus did was to save us mankind who were not god
themselves yet were so proud and rebellious and wanted to become like God.
For this purpose he who is God lowered and emptied himself and took the very
nature of a servant to obey God to death. Our Lord manifested himself to be
the Son of God who came to save His people by lowering himself and riding on
a young donkey. We need to remember if we don’t understand the true
meaning of our Lord coming riding on a young donkey, we can turn into the
fickle mob in the Jerusalem on that day who turned their backs on the King
Jesus. In order to know Jesus Christ truly, we should remove worldly
expectations and purposes from our faith. That way, our praises won’t turn into
betrayal. For Jesus Christ is our king who is worthy to be praised not just for a
couple of days but forever.