April 1, 2012
Palm Sunday
Luke 19:37-40 As he was drawing near--already on the way down the Mount of Olives--the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!" And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples." He answered, "I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out."
JESUS CLAIMS MESSIAH-SHIP
Throughout His ministry, Jesus was careful not to needlessly confuse people. Though He had no sins to confess on the banks of the Jordan, He was still baptized by John. This clearly grouped Jesus with God's people, not with the Pharisees (who rejected God's call to repentance by rejecting John's baptism).
The Jewish people had been wrongly taught to expect a Messiah who would only restore Israel's earthly kingdom. So, throughout His ministry, Jesus didn't openly call Himself the Christ, though He was ("Christ" is Greek for Messiah). Instead He called Himself "the Son of Man" (see Daniel 7:13-14). He chose to teach the people what the Christ was REALLY about before plainly admitting that He WAS the Christ.
But now the time of teaching was coming to an end for Jesus. Now it was time for Him to knuckle down and do the suffering and sacrificing required to take away the sins of the world.
And so, as Jesus entered Jerusalem on the first day of Holy Week (the week preceding Jesus' crucifixion), He openly accepted praise which identified Him as the Christ: "the King who comes in the name of the Lord."
The Pharisees understood that by accepting this praise Jesus was admitting, "I am indeed the Messiah." This acceptance made them angry. But when they demanded that Jesus stop this outrage, He refused. The time for careful teaching was over. Now was the time for open admission.
