“The king who comes in God's name”

Read Luke 19:28-48

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The journey to Jerusalem is over – Holy Week has begun and Jesus’s entrance to the city on Palm Sunday marks the start of it (28-38; Mt.21:1-9; Mk.11:1-10; Jn.12:12-19). The authorities had already decided to kill him (Jn.11:53,57) but he rode into Jerusalem openly, on a donkey. This fulfilled prophecy of a coming king (35; Zech.9:9-10; Mt.21:5) but one who would be gentle and bring peace – “a Messiah whose triumphal route leads to suffering and humiliation” (France).

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The crowd were still unaware of this and they welcomed him as a king like David (36-38; Ps.118:26; Mk.11:9-10). Their understanding was wrong though their praise was right, as Jesus himself affirmed (39-40). But he knew that they’d reject him, the Prince of Peace, and that the outcome would be war and the destruction of Jerusalem (by the Romans in AD70). So “as he approached the city, he wept over it” (41-44).

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He went straight to the temple (Mk.11:11), returning the next day to cleanse it of wrong practices and to insist that it should be “a house of prayer” (45-45; Is.56:7). Throughout the week it was his base for amazing ministry, giving his enemies even more cause to kill him (47-48, Mt.21:14).