MDB 56: John 12

The timing is right. Next Sunday marks the celebration of Palm Sunday, and our Scripture passage today highlights the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the Holy City, by the Messiah. Thus we can start our week contemplating this important event in the life of Christ.

First, let's recognize the powerful symbolic action that Jesus takes here as he finds a young donkey and rides it from Lazarus' house in Bethany to the temple mount (thus over the Mount of Olives and across the Kidron Valley). Make no mistake: this was as bold a claim of royalty as one could make. The allusion to the prophet Zechariah (9:9-10) was obvious, even if it wasn't at first (Jn 12:16). So, it comes as no surprise that the crowd praised God for the arrival (finally!) of the king of Israel--the true king of the world. "Hosanna!" they cried, which means, to borrow from John Piper's good paraphrase, "Hooray for salvation! It's coming! It's here! Salvation! Salvation!" The long-awaited Davidic ruler has come: "Hooray for the king! Salvation belongs to the king!"

Even if we can't muster, not least on a Monday, the emotion required to exclaim these words in the same way they were first uttered, let us still seek to embody them, to live like subjects whose longed-for king has come and has promised to return. Among other things, this means speaking about the triumph and supremacy of Christ with others, so that they may see what hope his call holds, and "how rich are the wonderful blessings he promises his people" (Eph 2:18). 

The triumphal entry, laden as it is with the rich symbolism of the dawning messianic age, demands of us to simply trust in his grace, to follow him so that we may be with him where he is (Jn 12:26). He has ridden the reforming donkey into town. He has entered his week of sorrow, suffering the lashes and humiliation of public rejection and God-forsakenness, culminating in his being lifted up from the earth (v. 32). Yet it broke open on the first day into resurrection, so that we can, by virtue of our union with him, rule with him in the heavenly court, which shows for all ages to come how extraordinarily rich is God's grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus (Eph 2:6-7).