On the morrow a great crowd who came to the feast, having heard that Jesus is coming into Jerusalem,
The day after the supper at Bethany, Jerusalem is full of Passover pilgrims, and word spreads that the man who raised Lazarus is coming. What follows is a public welcome of Jesus as Israel's King — but who are these people, and why does the shouting stop so soon?
One writer traces how the crowd formed. Two groups came from opposite directions and met on the way.
At first there were two separate companies. One had come with the Lord from Bethany. The other went out from Jerusalem to meet Him when they heard He was near (John 12:17-18). The two joined on the Mount of Olives. Those who came out from Jerusalem most likely turned round when they met Him, and led the procession into the city.
The crowd does not gather because of teaching or argument. One miracle brought them out.
It was His resurrection power that impressed the crowd so deeply. They did not draw the full lesson of faith. They concluded that He must be the promised Son of David, and they met Him as such. The Pharisees, meanwhile, had to admit among themselves that their stand and their opposition were plainly useless, and that the world — the prize of unbelief — had gone after Him.
Lazarus himself was now a marked man.
All the enemy's efforts to block these testimonies to the glories of Jesus were powerless. They would have been glad to kill Lazarus. But they could not touch a hair of his head while his testimony to Jesus' glory was still needed.
The welcome gives Jesus a second title, straight after the tomb at Bethany.
This is the second character in which God would have Jesus recognised, despite His rejection. The resurrection of Lazarus had shown Him as Son of God. Now He is owned as Son of David.
A third title follows later in the chapter.
The resurrection of Lazarus bore witness to the glory of Jesus as the Son of God. Now we have the privilege of hearing a further witness to His glory as the Son of David (John 12:12-19), and as the Son of Man (John 12:20-36).
The crowd did not invent the branches or the words. They took both from a festival and a psalm.
Then they broke out in glad shouts, quoting in part from Psalm 118: "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest." Hosanna means "save now." The Jews use the word "Hosanna" at the Feast of Tabernacles, and the waving of the palms also brings that feast to mind.
The psalm they chose carries its own picture, and the crowd hardly knew what they were saying.
They took their shouts of triumph from Psalm 118. That passage pictures the nation of Israel bringing into His glory the Head Stone which the builders had once rejected. They may have neither understood nor intended any of this. But God moved them to play the part they played, so that the whole scene would present their King, in full form, to the city and nation of the Jews.
This was more than a wave of feeling in a holiday crowd.
It is a wonderful scene. Cold human reasoning is not what is at work here. Nor is it only the effect of His miracles, though it is one fruit of them. It is the mighty working of God on the minds of the crowd, forcing it for a short time to bear testimony to the despised Son of God.
The welcome was real, but it did not last.
There was a partial fulfilment when the Lord entered Jerusalem (John 12:12-15). But within a few days the cry "Hosanna" changed to "Away with Him."
The same shout will sound again, and next time it will hold.
The people give Him the welcome due to the Messiah: "Hosanna! (Save now.) Blessed is the King of Israel who comes in the name of the Lord." Jerusalem will hear that shout again, and next time no terrible cry of "Crucify Him!" will follow it.
- Cause — one raised man. Lazarus walked out of the tomb, and that drew the crowd out of Jerusalem. No threat could hide the evidence.
- Crown — a second title. Bethany showed Him as Son of God. On the road into the city He is owned as Son of David. Son of Man comes later in the chapter.
- Cry — "Hosanna" means "save now." It comes from Psalm 118, and the palms belong to the Feast of Tabernacles.
- Control — God's hand, not the mood of a holiday crowd. God moved the crowd to give testimony to His rejected Son.
- Collapse — and a coming day. Within days the same voices said "Away with Him." The shout of Psalm 118 waits for a Jerusalem that will not take it back.
took branches of palms and went out to meet him, and cried, Hosanna, blessed [is] he that comes in the name of [the] Lord, the King of Israel.
A crowd streams out of Jerusalem with palm branches and greets Jesus with words lifted straight from an old psalm, hailing Him as Israel's King. Yet within days the same city would demand His death. So what was this welcome, and whose doing was it?
The scene looks like spontaneous excitement. Commentators see God's hand behind it.
The power of God moves the hearts of the crowds. They greet Him as King, as Son of David, using the words of Psalm 118... It would have been a happy thing for them if their hearts had been changed to keep this testimony in the Spirit. But God in His sovereignty moved their hearts to give this testimony. He could not let His Son be rejected without receiving this testimony to Him.
Another writer looks at the Lord's own part in the scene, and at how carefully the prophecy behind it is quoted.
It was not mere enthusiasm in the crowd, but God at work. The Lord Himself sat on the young donkey, just as Zechariah 9 had prophesied. It is remarkable how both Matthew and John leave out the part of the prophecy that did not apply then, however certain it is for later. He knew well that He was to suffer at that time, so that He might bring salvation when He comes again in glory.
The word is not a cheer. It is Hebrew, and it asks for something.
"Hosanna!" is a Hebrew word meaning "Save now!" It becomes a set way of asking for the Lord's help when the true Christ, or Messiah, is recognised... This cry recognised Jesus as the Son of David, the Messiah.
The crowd quoted Psalm 118 rightly. But one writer points to a later word of the Lord that puts the psalm's true moment in the future — and leaves the temple empty until then.
The crowd welcomed Him as Messiah. They were right to apply to Him the words of Psalm 118. In Matthew 23 the Lord says those words will be spoken by the repentant remnant of Israel who will see Him when He returns to reign. Until then the house, once made holy by Jehovah and bearing His name, is only their house, left to them desolate — for they had made it a house of trade and a den of robbers.
So the entry is a preview, not a coronation.
The Lord's triumphal entry into Jerusalem came very close to the time of His crucifixion. Even so, it is a lovely foreshadowing of the day when He will take up His royal power and reign over the house of Israel. For a few short hours the Lord has His rightful place as the King of Israel among His earthly people.
The branches were not random greenery. They already had a fixed meaning in Israel's worship and in the Bible's picture of the coming kingdom.
Palm trees or palm branches also have their significance in the Word. When the Lord entered Jerusalem as the King of Peace, His disciples bore palm branches before Him. It is the sign of the peaceful triumph of a reign about to begin. In the same way, the huge crowd in Revelation 7 hold palm branches, celebrating the Lamb's victory. Palms were used at the Feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:40), a symbol of the celebration of the thousand-year kingdom... So palm branches symbolise the peace, security, and triumph of that reign of righteousness.
News about Lazarus had spread through the city. One writer sets that news inside a larger purpose.
God, however, decides that there will be a full witness to the glory of the One Whom man has rejected. Witness has already been given to His glory as the Son of God. Now God raises up a further witness to His glory as the Son of David. Many people hear that the One Who has raised Lazarus from the dead is coming to Jerusalem. They go out with palm branches to hail Him as the Son of David, the promised King of Israel who comes in the Name of the Lord, as their own Psalm says (Psalm 118:26), riding on a donkey's colt, as it is written in the Prophets (Zechariah 9:9).
Days later the same crowd changed its cry. One writer weighs what the shouting was worth.
It is a terrible thing to see how fickle the multitude is... The same crowd that cried, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" and praised Him to the skies cried with one voice, "Crucify him, crucify him!" within a few days... their applause was nothing. Applause is only human feeling stirred up for the moment, and that feeling can give way to the opposite one very quickly.
Commentators hold two things together. God arranged a true witness to His Son, and the people who gave it had no faith behind their words.
- Arranged — The welcome was God's doing, not the crowd's idea. He would not let men reject His Son without a public witness to His kingship.
- Asked — "Hosanna" means "Save now." The crowd was not clapping. They were asking for help, in the words Israel uses when Messiah is recognised.
- Borrowed — The words come from Psalm 118. Its true speakers are the repentant remnant of Israel who will greet Him when He returns.
- Symbolised — Palm branches stand for peaceful triumph. They tie the scene to the Feast of Tabernacles and to the joy of Revelation 7 — the kingdom shown for a few hours.
- Hollow — The same voices shouted "Crucify Him" days later. Excited feeling is not faith. Only what God works in the heart lasts.