But a very great crowd strewed their own garments on the way, and others kept cutting down branches from the trees and strewing them on the way.
The crowd turns the road into a carpet with whatever it has: the clothes off their backs, branches cut from the trees. Two questions sit under the scene. Who put this welcome into their hearts? And why did it fade within days?
Spreading clothing and greenery on a road was not a random burst of feeling. It was how a people honoured a king.
Many spread their garments on the road He was riding. Others cut down branches of trees to form an avenue of royal welcome for Him. He came in lowly humility, yet the praise given Him is worthy of the King in majesty and glory.
The crowd was also following a known custom:
The people spread their garments on the road. In the East it was the custom to put costly rugs before the feet of kings. The crowds followed this custom by putting their garments down.
No one planned this. Israel's religious leaders would have been the obvious hosts for a Messiah's welcome. They had no part in it.
A very great crowd is moved by the sovereign power of God to lay their garments on the road that He travels. Others cut down branches from the trees to spread them in the way... The Jewish leaders had certainly not arranged any such thing, as you would expect at the arrival of their Messiah. But without any arrangement God worked in men's hearts. So there was a public presentation of the Messiah that the leaders could not ignore, however strongly they disapproved.
But commentators trace the scene deeper than excitement over miracles:
What a wonderful scene! It is not the cold reasoning of man's intellect that is at work here. Nor is it only the effect of His miracles, though it is a fruit of them. It is the mighty working of God on the minds of the crowd, compelling it to give testimony for a short time to the despised Son of God.
The shout that went with the branches was not invented on the spot. The crowd reached for words already written, and said more than it knew:
The crowd waving palms was, as it were, keeping the Feast of Tabernacles. They took their triumphant shouts from Psalm 118. That passage of Scripture pictures the nation of Israel bringing into His glory the Head Stone, the very stone the builders had rejected... Perhaps they neither understood nor intended any of this. But God moved them to take the part they did, so that the whole scene would present their King, in full form, to the city and the nation.
The Feast of Tabernacles was one of Israel's set feasts, kept with branches in hand. Writers see the branch-strewn road as a sketch of it, drawn before the real thing:
This same feast was also sketched out, as it were, with the branches and palms when Jesus entered Jerusalem... when the crowds acknowledged Him as the son of David and as king of Israel... The true feast of tabernacles, the final feast, will not be celebrated until a time yet future.
The road was carpeted, but the city only asked who He was. And Matthew quotes the old prophecy only in part.
Centuries earlier Zechariah had predicted that the Jewish monarchy would be restored (Zechariah 9:9). That prophecy has been fulfilled, but only in part. We say only in part, because Matthew, who quotes it (21:5), deliberately leaves out the words "just, and having salvation." The time of Jerusalem's redemption had not come. Yet the King entered the city in the manner predicted, riding on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
Listen to how the words change between the road and the city:
The crowds might show a temporary enthusiasm, and genuine disciples add their truer homage to the King. The city, however "moved," meets it with a question and nothing more. The "Hosannas to the Son of David" weaken into a very different reply: "This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee." The King of glory is for them already uncrowned.
The same voices shouted something very different a few days later. Writers read that turn as a warning:
It is a terrible thing to see how fickle the crowd is. They are just the same to this day... The same crowd that cried, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" and applauded Him to the skies cried with one mouth, "Crucify him, crucify him!" within a few days... Their applause was nothing. Applause is only human feeling stirred up at the moment. That feeling may give way to the opposite one, and very quickly.
- Meant — clothes and branches on the road were how people honoured a king. Here they honoured One who came in humility.
- Moved — Israel's leaders did not stage this welcome. God worked in ordinary hearts, so no one could ignore the Messiah's public entry.
- Borrowed — the crowd's shout came from Psalm 118, and the branches echoed the Feast of Tabernacles. They said more than they understood.
- Withheld — Matthew leaves out the words "just, and having salvation." That part of the promise waited for another day.
- Faded — enthusiasm on the road cooled into a question at the gate, then a cry for His death within the week. Feeling stirred up in a moment is not faith.
And the crowds who went before him and who followed cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed [be] he who comes in the name of [the] Lord; hosanna in the highest.
Crowds line the road into Jerusalem and shout words from an old psalm at Jesus. Within a week the same city will see Him crucified — so who did they think He was, and why did the welcome collapse?
The crowd was not inventing a slogan. Their words came from a psalm about Israel welcoming the stone the builders threw away.
They spread their garments and scattered branches of trees on the road. These actions showed the honour the crowd had for Him, and the joy with which they greeted Him. The people hailed Him as King (Luke 19:38), called Him "the Son of David," and so recognised His title to the throne of David (Mark 11:10). The crowd with its palms was, as it were, keeping the Feast of Tabernacles. They took their triumphant shouts from Psalm 118. That place in the Scriptures pictures the nation of Israel bringing into His glory the Head Stone, the stone the builders had rejected.
The word itself is a prayer, not a cheer.
This word, which is the same in Greek, is thought to be a compound of two Hebrew words, and means "save now," as in Psalm 118:25. In the New Testament the sense appears to be "bestow blessing." "Bestow blessing on the Son of David: bestow blessing, O You who are in the highest." Matthew 21:9; Mark 11:9-10; John 12:13.
Matthew records this title more often than the other Gospel writers. The crowd at the gate is one of six times.
The Old Testament records those who acknowledged the fugitive David as the anointed king of Israel (2 Sam. 23 and elsewhere). In the same way, Matthew records more fully than the other three writers those who acknowledged Jesus of Nazareth as the Son of David. There are six such instances: (1) two blind men in Galilee (Matt. 9:27); (2) the crowd in Galilee (Matt. 12:23); (3) the woman of Canaan (Matt. 15:22); (4) two blind men near Jericho (Matt. 20:30-31); (5) the crowd at the entrance to Jerusalem (Matt. 21:9); (6) the children in the temple (Matt. 21:15).
Nobody in Jerusalem organised the shouting. Writers trace it to God working in ordinary hearts. He would not let His Son be rejected without this witness.
The power of God influences the heart of the crowds. They greet Him as King, as Son of David, using the language supplied by Psalm 118. That psalm celebrates the millennial sabbath which the Messiah brings in, and which the people will then acknowledge... Happy for them if their hearts had been changed to keep this testimony in the Spirit. But God sovereignly disposed their hearts to bear this testimony; He could not allow His Son to be rejected without receiving it.
The nation's religious leaders had planned nothing of the kind.
The Jewish leaders had not arranged any such thing, though you would expect it at the coming of their Messiah. Without any arrangement, God worked in men's hearts. The result was a public presentation of the Messiah that the leaders could not ignore, however strongly they disapproved.
The crowd used the right words. They meant far less by them than the words hold.
Jerusalem received Him with shouting, and "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" was rightly among the cries. But a little further on it appears that they used the right words wrongly. They used them only in a lesser sense. In their full meaning the words marked out Jesus as the Lord of hosts — and one day people will use them that way. But they used them of Him only as "the prophet of Nazareth," sent by God and so coming in His name. They did not use them of the Lord Himself, present in person in His own character and name.
Jesus knew what the shout was worth. He pointed to a day when the same words will be said and meant.
But that was the result of a sudden burst of enthusiasm, and had no lasting meaning, as what followed showed. Within a week He was crucified. The Lord knew how worthless their excited cry was. A little later He said, "You will not see me again, until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord'" (Matt. 23:39). The Psalm speaks of the moment when they will see Him again, and speak that welcome with full truth and sincerity.
- Cry borrowed. The crowd took its words from Psalm 118, the psalm that pictures Israel welcoming the stone its builders had rejected.
- Cry means save. "Hosanna" is "save now," and in the New Testament it carries the sense "bestow blessing" — asked of the Son of David.
- Cry God gave. No leader organised it. God moved ordinary hearts, and would not let His Son be rejected without this witness.
- Cry too small. The words point to the Lord Himself. The crowd meant only "the prophet of Nazareth," and their enthusiasm died within the week.
- Cry still coming. Jesus said they would not see Him again until they say it — the same sentence, one day spoken with full sincerity.
And as he entered into Jerusalem, the whole city was moved, saying, Who is this?
The feast has filled Jerusalem, and a crowd is shouting Psalm 118 over a man riding a donkey. But the capital of the kingdom cannot name its own King, and its stir comes out as a question, not a welcome.
The entry looked like a triumph, and even His enemies admitted it. Watch the one person the excitement did not sweep away.
When that wonderful entry took place, the King riding on the colt, the whole city was shaken as by a mighty earthquake. His enemies said among themselves, "Behold, the world has gone after Him" (John 12:10). What a triumph it was! The King entering Jerusalem. And through it all He is undisturbed. Others might have been swept away by this enthusiasm; but He is calm in all His kingly majesty.
Excitement is not the same as recognition. Even the crowd's praise sinks as the procession moves inside the city.
The crowds might show a temporary enthusiasm, and genuine disciples add their truer homage to the King. But the city, however "moved," meets it with a question only. And the "Hosannas to the Son of David" weaken sadly into the very different reply, "This is Jesus the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee." For them the King of glory is already stripped of His crown.
The one city that should have known Him is the city that asks. His own people meet Him as a stranger.
The Lord goes on to Jerusalem. And the crowd cries, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" They apply Psalm 118 to the Messiah, and they were right... He comes to the city; but He is unknown: His own do not know Him. They ask, "Who is this?" The crowd had so little understanding that they answer, "This is Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee."
Nothing in the crowd's reply is false. What is missing is anything that only faith could have said.
The answer of the crowd showed no real faith at all. They said, "This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee." Quite true, of course, as far as it went; but it went no further than what was obvious even to those who had no faith. A good many prophets had entered before this, and Jerusalem had killed them.
The place they name is also telling. Moments earlier they had called Him Son of David; now they trace Him to the wrong town for a king.
The answer of the crowd does not go back to His birth in Bethlehem. It goes only to His having lived in Nazareth of Galilee, and that would not win the favour of the proud city of Jerusalem. In announcing Him they had hailed Him as Son of David: why then was there not more conviction in their answer? Perhaps they had been moved at first to proclaim more than they realised the meaning of.
Jerusalem had reacted like this once before, at the very start of His life. And the question the city threw at Him comes back on every reader.
All Jerusalem was troubled when they heard of His birth. The city had thrown off the vile practices of the pagan nations. But its leaders were too proud to recognise their great Messiah in that lowly baby. Later He presented Himself to them, fulfilling the words of the prophet Zechariah: "Tell the daughter of Zion, Behold your King comes to you, humble and mounted on a donkey." Their answer was contempt: "Who is this?" He then gave them the chance to face that all-important question themselves, asking, "What do you think of the Christ? Whose Son is He?"... This was surely the test question, for them, for us, and for all mankind.
The story does not stop at the closed door. The Lord's own words set a limit on how long the refusal lasts.
At this time, however, only babes and infants take up the words of Psalm 118 — the weak things of the world. The nation as a whole again refuses Him. But this refusal is not final, as our Lord's words plainly show. He declared that, because of their guilt, their house would be left to them desolate. Then He added, "I say to you, you will not see me again." For how long? Till the end of the world? No, but "until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord'" (Matt. 23:38-39).
- Stirred — the entry shook the whole city like an earthquake, while the King at its centre remained calm.
- Stirred, not won — the stir was real, but the answer showed no faith; the city met its King with a question.
- Stirred to ask — "Who is this?" came from the one capital that should have known Him; His own did not know Him.
- Stirred to a half-answer — "the prophet from Nazareth" is true, but unbelief could say it too. It also names the wrong town for a king.
- Stirred again, one day — the refusal is not the last word; the cry the nation refuses now, it will one day speak.
And the crowds said, This is Jesus the prophet who is from Nazareth of Galilee.
Moments earlier the crowds were shouting "Hosanna to the Son of David." Now Jerusalem asks who has arrived, and the answer is a name and a hometown. Was this confession faith, or the first sign that the welcome was already cooling?
One writer points out what the crowd's answer leaves out — the town where He was born.
All the city was moved, yet they were so ignorant that they had to ask, "Who is this?" The crowd's answer, however, does not go back to His birth in Bethlehem. It reaches only to His having lived in Nazareth of Galilee. That would not win the favour of the proud city of Jerusalem. In announcing Him they had hailed Him as Son of David. Why then was there not more definite conviction in their answer? Perhaps at first they were swept into proclaiming more than they understood.
Nothing in the crowd's statement is false. That is the problem. Truth can stop short of faith, and Jerusalem had a history with prophets.
Yet for a brief moment it looked as if they might receive Him... But their faith was soon put to the test. As He entered the city, the question came: "Who is this?" The crowd's answer showed no real faith at all. They said, "This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee." Quite true, of course, as far as it went. But it went no further than what was obvious even to those who had no faith. A good many prophets had entered before this, and Jerusalem had killed them.
Between the road and the city gate, the title changes.
The crowds might show a temporary enthusiasm, and genuine disciples add their truer homage to the King. The city, however "moved", meets it with a question only. The "Hosannas to the Son of David" weaken into the very different reply, "This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee." The King of glory is for them already stripped of His crown.
Another writer puts the two possible answers side by side, and calls the one they chose a form of refusal.
The King knew what was soon to come, and on that hill He saw the cross looming up. True, they were crying, "Son of David, save now!" But the question, "Who is this?" is answered in the terms of rejection. Instead of "the King, Jehovah-Jesus, the Messiah," the crowd answers "Jesus, the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee."
The town had no standing anywhere — not even among its own neighbours.
To call Him a Nazarene was the well-understood language of contempt in that day. Nazareth was the most scorned of places. The men of Judea looked down on it. Even the Galileans despised it, though it was part of their own district. Later we read of an Israelite without deceit who heard that Jesus was there and exclaimed, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" So if one spot in Palestine matched the rejection that was Christ's portion more than any other, it was Nazareth.
Nathanael had doubted the town. The Pharisees ruled out Galilee entirely. The crowd's own words overturned both sayings.
"Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee," was the ruling of the Pharisees. Nathanael had long since found that good could come from Nazareth; and the loud crowd paid no attention to the Pharisee's ruling. The Prophet, Jesus, from Nazareth, was the One they were escorting into Jerusalem, and He was her King.
The low title does not shrink Him. What He does next in the temple answers their small estimate.
But though they only see Jesus of Galilee, yet He shows Himself as King, and takes a place of authority and power. He enters the temple and overturns the tables of the money-changers... It was astonishing. The One they knew only as the prophet of Nazareth boldly entered their temple and drove out all who were desecrating it. But they do not turn on Him. The power of the God of the temple was there, and they flee... As if He had said, "You hail Me as King, and I will prove that I am."
The welcome faded, but the words did not die.
Babes and infants may welcome Him. But the people are far from that spirit, and so far from the Kingdom. As the Lord declares, the cry "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord" must be raised again, and in earnest, at a future time.
- Moved — The city is shaken by His arrival, yet still has to ask who He is; excitement is not knowledge.
- Named — The reply is accurate but bare: a prophet, a town, a region. It says nothing an unbeliever could not say.
- Downgraded — "Son of David" on the road becomes "prophet from Nazareth" at the gate. In one sentence the King is uncrowned.
- Despised — Nazareth was the most scorned address in the land. That is why it suits a rejected Christ. The crowd's own words also refuted the sayings against Galilee.
- Undeterred — They see only a Galilean prophet. He walks into the temple and clears it, proving the kingship they failed to confess. The cry they let drop will be raised again in earnest.