John 12:12-19

If you’ve been a Christian for any amount of time, you’ve probably heard of the “Triumphant” or “Triumphal Entry”. The Triumphant Entry is Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem before His final Passover celebration there. We celebrate this today on Palm Sunday. Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey’s colt, and a large crowd of Jews had come to see not only Him, but also to see Lazarus, who Jesus had just previously raised from the dead. The large crowd took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Jesus. They began shouting “Hosanna! Blessed is the One who comes in the name of be Lord! Blessed is the king of Israel!” Sounds pretty triumphant, right?

Now I’m not saying that this is an insignificant event. It definitely was significant. All four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) have an account of it. And on Jesus’ part, it definitely was a dramatic claim to be the Messiah, the “King of Israel”. Also, it’s a fulfillment of the hundreds-of-years-old prophecy of Zechariah 9:9 where it says the king is coming riding on a donkey’s colt. Pretty awesome stuff.

But now, here’s why I like to call it the “Not-so-triumphant Entry”. At first thought, it’s easy to assume that yeah, this is pretty triumphant! This is pretty cool! Everyone, including the disciples, finally see and believe that Jesus is the king! He’s finally going to establish His kingdom! I can imagine the disciples high-fiving each other... finally, the kingdom is here! And the people do welcome Him as their King when they shout “Blessed is the king of Israel!”

But here’s the thing. When they call him their King, I think those words are even more true than they realize. The crowd is welcoming Jesus as their “political” king if you will... they think He’s going to come and lead them against the Romans, overthrowing their rule. But in reality, they still don’t know who He is. He comes as our Prince of Peace, and as the Lamb of God who will die to provide the cure to sin. To conquer death. To establish His very kingdom within our hearts. What seems like a triumphant reception, actually turns out to be a heart breaking rejection. Many of those who came that day to see Jesus and proclaim Him as King end up being the ones who turn against Him and reject Him and only a few days later cry out “Crucify, crucify!” This isn’t really a triumphant time, is it? It’s tragic. And even more tragic is that Jesus himself is alone in knowing this at that moment. Only He knows what lies ahead... that they will crucify Him and that eventually their rejection of Him will lead to their nation’s destruction.

BUT... enough with the sad stuff. I’ve got some awesome news! There is a truly Triumphant Entry coming! There is a day coming when our Lord Jesus returns to this earth triumphantly, on a beautiful white horse, along with His Saints, and destroys the enemy once and for all.
Revelation 19:11 says, “Then I saw heaven opened, and a white horse was standing there. Its rider was named Faithful and True, for he judges fairly and wages a righteous war.... The armies of heaven, dressed in the finest white linens, followed Him on white horses... On His robe at his thigh was written this title: King of all Kings and Lord of all Lord’s... Both the Beast and his false prophet were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur...”.

And we will reign with Christ forevermore. Now THAT is what I call triumph!