John 12:12-13, The Entry Triumphant, The Lamb's Entry.

John 12:12-13 “The next day the great crowd that had come for the Feast heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, 'Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Blesséd is the King of Israel!'”

For many of us, Palm Sunday dawned bright and clear, just like it most likely did nearly two thousand years ago. The original Palm Sunday was an event so unique in the history of the world that there are only a few other days that compare. On that first Palm Sunday Jesus rode into a bustling Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, to the adoration and cries of  nearly everyone there. Why was this so amazing? Well first of all, in those days, a triumphal procession occurred at a great victory, with the leader riding a donkey, not in a chariot or on a horse. A simple donkey would carry the victorious honoree through the city so that all the inhabitants could see and watch and give glory and honor. Jesus' arrival and march through Jerusalem imitated the procession that the victorious Romans had held when they took the city, and before them the Greeks, and before them – way before them, the same way that Solomon and David had done! Jesus' ride through the city would have been understood to have been a declaration of victory or an intent of victory at that time. It was a hero's parade, the parade of a King.

To understand the second and more important reason we need to look back to Exodus 12:3 and the rules regarding passover.  On the 10th day of the Jewish month of Nissan, the Passover month, the head of each family was to chose the passover lamb, the lamb which would represent deliverance. That lamb would then be taken care of until Passover, where it would be slaughtered. The blood of that lamb would be painted over and on the side of the entrance to the house so that God would see it and would stop the destroyer (vs 23) from entering. In John 1:29, John the Baptist cried out “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!”  Seeing all of this, would it surprise you to find out that Palm Sunday occurred on the 10th day of the month of Nissan? When Jesus was paraded through the city, what did the people cry? They cried out “Hosanna!” which means “Save us, we pray!”

When the passover lamb was selected, the head of the family would then parade it before the members of his family, for whom that lamb was going to die. When Jesus rode through the city, to the shouts and cries of the people, he was being paraded before them as the sacrificial lamb who would deliver them from their sins.

Today we celebrate Christ's triumphal procession through our lives. We celebrate our precious Lamb, our Saviour, and we love Him all the more for it. We remember that it was for us that He came. It was for us that He suffered. Today we celebrate the King of our lives, the King of Kings! This week, let's remember and give thanks for God's blessed gift. Lets rejoice and join the ancient multitudes in crying “Hosanna! Blesséd is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”

Come, faithful people, come away,
Your homage to your monarch pay;
It is the feast of palms today;
Hosanna in the highest!

Thus, Savior, to Thy passion go,
Arrayed in royalty of woe,
Assumed for sinners here below:
Hosanna in the highest!
                            Gerard Moultrie, 1867.