How Triumphant was the Triumphal Entry?

Luke 19v35-44

Part 2

4^th April 2026

Today we conclude our study of Luke's account of the Triumphal Entry which we began last week.

Luke 19v39-44
Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples!"
"I tell you," he replied, "if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out."
As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace — but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you."

The Pharisees wanted the crowd to be quiet. I think that's partly because they didn't want a rebellion at that moment because they knew they'd lose. Also, perhaps, they didn’t want to spook the Roman garrison in the town, in case they came out of their barracks to suppress the crowd, which could have resulted in a lot of bloodshed. Mostly, though, they were opposed to Jesus because His understanding of Old Testament was different from theirs, and because He claimed to be God. They didn’t want their own understanding to be questioned. They were set in their ways, set in their theology, and they would not be shifted.

Are we set in our theology? Have we become what Jesus called "old wineskins"? Have we become unable or unwilling to see things in the Bible that we haven’t seen before? Have we lost the ability to change our minds?

Jesus told them, "if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out." Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God, was entering His capital city in fulfilment of ancient prophecy. God was riding the streets of Jerusalem. Had He not been worshipped, celebrated, it would have been outrageous. If God's people had not worshipped Jesus, creation would have cried out. Later that week, when Jesus died, creation did indeed cry out. At the moment when Jesus died, … the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open…” (Matthew 27v51-52).

How tragic it was for those Jewish leaders that they couldn't see that Jesus was the Son of God, the Messiah, and worship Him! How tragic it is for all the people in our country, in our generation, who don't understand who Jesus is, what He offers, and how much He deserves our trust and our worship!

Whenever a church meets, God is here with us. Jesus promised, "where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them" (Matthew 18:20). Not only on Palm Sunday but every time we meet together, surely we who know Him should celebrate Him, "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!" "Peace in heaven and glory in the highest! Would it not be outrageous if we didn't? Is it not outrageous when some of us stay home on Sunday morning, when we could meet with God's people to celebrate our Saviour? Is it not outrageous when some of us come but refuse to sing His praises?

I know that Jesus's appearance in Jerusalem was in the flesh, and He visits us by His Spirit. I know that His visit to Jerusalem that day was unique, and His presence with us day by day, Sunday by Sunday, is not. But don't let familiarity breed contempt. He is God. He is Saviour. He is Lord. And He is here. Praise Him with a loud Hallelujah! When we come together as church, let our worship not be grudging or half-hearted. Let it not depend on how we feel that day. Let us worship according to the glory of God, not according to our emotional state.

The crowd in Jerusalem was ecstatic. Their king had come. Everything was going to change. But they didn’t understand who their king was, or why He'd come, or what changes were about to happen. They were very excited. But Jesus was heartbroken.

Jesus wasn’t caught up in the moment as the crowd was. As they celebrated His coming, He was aware of what would happen to Him a few days later, when He would be betrayed and crucified. And He knew what would happen to the people of Jerusalem forty years later, when the Romans would destroy their city. The people would be massacred, the temple would be dismantled and the Jewish nation would cease to be a political entity for 1900 years. Jesus wept for Jerusalem.

What God was thinking and what God's people were thinking couldn't have been more different.

Isaiah 55v8-9
"… my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

This is still true.

If only, Jesus said, God’s people had known what would bring them peace! The Scribes and Pharisees, of all people, should have known:

Leviticus 26v3-6
"If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands, I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees their fruit. Your threshing will continue until grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting, and you will eat all the food you want and live in safety in your land. I will grant peace in the land, and you will lie down and no-one will make you afraid. I will remove wild beasts from the land, and the sword will not pass through your country."

If the Jews had obeyed God, the Romans would never have invaded.

Obedience to God brings peace with God, and it brings peace from God. The only security that exists in this world is the security that we have in God’s love.

Psalm 4v78
In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety.

Psalm 23v4
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

Proverbs 3v1-2
My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart, for they will prolong your life many years and bring you peace and prosperity.

Jesus promised:

Matthew 5v5
"the meek… shall inherit the earth."

The Pharisees had a reputation for righteousness but they were hypocrites. They accepted the bits of the Bible that they liked, and they ignored or re-interpreted the bits they didn't like. They re-imagined the Messiah as who they'd like Him to be, not who He is. As a result, they and their countrymen were doomed to destruction.

May almighty God prevent us making the same mistakes. And if we have, may He grant us repentance.

Since God is perfect, He is better than what we want Him to be, better than we imagine Him to be. Let us always seek to find out more about who He truly is, and never try to turn Him into something less.

When the people of Jerusalem discovered that Jesus wasn't the military conqueror they'd hoped He would be, they turned on Him and had Him killed. They rejected their king.

God's ancient people had a track record of rejecting God as their king. Once, the people went to Samuel and demanded that he appoint a human king to lead them. Samuel knew that was a mistake, and went to God in prayer about it. God told him:

1 Samuel 8v7-8
"... they have rejected me as their king as they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt…"

The Israelites continued to acknowledge God as their king outwardly, but they did what they wanted, without much regard for His commands.

The church has made the same mistake. We've strayed far from God's word for 2,000 years. In Revelation 2v1-7, Jesus dictated a letter to the church in Ephesus. In that letter, He said:

Revelation 2v4-5
… I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place."

That church disappeared from the face of the earth a few decades later.

Popes, archbishops, pastors and church members have gone their own way. They – we – have done what we want, not what God commands. We've thought things through for ourselves, rather than trusting in Biblical ethical standards. We've re-imagined God in our own image. As a result, churches have closed, the Gospel has been brought into disrepute, and Christianity in Britain is under threat from the forces of secularism and Islam. The British church, like the Ephesian church, needs to Repent and do the things [we] did at first.

Proverbs 3v5
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.

Jeremiah 6v16
This is what the Lord says: "Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls…"

May you and I never claim the name of Christian while ignoring any part of God's teaching. If we do, we are treating Him as king in name only. Is God saying to the the English church, as Jesus said to the Jews, "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace – but now it is hidden from your eyes."?

This story, the story of what we call the Triumphal Entry, is the story of an event that God's people thought of as a triumph but God saw as the beginning of a tragedy. A few days later, the people who’d welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem would turn on Him. I wonder how many in the crowd that threw their cloaks in front of Jesus’s donkey were also in the crowd that demanded that He be crucified.

Jesus was unjustly killed and was buried, an event that people saw as a tragedy but God saw as the beginning of a triumph. Three days after that, Jesus rose from the dead, an eternal triumph that won salvation for us and changed the course of history.

Jesus is king. He was king when the universe was created. He was acknowledged as king when He rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. His people had Him killed but He ascended into heaven and now sits at the right hand of God the Father. One day, when He returns, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. We gladly, joyfully celebrate Him as our King. We welcome His rule over us, and give grateful thanks for His sacrifice that enables us to become His people for all eternity.

Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!

Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!