
There he weeps over the city’s imminent destruction, in consequence of her failure to recognize the time of her visitation (19:41-44). Luke (19:28-40) does not technically record Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem but depicts his parade as climaxing outside her walls. The faithful preaching of Mark’s description of Palm Sunday will be decidedly prophetic. Fruitlessness when the rightful king or landowner’s son (12:1-11) arrives will not go unpunished.

The mood here is confrontational and cautionary. Interwoven in his three comings and goings are the stories of the cursed fig tree and cleansed temple. Jesus enters the temple, looks around, and leaves. Ironically, on the day of his so-called “triumphal” entry, nothing much actually happens. Mark 11:1-13:1 depicts Jesus entering and exiting the temple three times (11:11 11:15 entry 11:27 entry ). They each proceed to narrate a particular flow of events for a particular purpose in keeping with their own Gospel’s overall purpose. Instead, what the Gospel writers report happened next is revealing. Of course, Jesus was not greeted by joyful priests when he finally arrived at the temple. 49:10-11) before him, prophesied that upon such a beast Israel’s awaited salvation and king would one day enter Jerusalem.

Zechariah (9:9), echoing Isaiah (62:11) and the patriarch Jacob (Gen. The fact that it was one on which no person had previously ridden spoke to its purity and symbolized holiness. The donkey, rather than a steed, on which Jesus rode symbolized humility and gentleness. The garments cast before Jesus, though, were the wraps of the poor and working classes. Ancient Romans spread out fine garments as a way of welcoming and placating their gods, especially during times of crisis. It has been suggested that when the people spread their cloaks before Jesus, some of them may have been thinking about more than “rolling out the red carpet” for a king (2 Kings 9:13). The palm branches used on those occasions later came to symbolize both victory in the Greco-Roman world and occupied Israel’s nationalistic hope for deliverance from the crushing weight of Rome’s boot upon her neck. The priests were expected to greet him at the temple’s gates with blessing and to lead the festal procession with boughs in hand to the altar (Ps. Prior to their Babylonian exile, residents of the Holy City recited Psalm 118 annually as their king marched towards its temple as part of a re-enthronement ceremony.

Faithful pilgrims sang the psalm on their way to Jerusalem each March/April while sacrificial lambs were being selected in the city. Psalm 118 particularly was part of the liturgy during the Festival of Tabernacles in the autumn and Passover in the spring. Israel’s sages recognized these six psalms to be appropriate for recitation on eighteen days of the year. This psalm is the last of the Egyptian Hallel Psalms, beginning with the 113. Psalm 118 is the backdrop against which Jesus’ entry plays out, an event that Christians continue to celebrate as Palm Sunday.
#Luke 11 1 13 sermon writer how to#
In these details and immediate contexts, the preacher finds insight on how to proclaim each text in a way that respects that author’s intent. The details recorded in each account, and the events surrounding them, differ based on their respective writer’s pastoral and theological concerns. All four of the New Testament’s Gospels recount Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem (Matt.
