What were the purposes of this public entry into Jerusalem? The most important purpose of the triumphant entry into Jerusalem was that he was giving public notice that he was the Messiah. They may have been at cross purposes and though that he meant earthly Messiah, but nevertheless he was the Messiah. They had said, ‘Tell us plainly, are you the Christ?’ And now the time has come and he tells them, ‘Yes, I am the Messiah’, and he allows himself to be treated as an entering king into the city. There was a very liberal theologian who made a name for himself just a few years back in a book that sold very widely in the USA. He wrote, ‘Christ never claimed explicitly that he was any kind of Messiah.’ Apart from the fact that that is plain wrong – he did so before Pilate, and before that also –he demonstrates it physically in his public entry into Jerusalem.
Secondly it is to indicate what kind of a Messiah he is going to be. Look at him! There are vast crowds; there is tremendous excitement; the clothes have been strewn and the palm fronds, but look at him! He is riding on a colt. He is not on a war horse; he hasn't got a military escort, there is nothing grand about this. The centre of attraction is this man, this lowly man, riding a colt. He is saying, ‘Yes, I am your Messiah, but I have not come to make you wealthy, for earthly prosperity. I am not here to make you a conquering, triumphant nation. This is all part of my humiliation. I have come from heaven to earth. I am a man of peace.’
Then thirdly it shows that his passion was entirely voluntary. Consider his previous entries into Jerusalem. The scribes and Pharisees watched for him at various feasts, and schemed to take him. He had therefore entered the city two or three times with considerable discretion, and he would just appear. He would not make a great show of it; he would appear and he would teach. So while there is tremendous boldness and courage as he teaches the people, it is not yet the time for to execute God's plan. But now, he comes openly. He comes with great crowds; he comes as it were to receive his kingdom, publicising himself as the Messiah. He comes voluntarily to his execution. He knows they are watching him, that the leaders hate him and that they are going to take him. But now the time has come, and so he demonstrates that he proceeds voluntarily to his arrest.
In addition to that, the triumphal entry fixes the timetable. Now they have got to take him. They have been planning it, they are ready for it, but the Sanhedrin Council of the Jews - the council of 70, the chief priests, the leaders of the scribes and Pharisees - they hadn't actually planned it for that week. They were getting themselves ready; they were preparing for where and how they could take him without commotion, without crowds. But the offering up of Christ on Calvary is going to be in accordance with the divine plan, with God's plan, not with their plan, and so Christ says in effect, ‘Take me now; I am coming publicly, openly, voluntarily, into Jerusalem.’ They have got to take him. The crowds are going for him. They seem to be behind him, so the scribes and Pharisees are forced to act, and he will be put to death at Passover, in fulfilment of Passover.
Another purpose is to finally expose his opponents and their hatred. When the crowds greeted him with the words of Scripture, the Pharisees said to him, ‘Master, rebuke thy disciples. And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out’ (Luke 19:39-40). The chief priests and scribes decided that the time had come to destroy him.
And of course everything Christ did was in fulfilment of prophecy, and he must fulfil all prophecy. To the two on the road to Emmaus he said, ‘These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me’ (Luke 24:44). We could think also of Malachi 3:1, ‘The Lord, whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in.’
Seventhly, he formally takes his city. Now Jerusalem of course was a place of ritual. The ritual had ceased to be sincere. The prevailing theology was this: we are acceptable to God because we are Jews. We are a special people; we are God's people.’ But Isaiah had predicted, ‘In the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.’ What Christ does in the triumphal entry is he takes the city over for this purpose. There he will suffer and die. The day of Pentecost will mark the beginning of the gospel age, the conversion of the initial thousands of Jews, the birth of the international church of Jesus Christ, and the message will go out from Jerusalem. We wouldn't know anything about Jerusalem at the time of Christ but for him and his crucifixion. It was to be the source of a message that would go round the world.