2The King Comes to Die  (John 12:12–16)

On the next day the large crowd who had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet Him, and began to shout, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.” Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written, “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.” These things His disciples did not understand at the first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of Him, and that they had done these things to Him. (12:12–16)

The passing centuries have seen false messiahs, each claiming to be the one so eagerly anticipated by the Jewish people. Of these self-proclaimed deliverers, some were simply self-deceived, while others were purposefully exploitative; some sought personal prestige, others to rescue their people from oppression; some advocated violence, others prayer and fasting; some professed to be political deliverers, others to be religious reformers. But though their motives, methods, and claims varied, they all had one thing in common—they were satanic counterfeits of the true Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth.

About A.D. 44 Theudas (not the same individual mentioned in Acts 5:36) promised his followers that he would part the Jordan River. But before he was able to do so, Roman troops attacked and massacred many of his followers. The Egyptian for whom Paul was mistaken (Acts 21:38) had boasted that he would command the walls of Jerusalem to fall down. But, like Theudas, his plans were also foiled by Roman soldiers. Although the Egyptian managed to escape his attackers, several hundred of his followers were killed or captured (Josephus, Antiquities 20.8.6; Wars of the Jews 2.13.5). In the second century Simon Bar Cochba (“son of a star;” cf. Num. 24:17), who was identified as the messiah by the leading rabbi of the time, led a major Jewish uprising against Rome, conquering Jerusalem for three years, where he was called king and messiah. The Romans crushed the rebellion, retook Jerusalem, and massacred Bar Cochba and five to six hundred thousand of his followers. A fifth-century false messiah on the island of Crete promised to part the Mediterranean Sea so his followers could walk to Palestine on dry land. But the sea refused to part and some of his followers drowned. In the seventeenth century, Sabbethai Zebi proclaimed himself “king of the kings of the earth,” and attracted a widespread following among the Jews of western Europe. Zebi later converted to Islam and was eventually executed. (For a further discussion of false messiahs throughout history, see J. E. Rosscup, “False Christs,” in Merrill C. Tenney, ed., The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1977], 2:495; James Orr, ed., The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, 1st ed., s.v. “Christs, False.”)

Jesus warned that as the second coming draws near, “many false prophets will arise and will mislead many,” and many “false Christs … will arise” (Matt. 24:11, 24). They will culminate in the ultimate deceiving false messiah, the Antichrist, the

But the bogus claims of all such pretenders fall far short of the biblical qualifications for the Messiah. Jesus Christ alone possesses the credentials of the true Messiah; the words He spoke, the miracles He performed, and the prophecies He fulfilled prove that He was who He claimed to be (Matt. 26:63–64; John 4:25–26).

When John the Baptist sent his disciples to ask Him, “Are You the Expected One [the Messiah], or shall we look for someone else?” (Matt. 11:3), Jesus pointed to His miracles as proof that He was the Messiah: “Go and report to John what you hear and see,” He told them. “The blind receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up” (vv. 4–5). Instead of extravagant stunts, like the one Satan challenged Him to perform (Matt. 4:5–6), the compassionate Savior chose to display His divine power by healing the sick (Matt. 4:23–24; 8:2–3, 5–13, 14–16; 9:2–7, 20–22, 27–30, 35; 12:9–13, 15; 14:14; 15:30; 19:2; 20:30–34; 21:14; Mark 6:5; 7:31–35; Luke 5:15; 6:17–19; 9:11; 14:1–4; 17:11–14; 22:51; John 4:46–53; 5:1–9; 6:2; 9:1–7), raising the dead (Matt. 9:23–25; Luke 7:11–15; John 11:43), and casting out demons (Matt. 4:24; 8:16, 28–33; 9:32–33; 12:22; 15:21–28; 17:14–18; Mark 1:39; Luke 11:14; 13:32).

It was because they had personally witnessed His incontestable miracles that the residents of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum were under judgment and without excuse for not repenting and believing in Jesus as the Messiah and Lord (Matt. 11:20–24). Like them, all everywhere who saw His miraculous signs, but refused to believe in Him, were culpable (John 12:37–41). On the day of Pentecost, Peter boldly reminded the people of Israel, “Jesus the Nazarene, [was] a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know” (Acts 2:22). They could not plead ignorance.

Besides doing “the works which no one else did” (John 15:24), Jesus fulfilled the messianic prophecies found in the Old Testament. Those predictions included most notably His virgin birth (Isa. 7:14), sacrificial death (Isa.52:13–53:12), and resurrection (Ps. 16:10; cf. Acts 13:35). (For a listing of more messianic prophecies fulfilled by Jesus, see John MacArthur, The MacArthur Bible Commentary [Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2005], 78, 79, 145, 156, 667, 820, 828–29, 1084, 1236.)

In this section, which describes the event commonly known as the triumphal entry, Jesus officially presented Himself to Israel as the Messiah and Son of God. By so doing, He set in motion the chain of events that would quickly lead to His death at the exact time foreordained by God. As the King came to die, He did so at the proper moment, with the passionate multitude, in the predicted manner, and to the perplexity of His men. In keeping with the theme of his gospel (20:31), John highlighted Jesus’ fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy throughout this account.

AT THE PROPER MOMENT

On the next day (12:12a)

The next day was Monday morning, the day after the supper at Bethany (12:1–11). During the night, Judas had met with the chief priests and agreed to betray Jesus to them (Matt. 26:14–16). But Jesus was not at the mercy of His enemies’ plots; He remained in absolute control of the circumstances. The divinely ordained time had come for Him to die (v. 23; cf. 13:1), but He would do so on His own terms. The Jewish leaders, fearful of how the large, volatile crowds in Jerusalem might react, wanted to put Jesus to death, but not during the Passover celebration (Matt. 26:3–5; cf. Luke 22:2). Their plan was to seize and execute Him after the feast was over and the people dispersed.

But regardless of His enemies’ desires, the Lord would die at the precise time foreordained in God’s eternal plan (cf. 10:17–18; 19:10–11; Acts 2:23; 4:27–28; Gal. 4:4–5); fittingly, the Lamb of God would be sacrificed on the same day that the Passover lambs were being sacrificed, because He is “Christ our Passover” sacrifice (1 Cor. 5:7). Therefore Jesus prepared to publicly enter Jerusalem to force the issue of His death. He knew that the accolades of the crowds would infuriate the Jewish leaders, and make them all the more desperate to kill Him. As always, God would use the foolishness and wickedness of evil men to accomplish His own purposes (cf. Gen. 50:20; Ps. 76:10; Acts 4:26–28).

Up to this point, the Lord did not allow His enemies to take His life. Hence He had avoided provoking unnecessary public confrontations with the hostile Jewish authorities. When “the Pharisees went out and conspired against Him, as to how they might destroy Him … Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there” (Matt. 12:14–15; cf. 8:4; 16:20; John 4:1–3; 7:1; 11:53–54). When confrontations did occur and His enemies sought to kill Him, He evaded them. The people of His hometown of Nazareth wanted to throw Him off a cliff, but Jesus “[passed] through their midst, [and] went His way” (Luke 4:30). On another occasion, enraged at His claim to be God (John 8:58), the hostile Jews “picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple” (v. 59; cf. 10:39). Jesus’ commanding presence also prevented His enemies from seizing Him before the predetermined time (John 7:44–46).

The exact day that the Lord chose to enter Jerusalem fulfilled one of the most remarkable prophecies of the Old Testament, Daniel’s prophecy of the seventy weeks (Dan. 9:24–26). Through Daniel, the Lord predicted that the time from Artaxerxes’ decree ordering the rebuilding of the temple (in 445 B.C.) until the coming of the Messiah would be “seven weeks and sixty-two weeks” (Dan. 9:25; cf. Neh. 2:6), that is, 69 weeks total. The literal translation is “seven sevens and sixty-two sevens,” seven being a common designation for a week. In the context of the passage, the idea is 69 weeks of years, or 69 times 7 years, which comes to a total of 483 Jewish years (which consisted of 360 days each, as was common in the ancient world). Several different systems of reckoning have endeavored to determine the chronology of the 483 years after Artaxerxes’ decree, putting the date at either A.D. 30, 32, or 33, depending on the actual decree date and the complex calculations through those years. Of these explanations, the most detailed are Sir Robert Anderson’s The Coming Prince and Harold Hoehner’s Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ. Based on all of the historical data, it is best to understand the triumphal entry as taking place on 9 Nisan, A.D. 30. But even the other dates offered by these authors (A.D. 32 or 33) leave one thing remaining undeniably clear: whatever may be the precise chronology, Jesus Christ is the only possible fulfillment of Daniel’s prophetic timetable.

WITH THE PASSIONATE MULTITUDE

the large crowd who had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet Him, and began to shout, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.” (12:12b–13)

When the Lord left Bethany, He was accompanied by part of the “large crowd of the Jews” (v. 9) who had come there to see Him and Lazarus (v. 17). They would soon be joined by others of the large crowd of pilgrims who had come to Jerusalem for the feast (Passover). When they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, they came pouring out of the city to meet Him. The two great tides of people, fueled by the resurrection of Lazarus, flowed together to form a massive throng (some histories estimate that there may have been as many as one million people there for the Passover feast) that escorted Jesus into Jerusalem. (The accounts of the triumphal entry in the Synoptic Gospels also suggest that there were two crowds that converged around Jesus [Matt. 21:9; Mark 11:9].)

The excited people cut branches from the date palm trees that were plentiful in the vicinity of Jerusalem (and still grow there today).

The Old Testament does not associate palm branches with Passover, but rather with the Feast of Tabernacles (Lev. 23:40). In the intertestamental period, however, palm branches became a general symbol of victory and celebration. When the Jews, led by Simon the Maccabee, recaptured Jerusalem from the Syrians, they “entered it with praise and palm branches” (1 Macc. 13:51; cf. 2 Macc. 10:7). Perhaps many in the crowd had that incident in mind as they waved their palm branches. Maybe, they hoped, Jesus would prove to be the great messianic King and military conqueror who would liberate them from the yoke of Rome and establish the promises to Abraham and David (Gen. 12:1–3; 2 Sam. 7:1–16).

Swept up in the emotional fervor of the moment, the crowd shouted, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.” Hosanna, a term of acclamation or praise, transliterates a Hebrew word that literally means, “Help, I pray,” or “Save now, I pray” (cf. Ps. 118:25 NKJV). It was a term with which every Jew was familiar, since it came from the group of Psalms known as the Hallel (Pss. 113–18). The Hallel was sung each morning by the temple choir during the major Jewish festivals. The crowd also cried, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, quoting Psalm 118:26. By using that phrase, the people affirmed their hope that Jesus was the Messiah they were expecting. (The people of Israel, however, will truly be able to say those words to Jesus only at His second coming [Matt. 23:39].) That belief was further expressed by their hailing Him as the King of Israel (cf. v. 15; 1:49; 19:15, 19). Matthew records that the crowd also called Jesus the “Son of David” (Matt. 21:9, 15; 22:42), another messianic title.

In the past, the Lord had refused to be hailed as the king and military conqueror the people were sure the Messiah would be. In fact, He had dispersed the crowd that sought to make Him king (cf. John 6:14–15). But this time He accepted their acclamation, sending them into a frenzy of excitement. Finally, they thought, He was accepting the role they wanted Him to take, that of a political and military deliverer. But Jesus accepted their praise on His terms. As the one who came to save (Matt. 1:21), the one who came in the name of the Lord (John 5:43), and the rightful King of Israel (Matt. 27:11; John 1:49), He was entitled to the crowd’s praise. Matthew records that when Jesus reached Jerusalem and entered the temple, “the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that He had done, and the children who were shouting in the temple, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David,’ [and] they became indignant and said to Him, ‘Do You hear what these children are saying?’” (Matt. 21:15). The Lord replied by affirming His right to that praise: “Yes; have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies You have prepared praise for Yourself’?” (v. 16).

But far from being elated by the joyous cries of the giddy multitude, Jesus was grieved by the people’s superficial attitude toward Him. He knew that many who were hailing Him as the Messiah that day would cry for His death the following Friday. Therefore

IN THE PREDICTED MANNER

Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written, “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.” (12:14–15)

The Synoptic Gospels describe how Jesus found the young donkey. When the Lord and those with Him arrived on the outskirts of Jerusalem, He “sent two disciples, instruct them, ‘Go into the village [probably Bethphage; cf. Matt. 21:1] opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied there and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to Me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, “The Lord has need of them,” and immediately he will send them’” (Matt. 21:1–3). The disciples did as Jesus had commanded, and returned with a colt and its mother, which may have been brought along to help keep the colt docile (Matt. 21:6–7). Unsure of which animal the Lord intended to ride, they laid their coats on both of them (Matt. 21:7). Then after Jesus indicated that He would ride the colt, they helped Him to mount it (Luke 19:35). As the procession continued, with Jesus now riding the young donkey, “most of the crowd spread their coats in the road, and others were cutting branches from the trees [only John’s account specifies that they were palm branches] and spreading them in the road” (Matt. 21:8). Spreading garments in someone’s path was a token of homage reserved for royalty (cf. 2 Kings 9:13), and further expressed the crowd’s belief that Jesus was Israel’s King (John 12:13; cf. Luke 19:38).

The Lord’s choice of a mount was a purposeful, conscious fulfillment of Zechariah 9:9: “Fear not, (the words fear not were added from Isa.40:9) daughter of Zion (a reference to Jerusalem [cf. 2 Kings 19:21; Isa. 10:32; Zech. 9:9] and by extension the whole nation); behold, your king is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.” If Jesus had been the conquering warrior the people were hoping for, a war horse would have been a more appropriate mount (cf. Rev. 19:11). By choosing to ride a donkey, however, Jesus entered Jerusalem as the humble (Zech. 9:9; Matt. 21:5) Prince of Peace. Only when He returns the second time in judgment will Jesus ride the white horse of the conqueror (Rev. 19:11). The symbolism of His humiliation was lost on the crowd, however, who continued to proclaim Jesus as the conquering King all the way into the city (cf. Matt. 21:15). As Leon Morris observes, “The meaning of the happenings of the life of Jesus are not open for every unregenerate man to see. They are revealed only by the Holy Spirit of God” (The Gospel According to John, The New International Commentary on the New Testament [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979], 587–88).

TO THE PERPLEXITY OF HIS MEN

These things His disciples did not understand at the first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of Him, and that they had done these things to Him. (12:16)

The people in the crowd were not the only ones who failed to grasp the significance of what was happening. John’s parenthetical note (cf. 2:22) indicates that even the disciples did not understand the meaning of the triumphal entry at the time; they could not comprehend that at His first advent Jesus came not as conqueror but as Savior. Even after the resurrection, the disciples still asked hopefully, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). It was not until the coming of the Holy Spirit after Jesus was glorified (cf. John 7:39) that the disciples remembered that these things were written of Him, and that they had done these things to Him. As Jesus had promised the Twelve, “The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you” (John 14:26). “When He, the Spirit of truth, comes,” the Lord added, “He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come” (16:13).

Jesus was a King like no other. Instead of the pomp and circumstance associated with earthly kings, He was meek and lowly (Matt. 11:29); instead of defeating His enemies by force, He conquered them by dying (Heb. 2:14; cf. Eph. 1:19–22; Col. 2:15). But though He was despised and rejected at His first advent (Isa. 53:3), Jesus Christ will one day return as the all-conquering King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Rev. 19:11–16), who will shatter His enemies and destroy them with a fierce and final judgment (Ps. 2:9; Rev. 19:15). Just as He perfectly fulfilled all of the Old Testament prophecies regarding His first coming, so He will also come again in exactly the manner foretold by the Scriptures.