Between Two “Blesseds”
The account of Jesus’ triumphal entry through the streets of Jerusalem is documented in all the gospels, and was, by all accounts, a pivotal moment in history.[1] The air must have been thick with anticipation. One can almost see the connections being made in the minds of the crowd as they shout “Hosanna!”—could this be the fulfillment of what the prophet Zechariah spoke concerning Zion’s King arriving on a donkey,[2] ushering in a Messianic age of unprecedented peace and prosperity for the city of Jerusalem?[3] And how fitting that the inhabitants of Jerusalem should welcome this promised Son of David with a song of David, saying, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord”?[4]
However, Jesus immediately snuffs out these hopeful speculations. Instead of relishing His triumphal entry and announcing the establishment of His Kingdom and sitting on the throne of His father David, He instead reacts in lament and weeping over Jerusalem, because she “did not know the time of her visitation,”[5] and consequently her “house will be left to her desolate.”[6] After this lament, Jesus then prophetically promises to Jerusalem, “You will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.’”[7]
Strange indeed, since those were the VERY WORDS, the VERY QUOTATION just employed to receive Jesus at His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Apparently this first recitation was not effectual in welcoming Israel’s Messiah, because the true meaning of the words was hidden from the Jerusalemites, and they refused to accept the full implications of their declarations. Luke interprets the irony of their rejection in Acts: “For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize Him nor understand the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, and fulfilled them by condemning Him.”[8] In light of this tragic—yet not unforeseen—set of circumstances, Jesus sits on the Mount of Olives overlooking the City of the Great King, and expands on what He meant by Jerusalem’s “house shall be left desolate.”[9] He explains the destruction of the temple and the signs times of the end, which are severe: a great tribulation and the abomination which causes desolation.[10] The trouble will be so great, Jesus somberly observes, that if the days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. The thought of this so burdened Jesus—the thought of Jerusalem’s future trouble—that even as our Lord was being led away to be crucified, He turned to a great number of women who were mourning for Him, and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, don’t weep for me, but weep for yourselves and your children.”[11]
This great tribulation, this time of Jacob’s trouble, would be the climactic event of an era that Paul called, “the fullness of the Gentiles.”[12] During this era, a partial hardening has come upon Israel, that mercy might be extended to the Gentile nations. “But if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world,” reasons Paul, speaking of his fellow Jews, “what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?”[13]
After his crucifixion and resurrection, and Jesus presented Himself “alive by many proofs,” he stayed with his disciples, appearing to them for 40 days, and teaching them about the kingdom of God. At the end of this time, they asked him, “Is now the time that you will restore the Kingdom to Israel?”[14] “Not yet,” was His reply. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
And as Jesus ascended into heaven on that same Mount of Olives where He had so clearly spelled out the signs of His appearing in the Olivet discourse just a couple months earlier, two angels appeared to the disciples saying, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven will come the same way as you saw Him go into heaven.”[15] This will fulfill the words of the prophet Zechariah, who said, “I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle and the city shall be taken…then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations as when He fights on a day of battle. On that day, His feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two…And the LORD will be king over all the earth…Jerusalem shall dwell in security.”[16]
So, we are in this time between—bookended by the two “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,” declarations. The first was trying to force a fulfillment and was ultimately an insincere declaration that led Zion’s true King to weep at her hardness of heart, and at how far her wanderings would take her before she would truly and wholeheartedly acknowledge that all her hope is in Messiah, and desperately cry, “Hosanna!”[17] The second declaration, at the end of this present evil age, we find Jerusalem powerless and at the end of herself, just as her prophets from Moses[18] have foretold. It is at this desperate point that her salvation is at hand. On that day, when His feet stand on the Mount of Olives, she will look upon the pierced One, mourn, burn her idols, and say, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.”[19]
Amen. May it happen speedily and in our days.
Maranatha.
Devon Phillips is just a pilgrim longing for the Day of the revealing of the sons of God and the redemption of our bodies. Meanwhile, she is privileged to serve in the Middle East with Frontier Alliance International. She can be reached at devon@faimission.org.
[1] Matthew 21:1-11, Mark 11:1-10, Luke 19:28-38, and John 12:12-18
[2] Zechariah 9:9
[3] Zechariah 9, 10
[4] Psalm 188
[5] Luke 19:44
[6] Matt 23:38, in an echo of the prophetic declarations of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel
[7] Matthew 23:39
[8] Acts 13:27
[9] Matthew 24
[10] Daniel 9
[11] Luke 23:28
[12] Romans 11:25
[13] Romans 11:15
[14] Acts 1:6
[15] Acts 1:11
[16] Zechariah 14
[17] Hosanna was an appeal for deliverance (Heb. hosia na, “Please save” not coincidentally from Psalm 118:25), it came in liturgical usage to serve as an expression of joy and praise for deliverance granted or anticipated.
[18] Deuteronomy 32:36
[19] Zechariah 12, 13; Matthew 23:39