Palm Sunday

Jesus and the Three Jewish Pilgrimage Festivals – Series Outline

My walk with Jesus has always guided me to the text of the Old Testament. In the books of the Old Testament I see Jesus as the great ‘I Am’. I see the work and person of Jesus in the feast, laws, wisdom, psalms, and stories. This series will look at the connection Jesus has to the three Pilgrimage Feast; Passover, Pentecost and Sukkot. Other days and feasts be woven into the series as they connect.

Palm Sunday

Even if you have not gone to church much or at all, there’s a chance you will have seen children carrying palm leaves and branches just before Easter. This series, ‘Jesus and the Jewish Pilgrimage Festivals’, Passover, Pentecost, and Tent are the cores. Palm Sunday is the day the Paschal Lamb was brought to Jerusalem for the Passover.

Paschal Lamb

The 10th of Nisan was the day the children of Israel were commanded to choose an unblemished lamb for the Passover sacrifice on the 14th of Nisan. This is the Paschal Lamb to be the offered, roasted and eaten for Passover Seder. Being able to eat the meat roasted was a rarity when it came to sacrificial meat, usually sacrificial meat was boiled. Another exception during Passover, or Pesach, was the inclusion of those who would otherwise be considered unclean at the time and therefore excluded from forms of worship.

Numbers 9:10  If any one of you or of your generations becomes unclean because of a dead person, or is on a distant journey, he may, however, observe the Passover to the Lord.

Jesus Enter Jerusalem as the Paschal Lamb

As Jesus entered Jerusalem, the people chose Him, crying out, “Blessed is the king of Israel!”  During the four days leading up to  the Passover, the chosen Paschal Lamb was to be observed and tested for any defects. Jesus is also observed and tested by the rulers, priests, and leaders for four days leading to His crucifixion.

Jesus is Presents Himself at the Temple

At the same time Jesus put the priests, Sadducees, and leaders subject to Rome on trial. Upon entering Jerusalem, Jesus went straight to the temple, His Father’s House. Not only did He go to the temple upon entering Jerusalem, but the Gospels says that Jesus went to the temple daily. Every day Jesus went to the temple to teach anyone who would hear Him.

More will be said about Christ’s rebuke of the leaders further in the series. For now the issue is just that Jesus went to the temple when He entered the city. When Jesus was in the temple He proclaimed that the temple was the house of God. Jesus said His Father’s house was to be a house of prayer and not a den of thieves. The phrase “den of thieves” is related to the money changers who had set up their stalls in the temple, and the necessity of specific coins to be used in the temple.

Back to the Triumphant Entry

In antiquity, a king would enter a conquered city on a donkey to show that he entered the city in peace. This is just what Jesus did as He entered Jerusalem.

It is interesting to note that Jesus had already smade preparations for the feast as well as a donkey He could ride into Jerusalem. So when he told his disciples to go and get the donkey for him, it was ready. His kingly aspect is related to the Davidic kingdom and coming Messiah. Riding into Jerusalem on a donkey was a fulfilment of the prophecy from Zechariah”

Zechariah 9:9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

The people cried out, ‘Hosanna, save us!” If they only knew how real and deep that salvation offer was!

Jesus Enters Jerusalem as a King Enters a City in Victory

Jesus Fulfilled Prophecy in Entering Jerusalem

After Entering Jerusalem Jesus Went to the Temple

The Passover Lamb is Taken to Jerusalem for a Four Day Observation

Exodus 12:1 Now the LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 “This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year to you. 3 “Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their fathers’ households, a lamb for each household. 4 ‘Now if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the number of persons in them; according to what each man should eat, you are to divide the lamb. 5 ‘Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats.6 ‘You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight

and

Edodus 12:21 Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and take for yourselves lambs according to your families, and slay the Passover lamb. 22 “You shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood which is in the basin, and apply some of the blood that is in the basin to the lintel and the two doorposts; and none of you shall go outside the door of his house until morning. 23 “For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to come in to your houses to smite you. 24 “And you shall observe this event as an ordinance for you and your children forever.

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