Behold, Jerusalem. Your Messiah!
“Behold your Messiah riding on a colt.” John had recorded that Jesus was the “Lamb of God, taking away the sins of the world”… Matthew quoted Isaiah that He comes as the Savior fulfilling what the angel told Joseph. Luke quotes David that this is Jehovah. John quotes Zechariah that this is the King riding on the colt. None of those waving palm branches understood this Jesus coming that Sunday along the pathway from Bethphage to Jerusalem was the Lamb of God to be their Savior and the Lion of God to reign on the throne of King David. Isaiah has called for two assignments for the Messiah: a suffering Messiah in chapter 53 and a reigning Messiah in chapter 9. In between the cross and Revelation 20, the risen Savior would give the Great Commission, and the age of the Gentles would bring millions from every language, tribe and culture. There will be tribulation and war, then, “A little child will lead them.”
John the baptizer was the prophet of God to prepare the way for Jesus. Jesus, to begin his ministry, went down to the river Jordan where his kin was baptizing for the remission of sins, to be baptized of John. John saw him coming and quoted Isaiah, “Behold the Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world” (John 1 :29). The angel Gabriel told Mary that the proposed baby God was asking her to bear would sit on the throne of his ‘father’ David (Luke one). The angel told Joseph, as he comforted him in Matthew one, to name the coming baby “Jesus, for he will save his people.” This would fulfill Isaiah’s prophesy in chapters 9 and 53. We have inspirational proof that 53 is about Jesus in Acts eight and Phillip’s lesson to the African treasurer. All of Emmanuel’s names are highlighted on Palm Sunday as he rides the borrowed colt down the mountain pathway. He is entering the countdown to be the Savior on the rugged cross. Just as the angel and Isaiah foretold. He is Jehovah as David proclaimed. Indeed he is the King that Zechariah declared as the crowds waved their palm branches and cried, “Blessed is the King…” As the Apostle Paul put it, “Jesus is our All-in-All.”
Many people think they know all about Jesus if they read the four wonderful Gospels in the New Testament that cover about 36 days of Jesus’ eternity of existence. Jesus put it plain the evening of the resurrection Sunday in Luke 24, “to know me, (everything must be fulfilled) you must know everything written about me in the law of Moses, The Prophets, and The Psalms;” a lifetime of study.