Who is Jesus? From Matthew 21

Today I am commenting on Matthew 21:1-11, which reads:

When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, "Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, just say this, 'The Lord needs them.' And he will send them immediately.” This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying, "Tell the daughter of Zion, Look, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting, "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, "Who is this?” The crowds were saying, "This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”

Asking who someone is who is involved in a dramatic event is a fairly common question and it is often used in a movie to set-up a big reveal or to make some other point of emphasis.

For example, in the movie “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” when the characters played by Paul Newman and Robert Redford were being chased by a posse they tried every trick they knew to shake off their pursuers, but time and again they failed. And every time they failed they would repeat the refrain, “Who ARE those guys?”

In a later role, Robert  Redford uttered almost the same words in a scene in the movie “Out of Africa.” During a celebration of the ending of World War I in Kenya on New Years Eve 1919, his character, unsteady on his feet from a day of partying, looked blearily at the crowd and mumbled, “Who ARE all these people?”

 On the first Palm Sunday a dramatic scene was played out in the streets of Jerusalem. The question the crowd asked that day was, “Who is Jesus?” This is the topic for my comments today.

Jesus is the One Possessing Knowledge:

One of the most amazing events on this first Palm Sunday was that Jesus knew that in the village ahead of them there was a “donkey tied, and a colt with her.” How could He know this? Matthew gives no indication that Jesus had ever been to that village, nor did Matthew indicate that Jesus had sent out scouts to prepare the way before this incident. In fact, it is obvious that Jesus sent out His scouts after giving them the knowledge of what they would find. What an amazing feat of foreknowledge! How could He know exactly what the disciples would find?

With the benefit of the instruction of the Holy Spirit, with the possession of the entire canon of Scripture, and with 20/20 hindsight, we have the answer to this riddle. Jesus is God and being God He is omniscient, that is He knows all things. The events of Palm Sunday are not the first time He exhibited this characteristic of God. In other vignettes in the Gospels He had known what His critics were thinking and what they were planning to do next. Palm Sunday is not as unique and amazing as it appears to be on the surface. In fact, it was simply Jesus being Jesus.

A question we should consider today is this: If Jesus knows such things as where a particular donkey would be at a particular time, what does He know about us and about our lives? What does He know about the world and how His people should live? I think the answer is, just as much! Jesus knows things we don’t, but the good news is He is willing to teach us if we would just listen to Him! As Jeremiah 33:3 tells us, “‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’”

Jesus is the One Who has Authority:

Another factor on this first Palm Sunday was that Jesus demonstrated amazing authority. He told the two disciples to go, secure the donkey, and bring it back to Him, and they did! There is no indication that the disciples hesitated or had any doubts. They knew what Jesus had done in their lives, and they knew who He was in public and also who He was in private. He had immense moral authority in their lives and the way that they responded to Him demonstrated that fact.

The fact that Jesus exercised great authority in the lives of the disciples should not surprise us. These were men who had left their previous lives behind them to follow Him daily. What about the owner of the donkey though? Again, we have no indication that Jesus had ever been in that village, nor that He had ever encountered the owner. Yet, Jesus told the disciples, “If anyone says anything to you, just say this, 'The Lord needs them.’” This is a powerful exercise of authority! How did He have such authority? How could He know that the owner of the donkey would comply?

All we need to do to understand what was going on in this situation is to look at John 1:1-5:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

Again, Jesus is God and He is Creator. He brought this world into being and He owns it. As the owner, He has control over it, so borrowing a donkey for a few hours was not much of a challenge for Him, and neither are the details of our life. He has the authority we need to live and thrive; we just need to access it by being obedient to Him.

Jesus is the One Who was Foretold:

A factor we cannot ignore about this first Palm Sunday is that it had been prophesied long before it happened. Matthew quoted Zechariah 9:9, which reads, “Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Zechariah penned this prophecy over 500 years before the first Palm Sunday; how amazing is that?

The facts are that the Old Testament includes scores of prophecies about the Messiah that were fulfilled by Jesus. That He did fulfill all of these prophecies was a major theme of the Gospel of Matthew and it is the reason that the early church did not immediately require the assembly of the New Testament canon. They had a Bible which is what we now call the Old Testament, and according to the early church, it clearly testified to the deity of Jesus and His role as Messiah.

Josh McDowell is an accomplished Christian author and teacher who was originally a skeptic of the faith before making an attempt to disprove that Jesus was the Messiah. In doing so he actually convinced himself of the truth of the Gospel and became a Christian. He has quoted Peter Stoner’s book “Science Speaks” which gives the odds of a person fulfilling just seven prophecies about the Messiah in the Old Testament to be 1 in 10 to the 17th power. This would be like filling an area the size of Texas with that many silver dollars with just one of them marked for identification and then having a blindfolded person choose that one unique coin from across all of Texas. And that is with just seven prophecies! Jesus fulfilled over three hundred prophecies about the Messiah found in the Old Testament.  (See: https://www.josh.org/jesus-fulfill-prophecy/)

Jesus is the One who Deserves our Praise:

A final factor we need to consider about the first Palm Sunday is how very expressive the crowds were in praising Jesus. Just consider this picture:

A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting, "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” 

What a raucous crowd! It reminds me of a Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans (without the beads, of course). People were shouting and praising Jesus to the point that the whole city was disturbed and asked “Who IS that guy?” Of course, the crowd answered as well as they knew how, "This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”

Jesus was a prophet, but He was so much more than a prophet. No previous prophet had ever received such a reception in Jerusalem and in fact, most had been shunned and persecuted. Jesus, on the other hand was feted. Why?

The answer of course, is that we now know that Jesus was not just a prophet, but also the Messiah and the Savior of the whole world. We know Him to be God, and we know He deserves all our praise and all our worship.

Some of the Pharisees, the legalistic religious leaders of the day, knew something unusual was happening and they said,  “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!” “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” (Luke 19:39-40)

Jesus was truly one who deserved their praise and today He deserves ours also!

Conclusion:

From the events of the first Palm Sunday we clearly see the answer to the question: Who is Jesus?
He is the Omniscient One, the Authoritative One, the Foretold One, and the Worshipped One.

Who Jesus is in this passage is not really the issue. The cogent question is this: Who is Jesus to you?

I trust and pray that He is both your Savior and your Lord! He deserves your fealty, and you need His love and power! May it be true in your life today!

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt