When Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey colt, it was the equivalent of him shouting he was the Messiah. Jesus was intentionally fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah and letting everyone know it at a very specific time and place. It was the Passover festival when all Jewish men over the age of 12 were required to be in Jerusalem.
The huge crowds knew exactly what his entry on a colt meant and they began shouting “Hosanna! (Save, I pray!) Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!” They spread cloaks and palm branches on the ground before him as a symbol of victory and triumph. FINALLY, the long-awaited Messiah—the rescuer of God’s people—was going to free them from Roman oppression. Their warrior king was going to restore Israel to its former glory!
But not everyone was happy to see Jesus arrive. The Jewish religious leaders considered the crowd calling Jesus the Messiah blasphemous. Jesus was gaining too much influence, especially with the recent news that he had raised Lazarus from the dead. Too many people were now believing in him because of his miracles. The religious leaders worried Jesus would challenge their power and authority—and with the crowd shouting about the impending downfall of the Romans—they feared the Romans would see it as insurrection and come down hard on them all. They told Jesus to keep his people quiet. Jesus replied that if they were silent, the stones would shout. The news of his arrival would not be contained.
Yet even as Jesus passed through the celebrating crowd, as the colt wound through the streets, Jesus began weeping over the city. “If you, even you,” he said, “had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace!” He knew the Jewish nation was going to suffer greatly in the future for their inability to see.
“My house shall be a house of prayer. You have made it a den of robbers.”
Jesus
Jesus angered the religious leaders further when he entered the temple and began overturning the tables of the sellers and money-changers who were swindling the poor. Jesus called out the religious leaders directly for their financial corruption, for using God’s house as a marketplace. “My house shall be a house of prayer,” he said. “You have made it a den of robbers.”
Once before, Jesus had cleansed the temple, and said something that no one understood, except in hindsight: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Jesus was talking about his own body, the new, true temple that would replace the old.
After driving out the sellers in the temple, Jesus continued healing people there, always making time for them. Even on his way to Jerusalem for the last and most crucial part of his mission, he made time to stop to heal a blind beggar named Bartimaeus who had called out to him as he passed. “Son of David, have mercy on me.” Despite Bartimaeus’ physical blindness, he recognized who Jesus was—the Messiah descended from David’s royal line. Jesus healed Bartimaeus’ blindness because of his faith, whereas the religious leaders refused to open their eyes to the truth.
Jesus had become a serious problem for the religious leaders. If not for the crowds supporting him, they would have already arrested him. Now they plotted how to kill him.