Dan Schmidt writes in Unexpected Wisdom:
Tragically, hope is a weak word these days meaning little more than what we feel… What of the one who has just learned of cancer in his child, or whose parents have developed a wasting disease, or whose job has abruptly and callously been terminated? …when physical troubles and spiritual attacks stack up like cords of wood, what does hope mean then?
Hope sustains you in the welter of struggles that scurry through the heart and mind like tadpoles in a pond. It draws you into the new day and carries you through the many days that follow.
…We think of the prophets as writing about the future, and they do. But their interests rest less with helping us chart events in a nice, neat way than with assisting us through the minefields of life to live for God. They assure us that God is sufficient for what we are going through now and for what is likely to smack us later. They persist in saying that the one we cling to is deserving of our trust, that hope in God is legitimate and beneficial. …With their wonderful dreams and tales of better times, they offer a vision of life far different from current experience. Prophets see what is not as though it actually were and invite others to adopt their perspective despite current evidence to the contrary. They offer hope, but they do so by way of a challenge: believe that a power as awesome and far-reaching as Assyria’s will one day soon be little more than rubble, and you are likely to believe anything.[i]
That’s it, the things that are, will one day no longer be! Whatever your challenge, whatever seems beyond your ability, and worse, is still not big enough or bad enough to overcome what God ultimately intends for each of us. Our problem is that our expectations are often shattered by something greater and better than what we anticipate. That’s the story of Easter week.
The Jewish people were hoping that Roman rule was coming to an end as they worshiped their king, but the reality was His throne was a cross that would deliver them and us from something far greater than earthly oppression. Sin and death were about to be delivered a crushing blow. Jesus was about to provide eternal life for us.
In celebrating the significance of Easter week, one aspect is the prophetic picture, the background for the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, known as Palm Sunday. What was transpiring in that moment of time? What were the aspirations of the people? What was significant about that moment? How does that impact us? What should this day mean to us?
To really gain insight into this moment in the life of Jesus, we need to go back in time to the prophet, Zechariah who prophesied about the coming King. It is in that context that I want to look at Palm Sunday today. In Zechariah 9:9-17, we find the fulfillment of prophecy as quoted by Matthew when Jesus came into Jerusalem that day, two thousand years ago to establish His kingdom, through His conquest over sin and death.
But what was happening when Zechariah first communicated this message of hope to God’s people and how did that message get lost in translation so that so many missed the message? How is it that we can still miss the significance of this message today? Zechariah was preaching after the exile. Many had returned, but many remained in the land of exile.
In the Easter story, we see lives move from joy, then despair and sorrow and ultimately to an even greater joy. How can we be sustained by hope in that waiting time of despair and pain in our own lives? Palm Sunday is a message of great hope and joy despite the challenges and threats that face us. In the context of Zechariah, we discover that hope is found in the person and promises of God. There are three things we need to hold on to in life’s darkest moments.
THE FIRST THING WE NEED TO HOLD ON TO IS THE COMING OF THE KING
We know that Jesus has come, is currently present with us through the Holy Spirit, and will come again to completely fulfill all that is promised. God’s promises are what has sustained people in the past. So, many of them have been fulfilled, but there are others that are still to be fulfilled. During the post-exilic period, Zechariah stated God’s intention to come and live among His people
‘Shout and be glad, Daughter Zion. For I am coming, and I will live among you,’ declares the Lord. ‘Many nations will be joined with the Lord in that day and will become my people. I will live among you and you will know that the Lord Almighty has sent me to you.’[ii]
God did come and live among us in the person of Jesus. Many nations or ethnos (ethnic) groups have become God’s people through Christ’s death and resurrection. So, God has already fulfilled this amazing promise in Zechariah. However, not all that lived in the land of Israel had embraced this reality, nor accepted Jesus as their king. In fact, they were about to crucify Him during that Passover season.
Now as we come the familiar text of Palm Sunday that Jesus fulfilled, the king is coming to fulfill the first part of this prophecy, and in the later prophecy we find out the nature of this king.
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.[iii]
Joyce Baldwin explains why there was a need for rejoicing in the character of how Jesus came two thousand years ago.
The focus now switches to the character of the king. He is ‘righteous’ (Heb. ṣaddîq), as Isaiah’s descriptions had insisted (Isa. 9:7; 11:4, 5; 32:1), but this is no static quality. In each passage righteousness is seen in the activity of the King, governing, administering justice, encouraging right. When rogues continually succeed in getting away with their crimes, while innocent people suffer and find no redress, to be promised that right will triumph, that the righteous will be vindicated, is a cause for deep joy. The use of ṣedeq in the sense of ‘vindication’ in Isaiah 40–55 underlies the RSV triumphant.[iv]
Notice the character of the king and the kind of salvation He brings.
- He is described as ‘just’ or ‘righteous.’
See your king comes to you in righteousness. There is no peace apart from righteousness. In other words, sin always brings about strife. It is only as we walk rightly before God that peace can rule in our hearts and between people. It takes embracing God’s way of doing things to bring joy and blessing. Charles Feinberg states regarding the relationship between peace and righteousness this way.
With Him there is no unrighteousness whatsoever. If such be the basic requirement for peace, and it is, is it not immediately evident why man-made plans are and have ever been a failure? …Peace must be grounded and founded in justice and righteousness…[v]
- Jesus is also described as bringing salvation.
This salvation, this bringing of peace, does not come cheaply. “It is not peace at any price, but peace at infinite price–the life of the Messiah.”[vi] It is through Christ’s death that any can have life.
At that moment coming into Jerusalem, the people didn’t totally grasp the significance of what Jesus was about to do. Some believed that Jesus was the Messiah come to save them. However, they did not comprehend how He was about to do that. He is described as being lowly.
The thought …is not so much meekness as it is suffering, [not so much] lowly of outward appearance with lowliness of soul. The Hebrew word expresses the condition of one bowed down, brought low through oppression, affliction, desolation, poverty, persecution, bereavement…[vii]
In other words, they could not foresee that this King would save them through His own humiliation and death. Often, we can’t grasp how God uses suffering to bring about His purpose and fill us with hope. Yet the apostle Paul states that very means in our lives as well.
Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom he has been given us.[viii]
- Jesus was coming to set things right.
He was coming to address God’s justice and manifest His love through the death and then the resurrection of Jesus. The cross addresses all injustices, as Jesus bore the sin of humanity, and then gave the opportunity for all to come to Him to seek forgiveness and transformation. However, those who reject the gospel message will experience eternal separation from God. To believers who were suffering intense persecution in Thessalonica, Paul wrote these words that speak of future redress of wrongs.
Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring. All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.[ix]
THE SECOND THING WE NEED TO HOLD ON TO IS THE PROMISE OF RESTORATION
Jesus doesn’t just forgive us and spare us from the penalty of sin; He frees us from the shackles that bind us to sin. This is done through Christ’s work of redemption in which we are now in covenant relationship through His death.
As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit. Return to your fortress, you prisoners of hope; even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you.[x]
Here we see the promise that our covenant with God is sealed with blood. This obviously speaks of a sacrifice on our behalf. God would free people who are imprisoned in the waterless pit.
The figure of the ‘pit in which there is no water’ reflects the desperate circumstances of Joseph (Gen 37:22) and Jeremiah (Jer 38:6). In such a pit a person would inevitably perish if he were not drawn out. Since the context here is messianic, the bondage here spoken of must be spiritual rather than physical. It is the bondage of sin and the snare of the Evil One which is being metaphorically described by Zechariah.[xi]
Zechariah sees God calling His people back to the land of promise from the exile. God was promising to free them from the waterless pit. “Dry cisterns were often employed as places of imprisonment.”[xii]
Remember how Joseph’s brothers threw Joseph into a pit. It actually was a waterless hole, that during the rainy season contained water. Now its only use was to curb the freedom of a person. Those who had refused to return to the promised land were still prisoners in exile, even though they may have been flourishing economically. That can be our present condition, living in material blessings, but far from God’s promises for our lives. God calls us to Himself and promises restoration and blessing.
God does enrich our lives. When we think of salvation, we may only see it as deliverance from sin and death, but it’s far more than that. The word salvation is the Hebrew word: Yeshua (Jesus). It literally means to be delivered, helped, given victory, prospered, given health. It has a broader understanding than just being spared from destruction. It also speaks of future blessings.
Zechariah speaks of the coming king bringing salvation, but not in a military fashion. Notice He doesn’t come on a horse in great power, but comes riding on a colt, the foal of a donkey. He is described as gentle rather than fierce. He comes in righteousness bringing deliverance through peace.
There was a time earlier in Israel’s history that God had spared the nation from destruction under the threat from Alexander, the Great. Josephus, the famous Jewish historian, writes regarding how God preserved his people from Alexander’s destruction.
When Alexander was attacking Tyre, he sent a letter to the high priest, who lived in Jerusalem, requesting him to send him assistance and to supply his army with provisions. The priest declined to do this because, as he said, he had sworn an oath of loyalty to King Darius, which he would not break so long as Darius was alive. This infuriated Alexander, and he determined to destroy Jerusalem as soon as the coastal conquests were behind him.
Eventually, Alexander conquered the various cities and then turned his attention toward Jerusalem. When Jaddus, the High Priest, heard that Alexander was marching toward Jerusalem, he was terrified… He ordered the Jews to make sacrifices to God and ask for deliverance from the advancing danger. That night, after the sacrifice, God spoke to Jaddus in his sleep, telling him to take courage. He was to adorn the city with wreaths and then open the gates and go out to meet the invaders. The people were to be dressed in white garments and the priests in the robes prescribed by law. When Alexander saw from far off, the multitudes in their white garments, and the priests wearing their robes and the high priest wearing the mitre with the name of God written over his forehead, Alexander approached alone and bowed down before the priest.
Parmenion, Alexander’s second in command, asked why he had bowed down to the Jewish high priest, to which Alexander answered, ‘it was not before him that I prostrated myself but the God of whom he has the honor to be high priest, for it was he whom I saw in my sleep dressed as he is now, when I was at Dior, in Macedonia. As I was considering with myself how I might become master of Asia, he urged me not to hesitate but to cross over confidently, for he himself would lead my army and give over to me the empire of the Persians. Since, therefore, I have beheld no one else in such robes, and on seeing him now, I am reminded of the vision and the exhortation, I believe that I have made this expedition under divine guidance and that I shall ultimately defeat Darius and destroy the power of the Persians.’[xiii]
It was through trusting God that they opened their gates and brought their wreaths, dressed in clothing not designed for war, but peace that allowed the Jewish people to be spared destruction. They were saved. It seems that the prophet now speaks of another moment. This is the moment which we are now celebrating two thousand years ago, when Jesus came into Jerusalem riding upon the colt the foal of a donkey. He is coming in gentleness to bring the gift of salvation to the people.
What’s fascinating is that the early disciples did not understand the full significance of what was happening. Notice how John describes it for us.
The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the King of Israel!’ Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it, as it is written, ‘Do not be afraid, O daughter of Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt’. At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him.[xiv]
Jesus was the One who had asked that the colt be brought to Him.
As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, ‘Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.’[xv]
Why did Jesus do this? He knew He was fulfilling the prophet Zechariah’s word. He was making a declaration that day in Jerusalem that He was their King coming to deliver them, by bringing them salvation. That this peace would not come about through military action was the part that the people didn’t fully grasp. He was gentle and humble in nature. He was bringing about peace through His own death and resurrection.
This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: ‘Say to the Daughter of Zion, “See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”’[xvi]
THE THIRD THING WE NEED TO HOLD ON TO IS THAT GOD IS SOVEREIGN OVER US
God is in complete control. The extent of His dominion is the entire world. Now the prophet propels us forward into time, once again. The one verse is a picture of that event two thousand years ago, but now we see a foreshadowing of upcoming future events.
I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the war-horses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth.[xvii]
This is the nature of the gospel today, a message of peace extending out to all peoples. Ultimately, God’s kingdom will prevail.
A. God’s word to His people, Israel.
As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit. Return to your fortress, O prisoners of hope; even now I will announce that I will restore twice as much to you. I will bend Judah as I bend my bow and fill it with Ephraim. I will rouse your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece, and make you like a warrior’s sword.[xviii]
Here God is going to use the people that He is in covenant with, to overcome the power of the enemy. In this text, the immediate context is that the sons of Zion (the Jewish people) will overcome the sons of Greece. This happened under the Maccabean revolt. After Alexander the Great died, his empire was divided up into four parts under his generals. One of which ruled over Syria and included Israel. The period of the Maccabees was a struggle for independence from the Greeks, which the Jewish people finally won. However, Judah once again came under Gentile dominion from the Romans, but when Jesus comes again, the nation will be freed from human conflict.
B. Ultimately it is God that will save His people.
Then the LORD will appear over them; his arrow will flash like lightning. The Sovereign LORD will sound the trumpet; he will march in the storms of the south, and the LORD Almighty will shield them. They will destroy and overcome with slingstones. They will drink and roar as with wine; they will be full like a bowl used for sprinkling the corners of the altar. The LORD their God will save them on that day as the flock of his people. They will sparkle in his land like jewels in a crown. How attractive and beautiful they will be! Grain will make the young men thrive, and new wine the young women.[xix]
These are all expressions of blessings. The day is coming when God will intervene to bring a conclusion of this world as we know it. The answer to despair and hopelessness is to focus on the idea that God is in control. He is coming again. Jesus said it to the disciples in His Signs of the Times address at the temple mount, when the destruction of the temple will happen and then the signs of the end. Jesus described what would be happening and concludes with these words of hope.
‘There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.’[xx]
Michael Stead writes regarding God’s message to all who are in covenant relationship with Him.
Likewise, for us, our salvation is now and not-yet. The victory that our suffering king has won has brought us a real release from the ‘prisons’ of our idolatry, through the ‘blood of the covenant’ (9:11). But the opening picture of 9:1–8, of a Promised Land restored to its maximal dimensions and secure from all its foes, is a sight that we will not see until the New Jerusalem descends from heaven (Revelation 21:2). Zechariah 9 reminds us that the divine warrior is fighting for us, and will not allow us to be conquered by our enemies, but this is played out in the midst of suffering and hardship.
Paul writes: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: ‘For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. (Romans 8:35–37)
In the midst of this, God’s people can and will suffer. When we suffer, we need to keep our eyes on Jesus and remind ourselves that he has gone there before us. He endured the cross and scorned its shame (see Hebrews 12:2–3). Suffering and hardship doesn’t mean that God has broken his promises, nor does it mean that God must be correcting us for some act of disobedience. Suffering was a necessary part of Jesus’ mission, and will be a necessary part of what God is calling us to, while we wait for the dawning of the day of our salvation.[xxi]
We can have the assurance in our lives that it is God that will spare us, save us and be Sovereign over us. He is our Coming King! Our hope is not found in what we or others can do but ultimately our hope is in Him!
But where do we find hope in our dark moments in life? Michael Stead reminds us that we too follow the pattern of our Savior.
Not only does Zechariah 9 establish for us the pattern for Jesus’ suffering, but it also tells us about the pattern of life for those who follow the crucified Saviour. Martin Luther described it well, by contrasting what he called the theology of glory with the theology of the cross. The theology of glory expects to see God at work in clear demonstrations of power and might, victory and triumph. The theology of the cross, on the other hand, sees God’s strength in the weakness and defeat of the cross.
Too many Christians expect to see God at work in a theology of glory—life as an unbroken sequence of success, victory, comfort, health and security. In short, we want the triumphant Christian life.
God, however, does not promise us a ‘triumphant entry’, but a ‘triumphal procession’. The triumphal procession was a form of tribute to a victorious general. A general paraded his vanquished foes and captured slaves through the streets, to public acclaim. The apostle Paul picks up this image in his letters to the Corinthians. In this triumphal procession, God’s people are not the victors at the head of the parade, but the defeated foes and captured slaves. Paul says that God has put him and the other apostles ‘on display at the end of the procession, like those condemned to die in the arena … [as] a spectacle to the whole universe’ (1 Corinthians 4:9).
This is how the theology of the cross works out in practice—God’s power is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). That’s how it worked for Jesus, and that’s how it works for us. There is a now and a not-yet to our salvation.[xxii]
There is a great reversal coming. Remember the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the beggar. Jesus reminds us that in this life, righteous people often suffer, while the wicked flourish; but later God will elevate and vindicate His people in forever bliss and blessing, while the wicked and ungodly will suffer for all eternity.
Let us pray that those who are walking in a moment of distress will find comfort knowing that the King is coming, is present in our situation, and will ultimately deliver us from all earthly pain and sorrow.
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[i] Dan Schmidt, Unexpected Wisdom, (Grand Rapids, Mi: Baker Book House, 2002), 157-158.
[ii] Zechariah 2:10-11, The New International Version of the Bible, Zondervan, 2011.
[iii] Zechariah 9:9.
[iv] Joyce Baldwin, Haggai, Zechariah, & Malachi, TOTC, Vol. 28. (Downers Grove, Il: InterVarsity Press, 1972), 178.
[v] Charles L. Feinberg, God Remembers: A Study of Zechariah, (Portland, Or: Multnomah Press, 1965), 128.
[vi] Ibid.
[vii] E. B. Pusey, as quoted by Charles Feinberg, God Remembers, 128.
[viii] Romans 5:3-5.
[ix] 2 Thessalonians 1:4-10.
[x] Zechariah 9:11-12.
[xi] James Smith, The Minor Prophets, (College Press, 1994), 580-81.
[xii] Feinberg, God Remembers: A Study of Zechariah, 132.
[xiii] James Montgomery Boice, The Minor Prophets, Vol. 2 Micah-Malachi, (Grand Rapids, Mi: Zondervan Publishing House, 1986), 193-194 quoting Josephus, ‘Jewish Antiquities, XI, viii, 3-5.
[xiv] John 12:12-16.
[xv] Matthew 21:1-3.
[xvi] Matthew 21:4-5.
[xvii] Zechariah 9:10.
[xviii] Zechariah 9:11-13.
[xix] Zechariah 9:14-17
[xx] Luke 21:25-28.
[xxi] Michael Stead, Zechariah: The Lord Returns, ed. Barnett, (Aquila Press, 2015), 154-55.
[xxii] Ibid, 153-54.
