Sunday message · The Book of Matthew series
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Message Summary
On Palm Sunday, Pastor Phillip Santillan turns to Matthew 21:1–17, where Jesus sends two disciples to bring him a donkey and her foal. He starts with coffee, good for you one year and bad the next. Phil admits he seeks out the research that confirms what he already believes. Some call this wearing “hope glasses,” seeing what we hope is true rather than what is true, and that tendency, he says, is why we have Palm Sunday.
The prophet Zechariah foretold a king coming righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey (Zechariah 9:9). First-century Jews latched onto the victory and expected a king who would triumph over Rome. Matthew wrote when everyone knew Jesus had not removed the Romans, so he reminds readers of Zechariah’s words, leaving out the victory and stressing a king who comes gentle, on a donkey. The crowds spread clothes and branches on the road and shout Hosanna to the Son of David.
But Matthew shows other reactions. The whole city is in an uproar asking who this is, and the crowds call him the prophet from Nazareth, a town as small, Phil says, as Watertown in Carver County. Jesus overturns the money changers’ tables, heals the blind and the lame, and defends the children’s praise when the chief priests and scribes grow indignant. To some he was a conquering Messiah, to others a small-town prophet, and to the leaders annoying and dangerous. The leaders were in the wrong, Phil says, but in many ways so were the crowds shouting Hosanna.
People’s views of Jesus are often shaped by upbringing: a good teacher, a prophet, one god among many, a crutch, as a former Minnesota governor once called religion, or a cosmic killjoy, an angry Jesus or one who is always serious. With typical sarcasm, Paul chided the Corinthians for easily accepting a different Jesus than the one preached. His point, Phil says, is to look to the eyewitness accounts and get to know the real Jesus.
Jesus did not come to defeat a military superpower, and he was more than a good teacher. As the angel told Joseph, he came to save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). People need a Savior, not a life coach. When Phil hears of strife, racism or violence, he catches himself asking what is wrong with those people, yet their selfishness and greed are only extensions of what is in him, and in all of us. It is tempting to call sin a mistake, but a mistake is forgetting to carry the one. If we are merely “mistakers,” we need no Savior, and the one who wins when sin is dumbed down is the evil one.
Palm Sunday, Phil closes, reminds us that Jesus came to save real sinners, not polished people but those who know they are broken and cry out Hosanna, which means “Lord, save us.” For anyone who knows they need help, it is not just a story but their story, and the good news that their Savior has come.
Questions about Palm Sunday
Hosanna means “Lord, save us.” It comes from a Hebrew plea, hosia-na, meaning “save, we pray” or “save now,” which became a shout of praise (Psalm 118:25). On Palm Sunday the crowds shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” (Matthew 21:9). Pastor Phil says the cry still belongs to anyone who knows they are broken and needs a Savior, not a life coach.
Palm Sunday remembers the day Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey while crowds spread their cloaks and branches on the road and shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” (Matthew 21:1–9). It opens the week that led to his crucifixion. As Pastor Phil puts it, Palm Sunday reminds us that Jesus came to save real sinners, not polished people but those who know they are broken.
Because the crowd that welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem waved branches to honor him; John says they “took palm branches and went out to meet Him” (John 12:13). Matthew adds that some spread their cloaks on the road while others cut branches from the trees (Matthew 21:8). Many in that crowd, this message notes, expected a king who would triumph over Rome.
To fulfill Zechariah’s prophecy of a king who comes “righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey” (Zechariah 9:9). Many expected a king who would defeat Rome, but Matthew quotes the prophecy without the victory, stressing a king who comes “gentle and riding on a donkey” (Matthew 21:5). Jesus came, as the angel told Joseph, to save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21).
Jesus gave the reason himself: “It is written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer.’ But you are making it ‘a den of robbers’” (Matthew 21:13). He drove out the buyers and sellers and overturned the money changers’ tables, then healed the blind and the lame who came to him at the temple and defended the children shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” (21:12–16).
More in this series
Matthew 19:13-30: Why What You Consider a Strength May Be Your Biggest Spiritual Blindspot
Matthew 19:7-12: Who Gets the Final Word? (Jesus on Divorce, Singleness, Sexuality, Surrender, and the Gospel)
Matthew 19:1-6: Jesus on Marriage, Sexuality, and the Question Nobody Wants to Ask
Matthew 18:21-35: Jesus and the Difficult Truth about Forgiveness
Matthew 17:1-21: From the Mountaintop to Everyday
Matthew 16:13-28: When the Problem is Me