John 12:12-15

12 On the next day the large crowd who had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, 13 took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet Him, and began to shout, “Hosanna! BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD, even the King of Israel!” 14 Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written, 15 “FEAR NOT, DAUGHTER OF ZION; BEHOLD, YOUR KING IS COMING, SEATED ON A DONKEY’S COLT.”

For 3 years Jesus has been avoiding the spotlight. He heals people and tells them to keep quiet. He slips away from crowds. He refuses attempts to make Him king.

Then everything changes. Jesus enters Jerusalem and the crowds are in a frenzy. Palm branches wave. The people shout, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

The King has arrived, BUT not the King they expected. They wanted a conqueror, someone to overthrow Rome, someone to make their lives better and Jesus comes riding on a donkey!!

Not a warhorse, not surrounded by soldiers, not carrying a sword. He is the King, riding toward His own execution.

Don’t miss what’s happening. Jesus isn’t being swept along by circumstances. He’s not accidentally walking into a trap. He knows exactly what awaits Him in Jerusalem. The betrayal, the arrest, the mocking, the scourging, the nails, the cross.

And He goes anyway!

Jesus did not die because He was overcome by superior force, but because He willingly gave Himself as our Substitute. Jesus wasn’t a helpless victim of Roman cruelty or Jewish conspiracy. He was the willing sacrifice for sinners.

THAT is the Gospel, the good news.

Remember His words in (John 10:18)”No one takes it (His life)from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.” The cross wasn’t something that happened to Jesus. The cross was something Jesus came to accomplish, to fulfill.

Also, notice the donkey. 500 years earlier, Zechariah had prophesied, “Behold, your king is coming to you … humble and mounted on a donkey” (Zechariah 9:9)Jesus is fulfilling Scripture to the smallest detail!

God promised a King. God promised how He would come. And now the King is riding into Jerusalem exactly as God said He would. Not one promise has failed. Now don’t miss this, the crowds are shouting “Hosanna!” “Hosanna” means, “Save us!” Jesus is going to do exactly that, just not the way they imagined. They want salvation from Rome. They want a political victory, someone to take Caesar’s crown. Jesus is heading toward a cross.

The crowds won’t understand. Even His disciples will be confused, which brings us to a question every man must answer… “Do we want Jesus as He is, or Jesus as we wish He would be?”

It’s easy to celebrate Jesus when He’s doing what we want Him to do, BUT what happens when His salvation doesn’t look like the salvation we had in mind, when He doesn’t remove the hardship?

When He doesn’t restore the relationship? When He doesn’t deliver us from the circumstances we’re desperate to escape?

Sometimes God’s greatest work in our lives looks nothing like what we’ve been praying for.

The question is, will we still trust Him when His answer looks nothing like our request?

It’s easy to wave a palm branch when Jesus is headed toward the throne, BUT will we still follow Him when He’s headed toward the cross?

Question: Are you following Jesus because He is King, or because you hope He will give you the life you’ve already decided you want?