Triumphal Entry 

 

Location

 

1. The Triumphal Entry begins at the upper part of the Mount of Olives and winds its way down to the bottom of the mountain to the Garden of Gethsemane.

 

2. A church called, Dominus Flevit, is located halfway down the western slope of the Mount of Olives and marks the place where Jesus wept over the future fate of Jerusalem.

 

Historical Background

 

1. The Triumphal Entry was a major event in the life of Jesus wherein He entered Jerusalem on the Sunday before He would be crucified (Friday the Passover) and rise from the dead the following Sunday.

 

2. This event was designed by Christ to broadcast to the Nation of Israel that He was their Passover Lamb.

 

3. It is also referred to as Palm Sunday because palm branches were laid on the road as Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey.

 

4. It would mark Christ’s last days of intensive teaching and condemnation of the Jews for rejecting Him and His message.

 

5. It would be the beginning of Christ’s last week on earth.

 

6. The Dominus Flevit Church was built in 1953 to commemorate this important event.

 

7. The current church stands on the ruins of a 6th-century Byzantine church. Some mosaics of the church still remain.

 

8. Dominus Flevit is Latin and means, “the Lord wept.”

 

Places of Interest

 

1. Bethphage (beginning point of the Triumphal Entry)

 

2. Mount of Olives

 

3. Triumphal Entry path

 

4. Dominus Flevit Church

 

5. Garden of Gethsemane

 

6. Temple Mount

 

7. The western window of the Dominus Flevit Church provides a beautiful view of the Temple Mount. 

 

8. A mosaic on the altar of the Dominus Flevit Church has an illustration of a hen gathering her chickens, which is based on Luke 13:34: O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not have it!

 

9. Ancient burial caves located by the Dominus Flevit Church.

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10. Ossuary boxes ~ Bones of people were placed in these boxes after their bodies had decayed.

 

Triumphal Entry in the Bible

 

1. The Triumphal Entry was prophesied in the Old Testament.
Some 450–500 years earlier, the Prophet Zechariah prophesied: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zech. 9:9).

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2. The Triumphal Entry was fulfilled in the New Testament.

 

Matthew 21:7–9: They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them. 8 And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’ Hosanna in the highest!”

 

3. Palm Sunday was also the fulfillment of the Prophet Daniel's "seventy sevens" prophecy.
Daniel 9:25: Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublesome times. 

 

4. The Triumphal Entry, which occurred the Sunday before the Passover, was also lamb selection day for the Passover.  
According to Exodus 12, this was the day set aside for each Israelite family to choose the lamb they would kill for their Passover meal. The blood from their lamb was to be put on the doorposts of their homes so the angel of death would not kill their firstborn children. The Passover was celebrated each year to mark their deliverance from Egypt and how God had miraculously saved them. The fact that Christ entered Jerusalem on this very day was no accident. He was proclaiming Himself as the Passover Lamb, not only for the Israelites but for all humanity.

 

5. Christ entered Jerusalem riding on a donkey.
Luke 19:28–35: And when he had said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. 29 When he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of the disciples, 30 saying, "Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here. 31 If anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' you shall say this: 'The Lord has need of it.'" 32 So those who were sent went away and found it just as he had told them. 33 And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, "Why are you untying the colt?" 34 And they said, "The Lord has need of it." 35 And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it.

 

• The meaning of a donkey. 

A donkey was a symbol of peace; a horse was a symbol of war. Christ came to make peace with mankind at His first coming by dying for our sins. However, at His second coming He will come riding a horse to wage war with mankind and judge them for their sinful rejection of Him.

 

6. The crowd took branches of palm trees and cried out, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”
John 12:12–13: So, they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!"

 

• It was a cry for deliverance from Roman occupation. The last time the Israelites had their freedom during the Maccabean rule from 167–63 BC, their money had the symbol of a palm branch as a sign of freedom. It was like the national flag of a country. It was the Jew’s way of saying that they wanted Christ to be their King and deliver them from the Romans.The meaning of the palm branches.

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7. At the place marked by the church, Dominus Flevit, Christ paused and wept over Jerusalem. 
Luke 19:41–44: And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, "Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation."

 

• There are only two times in the Bible where it is noted that Christ wept. The first time was at the death of Lazarus, and the second during His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Both places are located on the Mount of Olives.

 

• In this account of Christ weeping, He wept for those who aren’t saved and the judgment that awaits them.

 

• Within 40 years, in AD 70, Jesus’ prophecy was fulfilled. Roman legions besieged Jerusalem and, after six months of fighting, burnt the temple and leveled the city.

 

8. The first time Christ wept took place at the death of Lazarus just a week or so earlier on the backside of the Mount of Olives.
John 11:33–36: When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. 34 And he said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to him, "Lord, come and see." 35 Jesus wept. 36 So the Jews said, "See how he loved him!" 

 

• In this account, Christ weeps for those who suffer.

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Faith Lesson from the Triumphal Entry

 

1. The Triumphal Entry was a prophesied event from the Old Testament and reveals the validity of Scripture and God’s sovereignty. 

 

2. Christ wept over Jerusalem because of their rejection of Him and the judgment that would await them as a result. Does Christ weep for you because you don’t know Him and will be separated from Him in hell for all eternity?

 

3. Christ wept with those at the death of Lazarus. Does Christ weep with you as He understands your pain and suffering?