A Week That Changed History Forever

Today is Palm Sunday. Today is the anniversary of the beginning of the most important week in all history: Passion Week.

This day 2,000 years ago, was a date that was prophesied to the prophet Daniel by the Angel Gabriel. The exact day! In fact, Jesus Himself expected the people to realize what day this was because of what was written in Daniel.

Image by Jonathan & Jill

This day was the only day that Jesus allowed the people to worship Him as King of Israel. This was the hour that the long awaited Messiah was presented to the people as they sung from Psalm 118.

The date was the 10th of Nisan, or April 6, 32 A.D.

Beginning today, and ending with next Sunday, I would like to take each day’s posts to describe what happened on each day of this week.

The Presentation of the King

On Sunday, April 6, 32 A.D., Jesus approached the city of Jerusalem. Jesus instructed two of His disciples to

“Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied there and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to Me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will send them.” This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold your King is coming to you, gentle, and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’” The disciples went and did just as Jesus had instructed them, and brought the donkey and the colt, and laid their coats on them; and He sat on the coats. Most of the crowd spread their cots in the road, and other were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them in the road. The crowds going ahead of Him, and those who followed, were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David; Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest!” –Matthew 21:1-9.

The people were shouting portions of Psalm 118. When the Pharisees heard what they were saying they tried to get Jesus to tell the people to stop saying these things.

Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.” But Jesus answered and said, “I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!” When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. For the days will come up on you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.” –Luke 19:39-44.

Jesus is here referring to Daniel 9:26. We covered this topic previously in our discussion of Daniel’s 70 Weeks. Jesus expected the people to recognize what the significance of this day was. Further, had the people understood and knew Zechariah 9:9, they would have plainly recognized that Jesus was fulfilling that scripture perfectly! As a result of them not knowing what day this was, Jesus prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem about 38 years later.

The rest of the schedule for this week will be:

• Monday: Cleansing of the temple and the cursing of the fig tree
• Tuesday: Challenge of Christ’s authority and signs of the end of the age
• Wednesday: Passover preparations and the arrangement of the betrayal
• Thursday: The Last Supper in the upper room and Gethsemane
• Friday: Good Friday
• Saturday: The calm after the storm
• Sunday: The victory over death

May He Increase!