At that time, Jerusalem was the only city that welcomed the Lord Jesus with such a grand celebration. In Matthew 21 and John 12, we read how the people of Jerusalem cheered for Jesus as He entered the city riding on a young donkey. They waved palm branches and laid their garments on the road—an honour usually reserved for war heroes returning from battle.
By doing this, they were essentially trying to make Jesus their hero—their version of a hero. Was Jesus not a hero? Of course, He was the Hero and the Savior—but the Savior according to God’s version, not theirs.
Who is worthy to walk on a path of honor? A king. And since there was no royal carpet, they laid their clothes on the road where Jesus’ donkey would pass. They were acknowledging Him as King, and this was an extraordinary show of praise—something no other city did. Nazareth, for example, would never do such a thing because they knew Jesus as the carpenter’s son and were familiar with His earthly parents and siblings. Only in Jerusalem was He exalted in such a grand manner.
Yet, what they did seemed to be in vain. Judgment still came—it was unavoidable. Why did God allow them to welcome Him with such enthusiasm if, in the end, their actions held no real value? The answer is simple: because prophecy had to be fulfilled.
Jesus is the Savior of the world, the One who determines the fate of heaven and earth. A messenger of God must be verified by prophecy. The prophecy concerning Jesus’ birth, for example, was written hundreds of years beforehand, that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, not Jerusalem. Bethlehem was a small town, while Jerusalem was the capital of the kingdom.
Not only His birth, but even His death was foretold. Including the prophecy that declared: “See, your King comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey.” What kind of king comes riding on a young donkey? Yet that is precisely who Jesus is.
The more we study the Bible, the more undeniable it becomes that under heaven, there is no other name given to humanity by which we must be saved—only the name of Jesus Christ. And for a faith like this, our lives become of no value. Meaning, we are willing to risk our lives because this truth is absolute and unchanging. So, God allowed them to welcome Him to fulfil the prophecy, but the crowd’s enthusiasm did not deceive him. He was not swayed by public opinion or the spirit of the age. He remained firm in His high integrity. They praised Jesus as King, but Jesus stood firm in being the King according to God the Father’s version, not theirs.
At the time, the people of Israel lived under Roman oppression. They sincerely hoped that God would free them from the rule of what they saw as a pagan nation, for to them, only the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was the One true God.
They longed for earthly freedom: political, economic, social—all things related to their physical needs. So, their welcome of Jesus was loud, enthusiastic, and even euphoric. But this is precisely what prevented their understanding from seeing the true freedom Jesus came to bring—a far greater and eternal freedom.