Palm Sunday - Fulfilling All Righteousness

Palm Sunday, also known as the day of The Triumphal Entry, was about Jesus continuing to fulfill biblical prophecies pertaining to Israel's Messiah.  The Old Testament promised that the coming King and Redeemer would ride into Jerusalem one day with great fanfare.

“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. Zechariah 9:9

During His ministry, Jesus did many things that do not make sense to the casual or uninformed observer.  He made a mud cake with dirt and spittal and healed a man's blindness.  He was baptized by John when John was looking to be baptized by Him.  He paraded into Jerusalem riding a young donkey.  Jesus was "fulfilling all righteousness", or in other words, fulfilling legal requirements and prophecies contained in the Old Testament.

13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. 14 And John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” 15 But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him. Matthew 3:13-15

A New And Better Covenant  

God's plan has always been to bless and redeem all nations through Abraham's seed.  Before the nations could enter into this blessing, every word written about the coming of Israel's Messiah (as the Lamb of God) had to be fulfilled! The "parade" into Jerusalem was the prelude to the establishment of a new and better covenant with Israel and Judah.

7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. 8 Because finding fault with them, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— 9 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord. 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 11 None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. Hebrews 8:7-11 (also see Jeremiah 31)

The Mystery of the New Covenant

The promise of a new covenant was not in the forefront of Israel's mind in Jesus' day. As we discover the hidden predictions and purposes of the Palm Sunday event, we will learn that God has always planned to redeem the olive tree (Israel) and graft in the nations of the world (a wild olive tree) to partake of the blessings or fatness of that tree

And if some of the branches were broken off, and you (Gentiles), being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them (Israel), and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree... Romans 11:17

The Big Picture
As we study the Triumphal Entry, we must keep in mind the ultimate reason these events took place.  God was making "a way" through Jesus for all men to know Him.  The covenant that He made with Israel was intended to bring them to Christ.  Now that Christ has come and "fulfilled all righteousness", a new covenant has been established in His blood.

But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, [confined] for the faith which would afterward be revealed. 24 Therefore the law was our [guardian responsible for the care and discipline of the children] to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after faith (in Christ) has come, we are no longer under a tutor.  Galatians 3:23-25

This concludes our overview of The Triumphal Entry.  Be sure to carefully read all scripture passages in this article.  Then take the quiz entitled, Quiz - Overview of The Triumphal Entry, to gauge what you have learned so far.