Who Is This Who Shakes Everything Up?

They brought the donkey and the colt and laid their clothes on them. Then he sat on them.Most of the crowd spread their garments on the road ahead of him, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Jesus was in the center of the procession, and the people all around him were shouting,

“Hosanna for the Son of David!  Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Praise God in highest heaven!”

The entire city of Jerusalem was in an uproar as he entered. “Who is this?” they asked.

And the crowds replied, “It’s Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”
-Matthew 21:7-11

When Jesus came to Jerusalem, this final time, a week before he was executed for blasphemy; the whole city was shaken up.  It was a true visitation from God.  God had been revealed through Jesus all along, but when Jesus entered Jerusalem this time, he was revealing himself more than before.  It was known that Jewish kings ride in on a donkey and he accepted praise and worship to himself, from the people.

Moses had stated that a great prophet would come after him and this was part of the messianic expectation.  At first glance, we might think that the crowds were wrong in saying that Jesus was just that prophet from Nazareth.  But to say he is the prophet is to say this is the one Moses talked about (Deut. 18:15).

Jesus accepted worship in that he is called Lord or what he is doing as the Lord's salvation.  Jesus takes authority over the temple courts.  And the blind and lame rush to Jesus and he heals them.

This is all pretty chaotic, when you take in the scene.

  Can you imagine blind people scurrying towards the temple area, bumping through the crowds, to get to Jesus?  Can you imagine lame people crawling towards Jesus?  Could they sense what direction Jesus was, with their hearts on fire?  Perhaps blind and lame people were taken along towards Jesus by friends or family.

Jesus arrives on a colt and spontaneous praise erupts, people spontaneously worshiped him.  All in the city were more than moved, they were shaken.  Everyone was asking, "who is this?"  Jesus presence brings up the question.