Matthew 21:1-11: Hosanna! The Triumphal entry into Holy Week

Presented to TSA Alberni Valley Ministries on Palm Sunday, 29 March, 2026, by Major Michael Ramsay 

This Sunday is Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday is when we commemorate the Sunday before Jesus’ death. Jerusalem was occupied then, like it is now; now it is occupied by the Israelis, then it was occupied by the Romans. The Judeans in the first century didn’t like being occupied then any more than the Palestinians like it today. The Romans were harsh, not nearly as brutal as modern Israel, but harsh enough that the first century had their version of suicide bombers: the Sicarii (zealots), Judean terrorists / revolutionaries would walk into crowds with daggers looking for Romans to kill – Remember the suicide bombers of the ‘70s and ‘80s? This was the first century version. One of Jesus’ followers, Simon, was arguably a Sicarii or zealot.

Passover is the commemoration of ancient Israel’s birth as a nation. The Angel of Death passed over Egypt and the nations of Israel and Judah were created through the Exodus. Passover, in the Roman period, was a time when many people of Judean descent descended upon Jerusalem. I imagine it would be like Mecca during Ramadan, or if you remember Vancouver during the Olympics or Expo. The capital of Judea is Caesarea Maritima – but the historic capital is Jerusalem, so when all the people are coming to Jerusalem, the governor himself comes to town and brings all his extra security for crowd control. Jerusalem, a city of tens or even hundreds of thousands, swells to a population of more than a million potential hooligans or even revolutionaries during Passover. The Romans are there. They are ready. They are nervous.

Jesus is a celebrity preacher. He has been travelling the country speaking for the previous 1-3 years. Thousands of people show up at a time to hear him speak, just to catch a glimpse of him, or to see or experience some miracle that was part of his ministry. He had hundreds of disciples; 12 chief ones, that would be like his leadership team with different roles – Judas, for one example, was the treasurer.

So there are all these people in Jerusalem, many wanting independence from the Romans; the Roman and Jewish police are providing security. Jesus rides into the historic capital city and people run out to meet him. They line the streets as he rides in on the back of a donkey. People lay their coats before him, they wave palm branches and shout,” hosanna”. The palm branches are a national symbol of Judah. It would be like if we in Canada would dare to speak about cancelling NAFTA, abandoning Norad, leaving Nato, and then a celebrity rolled into Ottawa, and everyone started waving maple leaves. This is what Palm Sunday is…And more than that: “Hosanna” that they are shouting means “Save us”! The Romans (the Americans of their day) and their supporters are nervous.

A very popular celebrity is rolling into the historic capital of an occupied territory on a national holiday and the people are running out, waving national symbols and shouting, “save us!”, “save us!”, “save us!” The Romans are nervous. They have extra security forces. The Jewish collaborators are nervous. They have a plan. They must stop this.

Where do you stand in the crowd? Do you stand with Jesus saying. “set the captives free” (let the people out of jail); “you can’t serve money and God; so feed the hungry and clothe the naked” (end capitalism); “beat your swords into ploughshares” (disarmament), “give sight to the blind” (provide medical  care without means tests, free of charge), “justice and mercy” (no more expensive lawyers) “love your neighbour as yourself”; “forgive your enemies” – no more war, no more hate, no more darkness. Or do you stand with those who killed him wanting retribution, revenge for wrongs, money for fun for yourself instead of necessities for others. This is what Palm Sunday is! Jesus is riding into town. Are you for him or are you against him? Do you support the superpowers and elites of today or do you champion the downtrodden? Are you a child of the light or cowed by the hounds of hell?

I am going to take you through the next few days of Jesus’ life, his last before his execution. If today is Palm Sunday when he rides into town, he will go to the Temple (curse a fig tree enroute), look around, and come home to where he is staying. 

Tomorrow he will ride back into town and go to the Temple that has just been rebuilt in or near his lifetime. He will see the people in the temple court taking people’s money and offerings and converting the different currencies into the temple shekel so that they can make the appropriate offerings. It would be very busy with everyone exchanging cash so they can make their offering, because it is Passover and so many people are in town. Jesus goes up to the booth where they provide this service, where they convert the money into the proper currency and he throws over the tables; he grabs the people working in the temple and he makes a whip and he starts to whip them right there, right in the temple of God. He calls them thieves and all kinds of stuff and then he leaves. He is not happy with the way they are making money in the temple of God. 

Tuesday, the next day, he is back at the temple. He has a row with the people there; obviously after all that destruction and chaos he caused the day before. In his verbal exchange he says to the people working at the temple, the priests, the church people, he says, “’Blind guides!... For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people's bones and all sorts of impurity. Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness...Snakes! Sons of vipers! How will you escape the judgment of hell?" (Matthew 23:24-33)” This is what he says in the Temple.

Wednesday – not much. Thursday though. Thursday is the Last Supper! We will have an event here to commemorate Maudy Thursday; you don’t want to miss it! Thursday, Jesus had his last supper with his leadership team before he dies. A couple of important things happen at this dinner. He tells his followers to keep eating and drinking together in remembrance of him; he tells his followers to serve each other like by washing others’ feet, and he tells his disciples that one of them will betray him... Each of the disciples wonders about this. When they get a chance each borrows his ear, “Jesus, is it me? Will I betray you?” When Judas, the treasurer for the group, gets a chance to pull Jesus aside, he asks “is it me?” Jesus says “yes”; the devil enters him and he leaves to do what must be done. No one knows what is going on except Jesus, John, and maybe Judas.

After dinner Jesus and the rest of them – except for Judas who has gone off to do what has to be done – head to the garden of Gethsemane. Lots of stuff happens there and then Judas rejoins the disciples. When he does, he kisses Jesus, as is the custom, then soldiers or police, Romans or Jews, grab Jesus, attempt to arrest him. Peter grabs his sword. Swings it down at one of the soldier’s heads. The soldier moves or Peter misses or or or.. Peter chops off the soldier’s ear! Jesus stops him, stoops down, picks up the ear, and puts it back on the soldier’s head and the soldier is healed. Jesus goes peaceably with his arrestors.

They keep him in custody until 6am tomorrow, Friday morning, when they bring him to Governor Pontius Pilates’ place for trial and, they hope, execution. There is quite a scene there! We won’t go through it all today but Pilate’s wife had a vision and tells him to have nothing to do with this. Pilate can’t figure out what Roman law Jesus is supposed to have broken and wants to release him – but he is afraid. He is very afraid. Remember there are so many Jews everywhere, He is afraid they will overthrow the government, try to, or assassinate him, or revolt, or, or or… He still wants nothing to do with this but he compromises… and then he says it is Passover so I’ll tell you what, I will release one prisoner. You have a choice: there is this murderer, this terrorist here, Barabbas; I can release him or I can release Jesus. The people chose Barabbas. Pilate is annoyed probably even more than afraid now. He makes the Jews in his courtyard disavow God and then he hands Jesus over to them to be crucified. They go overboard with this. The young men guarding him get in on the act. They put a purple robe on him to mock him as a ‘king’. They put this crown on his head that they made of thorns. It hurts. Blood everywhere. The head bleeds. Then they start punching him and hitting him. “Who hit you?” they said. “Tell me” “If you are a prophet.” Punching. Hitting. Kicking. Taunting.

They then take him out to be executed, along with others, on wooden frames in the shape of a cross and they make him carry his or part of his to the hill where they will assemble it and nail him to it. He stumbles and falls so they grab someone from the crowd and force them to carry Jesus’ cross the rest of the way. They then set it up beside other crosses and nail him to it. He isn’t the only one there. There are others nailed to crosses beside him for other reasons. The Romans like public executions. They stab him in the side. Water comes pouring out. They go to break his legs to expediate his death but he is already dead. When he dies there is this massive eclipse, an earthquake and – by all accounts – the graves, the tombs open up and people who were dead come back to life just like Lazarus did a week or so ago. It is pretty scary, I am sure. This is Good Friday.

Sunday, Monday, He will raise from the grave. He will come back. ‘Vengeance is mine saith the Lord’ but the Lord is all about forgiveness. Jesus raises from the dead. Now we all can. And we all will. And when we do, if we serve Jesus instead of the leaders of this era we will spend eternity in His Kingdom of Love and forgiveness. If we don’t… if we choose capitalism, hate, vengeance instead, well then… that is what we choose isn’t it?

So today is Palm Sunday. Jesus is riding into town. Where do you stand? Do you stand with Jesus saying. “set the captives free” (let the people out of jail); “you can’t serve money and God; so feed the hungry and clothe the naked” (end capitalism); “beat your swords into ploughshares” (disarm), “give sight to the blind” (provide medical  care without means tests, free of charge), show “justice and mercy” (no more expensive lawyers) “love your neighbour as yourself”; “forgive your enemies” – no more war, no more hate, no more darkness. Or do you stand with those who kill Jesus, who want retribution, revenge for wrongs, money for fun for yourself instead of necessities for others. This is what Palm Sunday is! Jesus is riding into town. Are you for him or are you against him? Do you support the superpowers and the elites of today or do you champion the downtrodden. Are you a child of the light or cowed by the hounds of hell?

Today is Palm Sunday. The choice is yours. Are you with him or are you against him? If you are with him, I invite you to wave your palm branches and cry out with me ‘Hosanna’, ‘save us’ Jesus, our Lord and Saviour.

Let us pray

John 9: OUC12

Presented to TSA Warehouse Mission, 19 March 2017 and AV Ministries, 16 March 2026, by Captain (Major) Michael Ramsay 

 

This is the 2026 AV Version, to see the 2017 Toronto Version, click here: 

https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2017/03/john-9-ouc12.html 

 

John 9:1-3: As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" 

            Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him. 

 

In life – certainly in our work here - we have seen future generations suffer consequences related to previous generations' actions.[1] We have seen people who were born impoverished or otherwise disadvantaged – in part -because of choices of their parents - among other reasons (less and less choice related btw). Christian debates around war, the environment and immigration also relate to ‘the sins of the father’. I.e.: if we don’t have a large enough population, we can’t provide income for our retirees and disabled and if we don’t have an environment and the earth dies, nothing much else really matters because we’ll all be dead. Those talking to Jesus in our story today seem to stretch this idea to the point where they see a one-to-one correspondence.[2] If you do good, good will happen to you; if you do bad, bad will happen to you.[3] Jesus tells them this is wrong. A person is NOT blind because he (or his parents) are bad people and this particular person was born blind for a GOOD purpose. The wrong idea, the heresy that good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people has a name …The prosperity gospel. Jesus quickly dispatches this error and chats about what he is going to chat about here. Jesus says, 

 

9:4-5 We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." 

 

Much of the Gospel of John is about light. Here we have a man born blind, who can only see dark and so Jesus speaks about light. He says we must all work when it is light out because, when Jesus goes away, it will be too dark for any of us to see. When we are with Jesus we can still see because He is the one who makes the light in the world and He is the Light of the world. Susan mentioned the words ‘I AM’ being God’s Name as well. Jesus intentionally speaks of Himself saying, ‘I AM the Light’. Then Jesus reinforces His message about light and darkness through a miracle: He lets light shine in this man’s life.[4] 

 

9:6-8: When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man's eyes, saying to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam" (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see. The neighbours and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, "Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?" 

 

Jesus replaces the darkness in his life with light and everyone who knows this man notices. Who wouldn’t notice? When we were in Toronto Randall, a member of our congregation who came to soldier classes, Bible study and prayer walk, and who played his instruments for the Lord at every opportunity. Randall, maybe like this man, was born blind. Do you think we’d notice a blind member of our congregation here showed up one say seeing? 

 

9:9: Some were saying, "It is he." Others were saying, "No, but it is someone like him." He kept saying, "I am the man." 

 

Again thinking of our friend Randall from Toronto: Can you imagine how frustrating this would be… some of us who know him would vouch for him but others who don't know him may not and still others unkindly may have fun at his expense. And some people who don't know Randall at all, who don't know us, and who don't know Jesus might even deny either that this is Randall or else that Randall was ever blind in the first place because., quite simply, the blind do not just open their eyes and see one day. 

 

9:10-13: But they kept asking him, "Then how were your eyes opened?" 

            He answered, "The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, 'Go to Siloam and wash.' Then I went and washed and received my sight." 

            They said to him, "Where is he?" 

            He said, "I do not know." 

            They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. 

 

So this is interesting...they keep asking him questions trying to figure out how a blind man can suddenly see. Someone spit on the ground and rubbed mud in his eyes. This doesn’t sound right. Is this supposedly once blind man mocking them?  

 

Who was the man who spit on dirt and rubbed it on your face to make you see? He tells them the name of the man and all the relevant information that he can recall. They aren't satisfied - I assume it isn't his friends here who aren't satisfied; I assume it is people who never really knew the gentleman in question. When he tells them Jesus healed him and he doesn't know where Jesus is, whether they believe him or not, they figure they should go to the Pharisees. 

 

So who are the Pharisees and why would they bring this man to them? They’re not doctors. Who were the Pharisees? The Pharisees were a religious group of Judeans. The Apostle Paul was a Pharisee and so was Nicodemus in the book of John here. The Pharisees were known as a moral evangelistic holiness movement. At their best they were probably like a much earlier John Wesley or John Calvin and at their worst they were probably like a much earlier puritanical Oliver Cromwell or whoever you think of as someone who gives you a million rules to follow. At any rate, these people want a religious opinion on what has just happened. They run and ask the pastors, priests, the Majors, the Pharisees to see what they think.[5] 

 

9:14: Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. 

 

This is important. Saturday is the Sabbath and even to this day, various  people, to varying degrees, in certain religions, aren’t supposed to do things on the Sabbath but this is certainly a miracle so they think they should get some more information as to whether it is okay or not: when and how this healing happened. 

 

9:15-16: Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them, "He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see." 

            Some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, for he does not observe the Sabbath." But others said, "How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?" And they were divided. 

 

It seems that their questioning gets them nowhere. There is a moral judgement to make here and the religious authorities are divided.[6] Some say that God commanded the Sabbath to be holy and so anyone who would profane the Sabbath by doing something on Saturday which could easily be done on Monday would be disobeying or even insulting God; so how could Jesus come from God if he did this? Others argued that he performed the will of God on the Sabbath by restoring or granting sight to a man. This is not disrespecting God; this is a miraculous sign from God. The religious leaders are divided. 

 

9:17: So they said again to the blind man, "What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened." He said, "He is a prophet." 

 

This really doesn’t settle anything. I imagine those that already came to this conclusion agreed and those that didn’t, didn’t. They must really be getting into this debate and they must think this is really important because they go to great effort to try to resolve this. 

 

9:18-23: The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight and asked them, "Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?" 

            His parents answered, "We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but we do not know how it is that now he sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself." His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. Therefore his parents said, "He is of age; ask him." 

 

This is an interesting exchange with his parents for a few reasons: 

1) The parents do confirm that he is their son and that he was born blind  

2) they are intimidated by this whole thing – I know if I was called before a whole bunch of my bosses, who could throw me out of the church, my work, and my life; I would be nervous too and  

3) This man is an adult. He can speak for himself. The parents say – why are you asking us? We weren’t even there. Ask him yourself. Now, I don’t know if those Pharisees who decided earlier that this man was of God have left or not but those that remain seem more than a little antagonistic. They start provoking and arguing with the man. 

 

9:24-26: So for the second time they called the man who had been blind, and they said to him, "Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner." 

            He answered, "I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see." 

            They said to him, "What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?" 

 

They accuse and ask him AGAIN, "What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?" This is a great comeback that the man has... 

 

9:27 He answered them, "I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?" 

 

That would be the last thing they want! 

 

9:28-29: Then they reviled him, saying, "You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from." 

 

The man has undoubtedly had enough now; I guess he figures if they are going to throw him out of church they have already made up their minds to do so.[7] 

 

9:30-33: The man answered, "Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing." 

 

The Pharisees are totally backed into a philosophical corner here with nowhere to turn – and they know it - so they fall into the trap of the prosperity gospel; the heresy that good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people. Instead of addressing this man by responding to the interpretation of events God performed in his own life, they insult him. They choose to be wrong rather than to admit that they were wrong.[8] If they had believed this heresy then none of this conversation would ever have taken place in the first place. They can’t actually believe it but still… 

 

9:34 They answered him, "You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?" And they drove him out. 

 

How many times do we do that? How many times do we know what is right but defiantly lash out wrongly instead? 

 

Now Jesus enters the story again. It appears that news of this encounter had gotten out and so Jesus was seeking him out. 

 

9:35: Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him, he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" 

 

Do we know what the ‘Son of Man’ is? He is the Messiah. He is the leader who is going to deliver God’s people from exile and oppression and establish his kingdom here. Jesus said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" 

 

9:36-38: He answered, "And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him." 

            Jesus said to him, "You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he." 

            He said, "Lord, I believe." And he worshiped him. 

 

This man has found his salvation and this is extremely important for this man and for everyone else but this story is about much more than his personal salvation. The gospel of John has a much larger story to tell about the whole world and light and darkness and seeing and not seeing. You see, salvation is not just offered to this man; salvation is offered to us all. 

 

9:39-41: Jesus said, "I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind." 

            Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, "Surely we are not blind, are we?" 

            Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, 'We see,' your sin remains. 

 

There are some of who have never seen the light, like the man in this story and when he finally does, he basks in it. He lets the love and the light of Jesus fill his whole being. If that is you, Jesus wants you to see and feel what you have been missing – the access to joy in the midst of troubles. 

 

Sadly, however, even when we have felt or heard of the light, some have chosen the darkness of separation from God’s comfort and grace; we claim we can see quite well enough without him in our lives (cf. Mark 3:29).[9] We claim that we know, do, and can explain things well enough; we don’t need to be enlightened by Jesus. Some of us in our blindness claim we have gone to school or we have gone to the school of hard knocks so we know how the world really works;[10] some of us continue to walk in the darkness of self-reliance or something else rather than in the light of Jesus and this is sad because this does not need to be. 

 

Jesus has come into our life and our world to lead us all in his light; those who are in darkness; we who have so much going on that we can’t see any way out, we who can’t see any relief for our predicament; God is here to shine His light in our own life so that we might find relief in the midst of pain and so that we may experience the joy of His life eternally . If you haven't done so yet, if you are still walking in the dark, I invite you to step into the light of God's love and experience His Salvation today. 

www.sheepspeak.com 

https://salvogesis.blogspot.com/