"Who Is This?"

 

Matthew 21:1-11

March 22, 2026

Palm Sunday

 

When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, ² saying to them, "Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. ³ If anyone says anything to you, just say this, "The Lord needs them.' And he will send them immediately. " ⁴ This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying,

⁵ "Tell the daughter of Zion,
Look, your king is coming to you,
humble, and mounted on a donkey,
and on a colt, the foal of a donkey."

⁶ The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; ⁷ they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. ⁸ A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. ⁹ The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting,

"Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!"

¹⁰ When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, "Who is this?" ¹¹ The crowds were saying, "This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee."

 

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            In the crowds on Palm Sunday were people cheering for Jesus, some of whom thought he was the Messiah sent by God to free his people from foreign rule, some of whom thought he was the Messiah sent by God to cleanse the temple from abuses that had turned faith into a business, some of whom thought he was a healer, some of whom may have thought he was another ambitious politician out for power and status, some of whom may have thought he was a charlatan, some of whom may have thought he was crazy, some of whom may not have cared at all but enjoyed the excitement.

“When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, ‘Who is this?’"  [Matthew 21:10]

            That question had been following Jesus for awhile, and he knew it.  Earlier in Matthew, we read of a time when Jesus raised the subject with his closest followers.

“Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’  And they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’    [Matthew 16:13-14]

Jesus called himself the Son of Man here, which was one of those enigmatic terms for an end-of-times figure that commentators never really have gotten a handle on.  Jesus had also been associated with John the Baptist, who confronted both Herod and the authorities in the temple.  Elijah was the prophet who had called out the corruption of King Ahab.  Jeremiah had warned about how societal rot was leading to destruction of both the temple and the kingdom. It’s pretty clear that at least some people were expecting something dramatic from him.

“Who is this?” [Matthew 21:10]  Jesus added onto their expectations by acting out the words of the prophet Zechariah [9:9]:

"Tell the daughter of Zion,
Look, your king is coming to you,
humble, and mounted on a donkey,
and on a colt, the foal of a donkey." [Matthew 21:5]

Matthew says that when Jesus had entered Jerusalem he continued on to the temple and proceeded to disrupt long-established practices by driving out the animal-sellers and flipping over the moneychangers’ tables.  The next morning he had the gall to return to the temple and start telling parables about God ending the current order and judging the world.  That sounded great – except that the judgment was going to start with Jerusalem, not Rome.  That did not follow anybody’s script.

“Who is this?” was turning into, “Just who does he think he is?”

That was Monday.  Tuesday was more of the same, with some disputes between Jesus and members of the two main factions in town – the Pharisees and the Sadducees.  He didn’t take sides with either group.  By Wednesday of that week, it was clear that the situation was coming to a crisis.

^“When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples, ‘You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.’ Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, and they conspired to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him. But they said, ‘Not during the festival, or there may be a riot among the people.’” [Matthew 26:1-5]

That was the night that Judas agreed to turn Jesus over [Matthew 26:14-16] and the next night he found his chance.

            “Who is this?”  Arrested, he was tried by the religious authorities, the Sanhedrin, a court presided over by the high priest.

“Then the high priest said to him, "I put you under oath before the living God, tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God." [Matthew 26:63]

His answer was enough.

                        “You have said so.” [Matthew 26:64]

They sent him to the Roman governor, Pilate.  Pilate had different concerns, different worries, but the same question: “Who is this?”  He demanded of Jesus,

"Are you the King of the Jews?" Jesus said, "You say so." [Matthew 27:11]

His answer again was enough.  Condemned by religious and by civil authority, he was sent to his execution.

            “Who is this?”  The Roman soldiers were ordered to put a sign onto the cross with Jesus detailing his crime:

"This is Jesus, the King of the Jews." [Matthew 27:37]

Then they stood guard to make sure he died.  “Who is this?”  They, of all people, were given an answer that takes in all the other answers that have ever been given.  They saw the world change in fearful but hopeful ways and began to see the simplicity and the enormity of these events.

“At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, and the rocks were split.  The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised.  After his resurrection they came out of the tombs and entered the holy city and appeared to many.  Now when the centurion and those with him, who were keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were terrified and said, ‘Truly this man was God's Son!’” [Matthew 27:51-54]