Palm Saturday

I mentioned why Wednesday would be the 14th of Nissan in Passover, the Feasts, and Jesus as Their Fulfillment. If so, Jesus as the Lamb entered "the home" to be examined fall on Saturday the Sabbath, just as all the other lamb we're commanded to be examined the Tanakh (first 5 books of the Bible)

Why Saturday Fits better with Gospel Timeline

1. The Temple Was Full

On that Sabbath, every devout Jew in Jerusalem was already gathered at the temple. Passover was days away, so the city was packed with pilgrims from across Israel and the diaspora as they "go up" to the Passover. When Jesus crested the Mount of Olives on a donkey, He was entering before the largest possible audience - not a random weekday crowd, but the full Sabbath assembly.

John 12:12–13
"The great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem."

These were Passover pilgrims already in the city. On the Sabbath they weren't traveling - they were right there, gathered and waiting.

-> Lord of the Sabbath entered as a Lamb to be examined by the whole of Israel, Roman and the World to be shown as Blameless.
(see My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.)

2. The Political Context

The crowd was crying:

"Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the King of Israel!" (John 12:13)
-> Hosanna meaning "Liberate us"

This is coronation language. On the Sabbath, in a city crammed with Jewish pilgrims seething under Roman occupation, the arrival of a man being proclaimed King of Israel on the road to the temple would have been electric. The Pharisees themselves said:

"Look, the whole world has gone after him." (John 12:19)

That hyperbole only makes sense if the crowd was enormous - which it would be on a Sabbath during Passover week.

3. Jesus Goes Straight to the Temple - and Just Looks Around

Mark records something subtle:

Mark 11:11
"Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve."

He enters the temple. He surveys it - like a king inspecting His house. Then He leaves because it is late.

Why didn't He teach? Why didn't He cleanse the temple immediately?

Because it was the Sabbath. You don't overturn tables on the Sabbath. He came, He looked, He left. The cleansing of the temple happens the next day (Mark 11:15) - Sunday, Nisan 11, when it was lawful to act.

-> Part of being Blameless is upholding the house of the Lord.

4. Jesus Sabbath Day's Journey - Bethany to Jerusalem

This can be a red herring but I'm trying to tie up loose ends.

Bethany was about 2 miles from Jerusalem. The Sabbath travel limit was traditionally applied to leaving a settlement, not to pilgrims entering Jerusalem for a feast. Pilgrimage to the temple on the Sabbath before Passover was not only permitted - it was expected.

5. The Parable of the Rejected Son- The Key

Right after the temple cleansing, Jesus tells them this. He’s not being subtle.

Matthew 21:33–39 (NASB)
³³ “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower, and rented it out to vine-growers and went on a journey.
³⁴ When the harvest time approached, he sent his slaves to the vine-growers to receive his produce.
³⁵ The vine-growers took his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned a third.
³⁶ Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they did the same things to them.
³⁷ But afterward he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’
³⁸ But when the vine-growers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’
³⁹ They took him, and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

Notice. This is not a neglected vineyard- the owner built it, fenced it, equipped it. Everything was provided. Yet, the vine-growers refused to render what was owed.

He sent servants. They beat them and killed them. He sent more and they did the same.

-> God sent the prophets. Israel rejected them. God sent more and they rejected/killed them too.

Then He sends His Son. Not because He didn’t know the risk. But because that’s what a father does- He keeps sending until there is no one left to send.

Then Jesus turns it on them:

Matthew 21:40–41 (NASB)
⁴⁰ “Therefore when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine-growers?”
⁴¹ They said to Him, “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and will rent out the vineyard to other vine-growers who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons.”

They answered their own condemnation. Out of their own mouths.

-> Jesus did not pronounce the judgment. They did.

Then He continues:

Matthew 21:42–44 (NASB)
⁴² Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures, ‘The stone which the builders rejected, this has become the chief cornerstone; this came about from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
⁴³ Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruit.
⁴⁴ And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust.”

The rejected Son becomes the cornerstone. What they threw out is the very thing the whole structure rests on.

And they knew exactly who He was talking about:

Matthew 21:45–46 (NASB)
⁴⁵ When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, they understood that He was speaking about them.
⁴⁶ When they sought to seize Him, they were afraid of the people, because they considered Him to be a prophet.

They understood. And instead of repenting, they looked for a way to arrest Him.

-> The parable is then fulfilled. This is Jesus narrating what is about to happen to Him.

He is the Son sent to inspect the vineyard. He walked into the temple and looked around. He saw what was there. He came back. And within days they would throw Him out and kill Him.

7. What Saturday Really Is

People call it the Triumphal Entry. And the crowd certainly treated it that way- palm branches, hosannas, coronation language.

But what was Jesus doing?

He came into the city. He went to the temple. He looked around at everything. And He left.

He did not take over. That was His inspection.

-> The crowd saw a King arriving. Jesus was the Lamb being examined.
-> The Pharisees saw a threat. Jesus was the Son sent to the vineyard.
-> Jesus was going as a Lamb led to the slaughter

These things were all true at the same time. That is the depth of what God was doing on the 10th of Nisan.

Wisdom

The examination of the Lamb does not begin at the cross. It begins at the entry. Four days of questioning, testing, challenging by Israelites and Gentiles and none found any blemish.

What the parable makes clear is that the rejection was not a surprise to God. The Son was sent knowing He would be killed.