What was the big deal about Palm Sunday?
Why was it so important for Jesus to be called “King” on that day, and not on any other?
To get the answers to that, we have to look back 500 years or so, and check in on a young Hebrew slave in Babylon named Daniel, who is soon to have an angelic visitation of major proportions. Lets check in with Daniel in Chapter 9 of his book:
2 in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.
So Daniel was reading a prophecy from Jeremiah, that talked about the Babylonian captivity; a time in which Daniel was reading. He literally was at the time that God’s prophecy would either come true, or God would be revealed as a liar.
This is what Daniel read, in Jeremiah 29:10,
For thus says the Lord: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place.
Daniel’s eyes probably popped wide open, and his heart likely skipped a beat. He did the math, then checked it, and double checked it.
They were very close to the end of the 70 years of captivity. If Jeremiah’s prophecy was correct, they soon would be going home to Jerusalem.
He started talking to God. Hard. I imagine that he prayed about as hard as he ever had. He wanted to know if this prophecy was correct, how soon, what specifically would happen, and volunteered to be one of God’s hands in bringing it about.
God soon answered that prayer, in the form of an angelic visitation.
And it wasn’t just any angel, it was the arch-angel Gabriel that came calling on that day. And Gabriel gave Daniel a prophecy of his own; one for him to record for Israel’s generations to come...all the way up to the end of time.
And one part of that prophecy had to do with the revelation of the Messiah as King. In Daniel 9, verses 25 and 26 we read,
“Know therefore and understand, That from the going forth of the command To restore and build Jerusalem Until Messiah the Prince, There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; The street shall be built again, and the wall, Even in troublesome times.
Just a couple of notes for clarity here...the word that is translated “Prince” here was previously translated as King (as in King Saul), and the word translated here as “weeks” literally means “groups of seven things”. Think of a dozen is 12 of something. The more correct word here would have been “heptad”, which literally means a group of 7, but that word did not exist when the Bible was first translated. So the translators gave us weeks of 7 years.
In plain English, there would come a time that Jerusalem itself would be rebuilt (not just the temple), and when the King commanded that to happen, there would be 69 groups of 7 years until Messiah the King would be revealed. According to history, that decree came on March 5, 444 BC.
The book of Nehemiah tells about the rebuilding of the city and the "troublesome times", and what happened after that decree was issued.
But also according to Daniel's prophecy, the date that the Messiah would appear was 69 “groups” of 7 years, or a total of 483 years from the day the decree was given.
This biblical year of 360 days was based upon the lunar phases which were made up of 12 30-day time periods.
To calculate the "69 weeks" until the Messiah came, you multiply the 483 years by 360 days. The result is that the Messiah would appear 173,880 days from the day the decree was issued.
By converting these days, using the precise length of our solar year, the day the Messiah would appear is the 10th of Nisan or March 30, 33 A.D. This means that according to Daniel's prophecy, any person not proclaimed the Messiah on March 30, 33 A.D. could not, in fact, be the Messiah.
The New Testament illustrates how perfectly Jesus Christ fulfilled this prophecy. The biblical writer Luke gives us the timing of the beginning of Jesus' ministry on earth in his Gospel:
"52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man. 1 Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene...21 Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, 22 And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased. 23 And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age." (Luke 2:51-3:1, 21-23)
Biblical scholars recognize the Gospel writer Luke as a historian of the first degree. His book illustrates thoroughly the attention he gives to historical detail. In this passage, he makes it clear that Jesus was baptized and began His ministry in the 15th year of the reign of the Roman emperor Tiberius Caesar.
Since historians state that the Roman emperor Augustus died on August 19, 14 A.D., this means that Tiberius became sole emperor that same year. Thus, Jesus began His ministry in 29 A.D., which was the 15th year of Tiberius' reign.
Most biblical scholars have concluded that Jesus' earthly ministry lasted three and one-half years. Since His ministry started in the latter half of 29 A.D., He would have finished it in the spring of 33 A.D.
Thus, the exact date of Jesus' "triumphal entry" into Jerusalem whenthe multitudes of Jewish people proclaimed Him the Messiah was in the spring of 33 AD. That Nissan 10...the one that Gabriel prophesied that the Messiah would be recognized...was in the spring of 33 AD. Hmm...
We know from many scriptures that the Messiah would be killed on Passover, and Passover was always celebrated on Nissan 14. So Nissan 10 had to have been the date of Jesus triumphal entry, as it was both the fulfillment of Gabriel's prophecy AND Jesus recognition as King had to happen before his death on Passover. Nissan 10 just fulfills both prophetic forecasts.
Jesus Himself revealed the importance and significance of this day. Several times during His ministry the people wanted to publicly proclaim Him the Messiah. Each of these times Jesus refused to allow them to perform this coronation.
However, on the 10th of Nisan, 33 A.D. Jesus not only welcomed the praises and proclamations of the people declaring Him the Messiah, He stated that it had to happen on this very day. The Pharisees approached Jesus during this public homage to Him. They were angry that He was accepting this Messianic declaration of the people and said to Him, "Rabbi, Rebuke your disciples."
Jesus responded to them and said, "I tell you that, if these [people] should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out." Jesus was saying that it was so important that He be proclaimed Messiah on this very day that if the people wouldn't do it the rocks on the ground would. That is because God's prophecies and His will always come to pass and He will use whatever means available to accomplish them."
Therefore, in order to fulfill this prophecy of Daniel, Jesus was going to be proclaimed the Messiah on this specific day one way or another. Unless it happened on the prophetic day foretold, then He couldn't have been the Messiah.
As Jesus approached the city of Jerusalem on the donkey, He stopped and wept saying:
"41 And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, 42 Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. " (Luke 19:41-42)
This saying of Jesus is of the utmost importance because it shows that according to Jesus, the Jews should have known that this was the exact day that the Messiah would visit His people. How could they have known?
There is only one way that they could have known...by correctly interpreting Daniel's prophecy, along with those prophecies of Isaiah and Zechariah, that foretold that the Messiah would be a humble, suffering servant, arriving on a donkey colt, arriving on this exact day in history.
Jesus would go on to fulfill many other prophecies during the next week. He died as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world on the Feast of Passover, was buried on Unleavened Bread, taking our sins upon himself, and rose again as the Firstfruits of the Resurrection on the following Sunday, the Feast of Firstfruits.
According to God’s timetable, there is no way that Jesus could NOT have been the Messiah. No one else could have fulfilled those requirements. And what happened on Palm Sunday had to happen as it did, at that specific place and time.