Welcoming Mashiach

Apr 12, 2011 at 10:10 AM

John 12:1-26

The week before Pesach, after Yeshua had come from the house of Lazarus (whom he had previously raised from the dead) in Beit-Anyah, he traveled on to Jerusalem. Hearing that Yeshua was coming, the people began to run out to meet him. As he entered the city, riding on a donkey, the people waved palm branches and shouted “Hosha-Na, Hosha-Na! Baruch HaBa B'Shem HaShem! Melech Yisrael! - Deliver us! Blessed is He who comes in the Name of HaShem, the King of Israel!”

Upon seeing the crowds coming to greet him, Yeshua knew exactly what was taking place, and its significance. For at the same time, through another gate into the city, the same familiar scene was taking place. The Passover Lambs were being brought into the city, being led up to the Temple Mount. As they were brought into the city, the people were singing and dancing, and waving palm branches, shouting, “Hosha Na! Baruch HaBa B'Shem HaShem!”

The Passover lambs represented the atonement made on behalf of the Jewish people, and the shedding of whose blood brought deliverance from the plague of death. As Yeshua entered the city, and was met with the same recognition, there was a deep understanding of the event taking place. This was proclamtion to Yeshua's Messiahship and to his beeing seen as the Deliverer of the Jewish people. Riding on a donkey, a messianic symbol in Biblical times, Yeshua was fulfilling prophesies of what was to happen. He knew that it was now time to reveal himself to the world. In this Besorah reading, John testifies of this. How Yeshua, responding to his disciples Andrew and Philip, proclaimed:

“The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Yes, indeed! I tell you that unless a grain of wheat that falls to the ground dies, it stays just grain; but if it dies, it produces a great harvest (John 12:23-24).”

During that final week of preparation before Passover, Yeshua, as the Passover lamb, was prepared to be sacrificed. Like the Passover lamb whose blood brought redemption to the people, Yeshua too knew that his blood would bring redemption to Israel. And when the High Priest slaughtered the lamb, announcing “it is finished,” that Yeshua too, as Israel's Highest Priest, would also declare “it is finished,” proclaiming the ultimate deliverance from the plague of spiritual death.

As Yeshua's elect, we must constantly, on a daily basis acknowlege his Messiahship in our lives. We too must cry out, “Hosha-Na! - G-d, please save us!” We must be desperate to see G-d work in our lives, and in our congregations and synagogues to bring about ultimate redemption! Zol shein zein d'geula, Moshioch zol shoin cumin -How lovely redemption shall be, for Mashiach is on His way!


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