Triumph! (Lent 6, 2025) - Matt 21:1-17

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Anna Yahweh hoshiana! (Please Lord, save us!) - Psalm 118:25 

Somebody somewhere in the history of the Church looked at the story of Jesus’ ride into Jerusalem on a donkey, and for the first time ever called it the “Triumphal Entry.” Which makes sense, because on the surface that event—with Jesus riding into Jerusalem and people shouting and tearing down palm branches and singing songs—feels like a party. It feels like we all felt in February at the end of the Four Nations Face Off. Final game. Overtime. Everything's on the line. Somebody scores. Canada wins! Triumph!  

In the ancient Roman Empire a ‘Triumph’ was: 

A civil ceremony and a religious rite held to publicly celebrate and sanctify the success of a military commander who had led Roman forces to victory in the service of the state. - Wikipedia 

The Roman people and the peoples they conquered understood the word to mean this: a party that you throw when the winner comes home.  

Two weeks ago, we talked briefly about a man named Titus. Not the Titus whose name appears in the New Testament. A Titus who became Emperor of Rome, but first a very successful General in the Roman army. Titus is, in fact, the General responsible for the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. He led the army that besieged, invaded, and gutted Jerusalem. For that battle, Titus was awarded a Triumph.  

His army took and marched back to Rome all of the treasures from the Temple. Those sacred, precious items became loot. 

The Emperor and the senate agreed that Titus deserved a triumph, and bestowed on him the title Imperator.  

The Imperator would bring his army home to the city of Rome, and they would stand outside a great gate called the Porta Triumphalis (Triumphal Gate). There they would remove their armour and drop their weapons as a sign that the war was over. Meanwhile, in the city, people would be getting ready: the dozens of temples that existed all throughout the city threw open their doors, burned incense on the front porch, and put out bouquets of flowers to decorate the parade route.  

The Imperator would be given a crown of laurel leaves to represent his connection to the gods of Rome. Then a party of senators would come down the street, meet him at the gate, and turn around, leading the procession into the city.  

I think that's what somebody had in mind when they first called Jesus’ ride into Jerusalem a Triumphal Entry: because it resonated with them in the same way. But there are some really, really big differences—huge differences—between Titus's triumph in 71 AD, and what we call Jesus's triumphal ride 4 decades years earlier. 

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• Titus rode standing in a chariot pulled by horses. Jesus rode on a donkey. 

Titus’ chariot ride was the equivalent of riding into Rome sitting on top of a tank. Horses and chariots were for kings at war.  

Riding on a donkey was the equivalent of showing up in a UPS truck or on a moped. It was the kind of ordinary, everyday thing that is only possible in safety and security. Donkeys were ridden by kings who came in peace. 

• Titus was celebrated as a man of power, of force, of violence. He’d won a victory in battle in which he had killed thousands of enemy soldiers. Only then did he lay down his weapons and armour: his war was finished.  

When Jesus rode into Jerusalem, He came as a man of love, and a man of strength. He came riding toward His battle. He wasn't done yet. He didn't have any armour. He didn't have any weapons, not because He was finished with them, but because He had no use for them. He was riding into the greatest, most decisive battle in the history of the universe. The battle on which everything depended on which everything turned, and which He was going to fight alone and empty-handed.  

• Titus was celebrating. He was rejoicing. Exulting over what he’d acccomplished. Jesus, the writers tell us, was grieving.  

I think he must have had a smile on His face for the people who came to Him, for His disciples, His apostles, His friends. For the children who came to sing for Him, and to walk with Him into the city. I think He must have been smiling. But I think He must have been smiling with this morning's tears dried on His cheeks, and tonight's tears ready to come. 

Just the night before, Mary had anointed Him with perfume and Jesus had said,  

“Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “She has kept this perfume in preparation for the day of My burial.” - John 12:7

In the days before, He had been telling His apostles,  

Look, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes. They will condemn Him to death and will deliver Him over to the Gentiles, who will mock Him and spit on Him and flog Him and kill Him. And after three days He will rise again. - Mark 10:33-34

During His walk from Bethpage to Jerusalem, Luke records for us that,  

As Jesus approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it and said, “If only you had known... on this day what would bring you peace! ... For the days will come upon you when your enemies will barricade you and surround you and hem you in on every side. They will level you to the ground—you and the children within your walls...”  - Luke 19:41-44

Who is “they?”  

Titus. The event for which, 40 years later, Titus would be celebrated caused Jesus to weep. 

As He heard the people singing those words from Psalm 118, “Anna Yahweh hoshiana! Please, Lord, save us! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,” Jesus knew that they were so close. So close! But they missed the moment.  

After the Triumphal Entry Jesus’ speech was full of phrases like:  

“Be on your guard.” “Flee to the mountains.” “Don't believe the deceivers.” “Brother will betray brother.” “My soul is troubled.” “Lose your life.” “My time has come.”  

Later still, in the hours before His arrest when Jesus was on His knees in Gethsemane, praying to God...  

“My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me...” - Matthew 26:39 

...it's easy to bring a holy imagination into that moment and hear Jesus whispering, “Anna Yahweh hoshiana! Anna Yahweh hoshiana!”  

And we call this a ‘Triumph.’  

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To Roman eyes, Jesus’ ride into Jerusalem would have resembled a victory parade, celebrating a champion. 

To Jewish eyes, that ride into Jerusalem would have looked like a hopeful people celebrating the arrival of the king who they hoped was going to save them.  

To political and powerful eyes, it looked like trouble. And they were not wrong.  

Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem was triumphal not because it was celebrating a victory... but because it was anticipating one.  

It was pointing us towards the Triumph to come. Jesus planned and choreographed this event himself intentionally to send the message: “Watch this space. Prepare to be amazed.” 

Titus’ triumphal ride was a celebration of something that had happened.  

Jesus’ triumphal ride was, on one hand, a prophecy fulfilled: 

Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your King comes to you, righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem, and the bow of war will be broken. - Zechariah 9:9-10

But it was also a prophecy spoken, pointing forward to the Triumph to come. 

It was a prophecy that on the Sunday after Palm Sunday, Jesus was going to step through His own Porta Triumphalis: when He saw from within the tomb the stone rolled away and the moonlight shining in. He would step out through that gateway and into a jubilant world. 

It's also pointing forward to a victory that will happen we don't know when, but is already happening now: when believers will be and are standing now as John describes: 

I saw a multitude too large to count from every nation, and tribe, and people, and tongue standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice, “Salvation to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb!” - Revelation 7:9-10 

Not “anna Yahweh hoshiana!” but “Salvation! The Lord has done it!” Jesus sits on the throne. He has laid down His armour.  

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In 71 AD, Titus's parade wound its way through the city of Rome and in the middle of that parade, far from the smoking ruins of home walked the defeated captives.  

In eternity and today, Jesus' enemies are also defeated. He has triumphed over evil. Over the power of the enemy to twist and corrupt all that is good in God's creation. So we say anna Yahweh hoshiana! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.  

He has triumphed over death, over decay, over destruction. Grief and loneliness. Helplessness and hopelessness and despair. So we say anna Yahweh hoshiana! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.  

In 71 AD, following along behind Titus in his parade came his army. Unarmed. Unweaponed.

In eternity and today, following Jesus in His triumphal parade is His army. (That's us, by the way.) We are not yet unarmed because, although our general has won the war, there are still battles that we must fight against hatred, against hunger, against fear, against pain, against isolation, against chaos.  

And in eternity and today we, His army... we sing. Sometimes in the streets but always from the heart. We sing with every word and with every deed. We sing our gratitude for the fulfilled hopes of earlier times. We sing to declare what is to come.  

Anna Yahweh hoshiana! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.  

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