Luke 19:28–48 The Triumphal Entry: Jesus the Messiah & King Who Came to Save

September 21, 2026

The Ten Signposts of the Bible

CAMDE—400—CALY

Creation. Abraham. Moses. David. Elijah. 400. Christ. Apostles. Letters. Yet-to-Come. 

Up to this point in our study of Luke, Jesus has kept the fact that he is the Messiah under wraps. When he healed the leper in Luke 5, Jesus told him not to tell anyone. He gave the same instruction after he healed Jairus’ daughter (Luke 8:56). You’ll remember that when Peter confessed Jesus as the Christ at Caesarea Philippi, Jesus “strictly charged and commanded [his disciples] to tell…no one” (Luke 9:21). And at the transfiguration, after Jesus appeared with Moses and Elijah, he told Peter, James, and John “to tell no one what they had seen, until the Son of Man had risen from the dead” (Mark 9:9). 

But in today’s passage, everything changes. We’re entering the final stretch of Luke’s Gospel, when Jesus rides into Jerusalem and reveals himself as the Messiah. From there, we follow him to the cross, where he will become the ultimate sacrifice. 

As Jesus approached Jerusalem, he told two of his disciples to “go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here” (Luke 19:29–30). If anyone asked why they were untying the colt, they were to say simply, “The Lord has need of it” (Luke 19:31). Luke doesn’t say whether Jesus had already arranged this with the owners or whether the colt belonged to one of his followers. But when they went for it, they “found it just as he had told them” (Luke 19:32). 

Five hundred years before Jesus was even born, Zechariah the prophet wrote: 

Zechariah 9:9

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.  

This Old Testament verse clearly points to the Messiah, the Anointed One of God. So when Jesus mounted the colt, he entered Jerusalem as the One who fulfilled this prophecy, and the crowd’s response confirmed it. They spread their cloaks on the road, showing honor and respect, and they shouted the words from Psalm 118:26: “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” (Luke 19:38). One commentator says it like this, “Finally, Jesus’ glory was openly recognized . . . He was more than the babe of Nazareth or the Galilean rabbi. He was more than a miracle worker. He was a royal figure entering the royal city down the royal road. He came as God’s representative, God’s chosen king.”^[1]

The Pharisees knew the people were praising Jesus and exalting him as their Messiah, so they demanded, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples” (Luke 19:39). But he replied, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out” (Luke 19:40). 

As Jesus rode triumphantly into Jerusalem, he also felt sorrow as he “wept over it, saying, ‘Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes’” (Luke 19:41–42). Jesus came to bring spiritual peace to the people of Israel, but they were expecting deliverance from Rome.

Jesus gave further warning about what would follow: A day was coming when Rome would “not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation” (Luke 19:43–44). This most likely refers to the Romans destroying the Jewish temple in AD 70 and to the events of the end times.^[2] 

After grieving over what was to come, Jesus entered the temple. The Sadducees controlled the commercial activity in the temple’s “Court of the Gentiles,” a busy outer area where Jews and Gentiles could gather. There, religious authorities charged exorbitant fees to exchange Roman coins for temple-approved currency. They also sold animals for sacrifice. This was for worshipers whose animals were rejected by the priests, allowing them to purchase approved ones on the temple grounds. Jesus confronted the greed and deceit that had corrupted the worship of God.

He drove these “moneychangers” from the temple, saying, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers” (Luke 19:45–46). Jesus' public actions brought the immorality of the religious establishment to light, demonstrated his authority, and set in motion the events that would lead to his death. The Sadducees and Pharisees would join together to plan how to rid themselves of him (Luke 19:47). With Passover approaching, this would require careful, strategic planning (John 11:55). 

As Jesus taught in the temple, Luke said that “all the people were hanging on his words” (Luke 19:48). The crowd remained fixed on Jesus as their Messiah and King because they believed his reign would free them from Roman tyranny. They were looking for a political liberator who would overthrow their oppressor and restore national power. However, the religious leaders saw Jesus as a threat that needed to be dealt with. All of this would lead to the cross, where Jesus would pay the penalty for sin. 

What the religious authorities intended as a remedy for their problem with Jesus and his message, the Father intended as a remedy for humanity’s problem with sin. We will continue following Jesus to the cross and understand how the Father's hand guided the journey.

Read and reflect on Luke 19:28–48: The crowds recognized Jesus as King, but many misunderstood what kind of King he was. What expectations or assumptions about Jesus might keep you from fully trusting him as he really is?

Talking to God: Talk to God about what is keeping you from fully trusting him and how you can begin to surrender these specific areas to him. 

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