When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, he was welcomed into the city like a king! The people spread their cloaks on the road and shouted:
“9 And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! 10Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!” 11And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.”
(Mk 11:9-11)
Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem contains much symbolism.
The expression “hosanna” is a combination of the two Hebrew words “save” and “I/we pray” and was associated with a prayer and longing for the Messiah to come and save the people of Israel.[i] At the time of Jesus, there was a great expectation among the Jewish people that there would come a Messiah, a new warrior-king like David, who would drive the Romans out of the Holy Land and re-establish Israel as a powerful nation with Jerusalem as its capital. On another occasion, the people tried to make Jesus the new king of Israel by force in order to free the Jewish people from the Romans. [ii]
The word “salem” in “Jerusalem” comes from the Hebrew word “shalom”, which means “peace” in English. Zechariah had prophesied long before Jesus that the King of Jerusalem would one day ride into Jerusalem on a donkey’s colt, eradicate strife and speak peace to the nations.[iii] In biblical times, when a king wanted to signal whether he was coming with war or peace, he could either ride toward a city on a war horse or a peaceful donkey. So when Jesus rides into the city of peace on a peaceful donkey, accompanied by “Hosanna”, the symbolism is almost overwhelming; Jesus is signaling that he is coming as a king to the city of peace and offering peace.
After Jesus rides into Jerusalem in this spectacular way, he goes to the temple. In Jesus’ time, the temple was divided into several sections: at the very center was the “Most Holy Place”, where only the high priest was allowed to go once a year.[iv] Outside this was the “Holy Place”, and then a number of “courts” for the priests, the men, the women, and finally the Gentiles, i.e., strangers from other countries. Between the courtyard of the Gentiles and everything else there was a dividing wall with the text:
“No foreigner is allowed in the courtyard and within the wall surrounding the temple. Whoever enters will invite death for himself!”
This wall separated the Jews from the Gentiles inside the temple area. Jesus sees what’s going on, inspects it and then leaves. The next day, Jesus comes back to the temple, and this happens:
“15 And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 16And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. 17And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.”
(Mk 11:15-17)
The court of the Gentiles, the place where “all nations”, i.e., Gentiles and foreigners, according to Solomon’s prayer[v] at the dedication of the temple would meet God, had unfortunately been turned into a messy marketplace. Jesus is so upset by this that he overturned tables and chairs and drove out those who were selling and buying in the temple with a whip.[vi]
The Jews had failed to provide a place of prayer for the Gentiles in the temple, a mission you can read more about in chapter 13. The Gentiles were not allowed to go inside the temple and outside the dividing wall it was a marketplace. After this incident, the chief priests and scribes start trying to find a way to clear Jesus out of the way,[vii] and not long after this Jesus dies on the cross.
Jesus did not come to Jerusalem in the way the people wanted, as a warrior king who would start a war between the Jews and the Romans. Jesus came not to fight back, but to make peace. He turned the other cheek and, by his death on the cross, offered a path to reconciliation between Jews and Gentiles. In Ephesians, Paul writes that Jesus, through his death on the cross, has torn down that dividing wall:
“11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands-12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, thus making peace,16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 18For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,”
(Eph 2:11-19)
The word “Gentile” comes from the Hebrew word ”goyim” and the Greek word ”ethnos”. Depending on the context, goyim and ethnos are translated as “Gentiles” or “nations”.
When it is clear that the text refers to “non-Israelites”, then goyim/ethnos is translated as “Gentiles”, as in Paul’s titling of himself as the apostle of the Gentiles [ethnos][viii] as opposed to Peter who was the apostle of the Jews.
When it is clear that the text refers to both Jews and Gentiles, goyim/ethnos is translated as “all nations”, for example in Jesus’ words that the gospel will be “proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations [ethnos]“[ix] .
In Galatians 3:8, ethnos is used for both of these meanings: “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles [ethnos] by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations [ethnos] be blessed.”
But being a goyim/ethnos does not always mean simply that one is not a Jew in an ethnic sense, i.e., a “foreigner” or “alien”, but can also mean that one is outside God’s covenant with Israel. But since God’s covenant with Israel was with an ethnic people, these meanings are naturally interrelated and intertwined. In other words, “Gentile” and “stranger” are basically synonymous terms.
Before the cross, a Gentile who wanted to become part of God’s people had to be circumcised and start following the Law of Moses. But with the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Gentiles were given an opportunity to become an equal part of the people of God through faith in Jesus, not through circumcision and the Law.
Although the Law itself is righteous and good, the death and resurrection of Jesus has rendered it comparatively ineffective and powerless. The Law, with its commandments and statutes, is not capable of regenerating a person in the way that faith in Jesus does.
Through Jesus’ death on the cross, man’s relationship with God is reconciled. But not only with God, also with each other. Through Jesus’ death on the cross, the walls that we humans have built between us and God, between each other, between native and stranger, between Jew and Greek, between slave and free, between man and woman, are torn down.
With the death and resurrection of Jesus, both Jews and Gentiles are offered the possibility of a whole new life in the power of the Spirit through faith in Jesus. In believing in Jesus, both Jews and Gentiles have access to the “Most Holy Place”, an opportunity for direct contact and relationship with the Lord.
These two groups, Jews and Gentiles, are not only supposed to live in peace with each other, but are supposed to form a new people, the “Church”. In society we may be seen as Swedes, Americans, immigrants, Jews, Gentiles and foreigners, etc. But in the church, we are no longer to separate each other by these dividing lines, but now we are a united people, we are brother and sister in the Lord. The uniting of Jews and Gentiles, natives and foreigners, Swedes and immigrants, in a new loving community, is thus part of God’s plan of salvation for humanity.
When society proclaims divisions and boundaries between peoples, the church should act as a light in the darkness and do just the opposite, preaching peace and reconciliation between peoples and nations. In contrast to a society that makes laws separating Swedes and immigrants, the church should work for reconciliation, integration, friendship and inclusion. In other words, the demolition of that wall is a work in progress in which we must all participate, brick by brick.
You have read a free chapter of my book Friend of Strangers. If you like this book, please consider purchasing the ebook through Amazon. Since English is not my native language, there may be some linguistic inaccuracies. Please contact me if you find any.
Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[i] Ps 118:25
[ii] Jn 6:14–15
[iii] Zec 9:9–10
[iv] Le 16
[v] 1Ki 8:41–43
[vi] Jn 2:13–17
[vii] Mk 11:18
[viii] Ga 2:8
[ix] Mt 24:14