January 12, 2026
The triumphal entry is one of those events in the life of Jesus recorded in all four Gospels, an occurrence that is rarer than one might think. Along with John 12:12-19, there are parallel passages in Matthew 21:1-17; Mark 11:1-11; and Luke 19:29-40. While John makes clear that the time of year is around the Passover (John 12:1), the scene of the triumphal entry is reminiscent of another Jewish festival.
John already mentions the Feast of Dedication, as he calls it, in 10:21. Today, that festival is more commonly known as Hanukkah. This festival commemorates the Maccabean revolt against the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd century BC. As part of this revolt, Judas Maccabeus and his brothers reclaimed Jerusalem and the Second Temple. Notice the similarities in the scene as Judas Maccabeus enters Jerusalem.
On the twenty-third day of the second month, in the one hundred seventy-first year, the Jews entered it with praise and palm branches, and with harps and cymbals and stringed instruments, and with hymns and songs, because a great enemy had been crushed and removed from Israel (1 Macc 13:51, NRSV).
6 They celebrated it for eight days with rejoicing, in the manner of the festival of booths, remembering how not long before, during the festival of booths, they had been wandering in the mountains and caves like wild animals. 7 Therefore, carrying ivy-wreathed wands and beautiful branches and also fronds of palm, they offered hymns of thanksgiving to him who had given success to the purifying of his own holy place. 8 They decreed by public edict, ratified by vote, that the whole nation of the Jews should observe these days every year. 9 Such then was the end of Antiochus, who was called Epiphanes (2 Macc 10:6–9).
Now here’s John’s account of the triumphal entry:
12 The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. 13 So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” (John 12:12–13).
At the triumphal entry, the people aren’t welcoming the Passover sacrifice. They are welcoming (they think) the second coming of Judas Maccabeus. They don’t want a Passover lamb. They want a king, and so they welcome him as one, expecting him to do what Judas and his brothers had done before when they brought an end to the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes in Judah.
Jesus is a king, but not like they expect. He comes low and riding on a donkey. The Jews are, in effect, celebrating the wrong festival at the wrong time. It wasn’t Hanukkah. It was Passover, and, for the most part, they failed to see the lamb of God right in front of their eyes.