<p>21:11&nbsp;<em>And the crowds said: This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee</em>- I think we can conclude that this answer was not given in proud introduction of their Messiah, but rather agreeing with the sceptical question 'What kind of person is<em> this</em>?'. For Nazareth and Galilee were despised and hardly seen as the origin of Messiah nor of any half decent prophet. &quot;Out of Galilee arises no prophet&quot; was the Jewish position (Jn. 7:52). It was to them an oxymoron to say that a prophet, let alone Messiah, could come from there. And Nazareth, with its Gentile connotations and a reputation for siding with the Roman occupants, was likewise despised. Nathanael struggled with the idea that Messiah could come from Nazareth: &quot;Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?&quot; (Jn. 1:46). We can feel the mockery in the recorded words of the girl in the courtyard concerning Peter: &quot;This fellow was also with Jesus&nbsp;<em>of Nazareth</em>&quot;, and the subsequent comment that Peter shared the Galilean accent of Jesus (Mt. 26:71). This sceptical answer to the Jerusalem crowds was given by the &quot;multitude&quot; that welcomed the Lord into Jerusalem. In the hour or so which His parody of a 'triumphal entry' took, their enthusiasm turned to bitter disillusion. This was not the Messiah they had expected. And their enthusiasm turned to bitter cynicism and disappointment. This is the significance of the information that they said this &quot;When He was entered into Jerusalem&quot; (:10). The crowd greeted Him as their Saviour King, throwing their garments in the street before Him, but as He rode the bucking colt with the dawdling, unenthusiastic donkey before Him, their views changed over that 30 to 60 minutes. Lk. 19:41-44 adds that He burst into tears of desperation and predicted that the enemies of Israel clearly He had the Romans in view would soon destroy the city and temple. This was so unpatriotic, and the exact opposite of what the crowds expected from Him: &ldquo;When he drew near, he saw the city and wept over it, saying: If you had known in this day, even you, the things which belong to your peace But now they are hid from your eyes. For the days shall come upon you, when your enemies shall set up a barricade around you, and surround you, and hem you in on every side, and shall dash you to the ground, and your children within you; and they shall not leave in you one stone upon another. All this will happen because you did not perceive the time of your visitation&rdquo;. The Lord implies that their rejection and destruction was precisely because they turned away from perceiving His entry into the city as their &ldquo;visitation&rdquo;. They didn&rsquo;t think this was the &ldquo;time&rdquo; because they weren&rsquo;t seeing immediate salvation. Or rather, they didn&rsquo;t wish to see it. All they could think was that this was not their man, not at all the Messiah they had expected. Their cry of 'Save now' 'Hosanna' produced no dramatic action on His part. He just kept on riding that awkward beast, wandering probably in a zig-zag through the streets.</p>