Theme: The Triumphal Entry
Readings: Isaiah 40:4-9a Philippians 2:5-11 Luke 19:28-40
Ps 118:19-29
Collect:
True and humble king,
hailed by the crowd as Messiah:
grant us the faith to know you and love you,
that we may be found beside you
on the way of the cross,
which is the path of glory.
Comment
The story of the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem leaves plenty of room for the imagination, and other gospel accounts give extra details. Matthew, for example, mentions that the young donkey is with its mother, and both were brought to Jesus – no doubt that would have made the colt feel a bit more secure.
The bystanders in the village naturally wanted to know why the disciples were taking the donkey. Was the answer Jesus told them to give a pre-arranged signal? Personally, I doubt it – but his authority and his promise to return it straight away (Matthew and Luke) were enough to allow the disciples to bring the donkey to Jesus.
Even if the colt was reassured by its mother’s presence (and I imagine that Jesus first got onto the mother to show the colt there was nothing to fear) the first experience of being ridden, the noise and excitement of the crowd, and the frightening experience of seeing branches and clothes flung down in front of it, would in normal circumstances have been a terrifying ordeal. The only thing that ensured the whole journey passed without mishap was the man on its back – Jesus, whose presence and touch must have had a miraculously calming influence.
Why was the colt necessary? Why not ride on a donkey that was used to it? One answer is that a prophecy in Zechariah 9:9 specifically referred to ‘a colt, the foal of a donkey’ as the mount on which Jerusalem’s future king would ride into the city. Lots of people rode donkeys into Jerusalem. But when Jesus rode the colt, it was obviously in fulfilment of that prophecy, and a clear declaration by Jesus that he was the king referred to, the rightful king of the Jews, the Messiah they were all hoping for. And the fact that he was riding a ‘new’ donkey was a sign of holiness and of power.
The crowd that went with Jesus was a mixed one. The road would have been crowded with pilgrims on their way to join the Passover festival. Jesus and the twelve were among them, and many other disciples of his. There were also people who didn’t know Jesus, and those who did but who hated him. There was an expectation that the Messiah would turn up at Passover time when they were all remembering their liberation from slavery in Egypt, and would liberate them from their current bondage to Rome. So the sight of Jesus riding in on a donkey caused great excitement: they recognised his claim to be the Messiah, so they laid down a multicoloured carpet for him and welcomed him by shouting appropriate verses from Scripture. News spread, and people in Jerusalem came out to join the procession.
How sad that no-one really knew what was happening – except Jesus, who wept over Jerusalem when it came into sight over the brow of the hill.
Yes, the Messiah was coming to save his people and begin his reign. But not the way they thought. Even the disciples, who rejoiced over his miraculous powers, failed to grasp what this riding on a donkey meant.
Not just coming in peace. But coming to make peace – with God, through costly humiliation.
Questions
1) How much do we understand what God is doing in his world today?
2) Were the disciples right to rejoice?