JESUS’ ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM

“The next day a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out: ‘Hosanna!’ ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ‘The King of Israel!’ Then Jesus, when He had found a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written: ‘Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt.’”  (John 12:12-15 NKJV)

The donkey was the beast on which kings rode when they came in peace; only in war did they ride upon horses. The entry of Jesus was the claim to be King.

But at the same time it was the claim to be the King of peace. It was upon the donkey of peace and not the horse of war that Jesus came.  He came deliberately refusing the role of warrior Messiah and claiming to be the Prince of Peace. He was appealing for a throne, but the throne was in the hearts of men and women. In that entry into Jerusalem Jesus, in a dramatic symbolic action which spoke more loudly than any words, was making one last appeal to the people, and saying to them: “Will you not, even now, even yet, accept Me as your Lord and King, and enthrone Me within your hearts?”

Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem was an action of supreme courage; it was an assertion of royalty and an offer of love; it was at one and the same time royalty’s claim and love’s appeal.  

-- William Barclay in “The Mind of Jesus”

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REMAINING HUMBLE

"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.”  (Zechariah 9:9)

Corrie ten Boom was once asked if it were difficult for her to remain humble. Her reply was simple. “When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday on the back of a donkey, and everyone was waving palm branches and throwing garments onto the road, and singing praises, do you think that for one moment it ever entered the head of that donkey that any of that was for him?” She continued, “If I can be the donkey on which Jesus Christ rides in His glory, I give Him all the praise and all the honor.” 

-- Mark Schaeufele, from a sermon entitled “A Messiah Who Serves”

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