Luke 19:29

And it came to pass when he drew nigh to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of his disciples, saying, Go your way into the village over against you; in which as ye enter ye shall find a colt tied, whereon no man ever yet sat: loose him, and bring him.

THE TRIUMPHAL ENTRY

Everything about the triumphal entry was carefully designed to stress the Kingship of Jesus. "The mount that is called Olivet ..." was the point from which Jesus started the entry; and why did he choose that place? Zechariah prophesied that "The Lord shall be king over all the earth" (Zechariah 14:9), declaring also that "in that day his feet shall stand upon the Mount of Olives which is before Jerusalem on the east"! (Zechariah 14:4). As Miller noted, "Every feature of the story indicates Jesus' intention to declare himself King."[43]

Bethphage, and Bethany ... The latter of these was the home of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus whom Jesus had raised from the dead only a few weeks previously. Bethany means "house of dates," and Bethphage means "house of figs."

Ye shall find a colt tied ... Of course, the mother and colt were both tied, and both were taken for Jesus' use. An unbroken colt would have been unusable by the disciples without the mother also. See parallels in Mark (Mark 11:1-11) and Matthew (Matthew 21:1-17).

Believers in the omniscience of Jesus (see under Luke 19:6) do not need to suppose that Jesus had "apparently made previous arrangements regarding the colt,"[44] because such a supposition must also account for other evidences of omniscience. If Jesus pre-arranged this, there would have had to be a definite fixing of a certain time for the disciples to come after it. There could hardly have been a decision to keep the colt and its mother tied up several weeks (since Jesus' last trip to Jerusalem) until he should send for them. Thus, even if pre-arranged, Jesus would have had to know the exact hour in advance, and that is in itself omniscience. The far more preferable view is to understand this as another instance of the omniscience of the Saviour.

Matthew's mention of the colt's mother, and all the evangelists' mentioning, in the case of either the colt or its mother, the fact that it was tied has been thought, since the days of Justin Martyr, to be a reference to Genesis 49:11 where, after Jacob's prophesy of Shiloh (Jesus Christ), he specifically mentioned the binding of the ass and the ass's colt, in connection with the washing of Messiah's clothes in "the blood of grapes," a reference to his crucifixion. Thus, the bound donkey (Matthew) and the bound donkey's colt (Mark and Luke) are both laid under tribute to support the prophetic picture of Jesus' Passion.

[43] Donald G. Miller, op. cit., p. 135.

[44] Anthony Lee Ash, op. cit., p. 98.