The Entry Of The King

19:28-40 When Jesus had said these things, he went on ahead on the way up to Jerusalem. When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, which is near the mount called the Mount of Olives, he despatched two of his disciples. "Go to the village opposite," he said. "As you come into it, you will find tethered a colt upon which no man has ever sat. Loose it and bring it here. And if any one asks you, 'Why are you loosing this colt?' you will say, 'The Lord needs it.'" Those who had been despatched went off, and found everything exactly as he had told them. And as they were loosing the colt, its owners told them, "Why are you loosing the colt?" They said, "The Lord needs it"; and they brought it to Jesus. They flung their garments on the colt, and mounted Jesus on it. As he went they strewed their garments on the road. When he was now drawing near, at the descent from the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of the disciples began to rejoice, and to praise God with shouts for all the deeds of power they had seen, saying, "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the heights!" Some of the Pharisees who were in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples." "I tell you," he answered, "if these keep silent, the stones will cry out."

From Jerusalem to Jericho was only seventeen miles, and now Jesus had almost reached his goal. Jerusalem, journey's end, lay just ahead. The prophets had a regular custom of which they made use again and again. When words were of no effect, when people refused to take in and understand the spoken message, they resorted to some dramatic action which put their message into a picture which none could fail to see. We get examples of such dramatic actions in 1 Kings 11:29-31 ; Jeremiah 13:1-11 ; Jeremiah 27:1-11 ; Ezekiel 4:1-3 ; Ezekiel 5:1-4 . It was just such a dramatic action which Jesus planned now. He proposed to ride into Jerusalem in a way that would be an unmistakable claim to be the Messiah, God's Anointed King. We have to note certain things about this entry into Jerusalem.

(i) It was carefully planned. It was no sudden, impulsive action. Jesus did not leave things until the last moment. He had his arrangement with the owners of the colt. The Lord needs it was a pass-word chosen long ago.

(ii) It was an act of glorious defiance and of superlative courage. By this time there was a price on Jesus' head. ( John 11:57 .) It would have been natural that, if he must go into Jerusalem at all, he should have slipped in unseen and hidden away in some secret place in the back streets. But he entered in such a way as to focus the whole lime-light upon himself and to occupy the centre of the stage. It is a breath-taking thing to think of a man with a price upon his head, an outlaw, deliberately riding into a city in such a way that every eye was fixed upon him. It is impossible to exaggerate the sheer courage of Jesus.

(iii) It was a deliberate claim to be king, a deliberate fulfilling of the picture in Zechariah 9:9 . But even in this Jesus underlined the kind of kingship which he claimed. The ass in Palestine was not the lowly beast that it is in this country. It was noble. Only in war did kings ride upon a horse; when they came in peace they came upon an ass. So Jesus by this action came as a king of love and peace, and not as the conquering military hero whom the mob expected and awaited.

(iv) It was one last appeal. In this action Jesus came, as it were, with pleading hands outstretched, saying, "Even now, will you not take me as your king?" Before the hatred of men engulfed him, once again he confronted them with love's invitation.