The Modest Entry
Have you ever wondered whether Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday surprised people? I mean, if he was entering the city as a king why didn’t he ride a chariot or a warhorse. You certainly wouldn’t expect him to ride a donkey, would you? Yet that’s exactly what Jesus does. He climbs on the least impressive of mounts and rides it into the city. And to our modern minds it all seems a little strange. Of course most of us have heard the story so often that we’re probably no longer surprised by it, but it is a surprising story, and no doubt it was just as surprising to many of those who witnessed it.
In fact what he does in riding a donkey is as significant to those of his day as the US President arriving on Air Force 1 would be for us.
All through Jesus ministry, his identity as the Messiah, the one sent by God, has been hidden. Jesus only ever refers to himself as the son of man, that is, as a human being. Yet here, as he approaches Jerusalem, knowing that the end is approaching, he does something which announces clearly to those who know the Scriptures, that he’s entering Jerusalem as the Messiah, as the conquering king. In fact Matthew, in giving his account of this incident, gives his readers an indication of what’s about to happen in the first verse of the chapter. He speaks of Jesus coming to the Mount of Olives. Now in Jewish thinking at the time, there was a close link between the Mount of Olives and the coming of the Messiah. The Old Testament prophet Zechariah speaks of the Lord standing on the Mount of Olives before coming to rescue Jerusalem: “On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives, which lies before Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley; so that one half of the Mount shall withdraw northward, and the other half southward. 5And you shall flee by the valley of the Lord’s mountain, … Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.” (Zech 14:4,5) So this isn’t just a random geographical reference that Matthew throws in. It’s a pointer to what’s to come. But the significance becomes even greater when Jesus sends his disciples to fetch a donkey for him to ride into Jerusalem. Matthew tells us that what Jesus is about to do is to fulfil the words of the prophet. In fact he amalgamates two prophecies. The first is from Isaiah: ‘Say to daughter Zion, “See, your salvation comes; his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.” 12They shall be called, “The Holy People, The Re-deemed of the LORD”; and you shall be called, “Sought Out, A City Not Forsaken.” Jesus’ coming means that their salvation is coming. But the more prominent quotation is again from Zechariah, From ch 9:9: ‘Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. 10He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall command peace to the nations; his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River [Euphrates] to the ends of the earth.’ What Zechariah foretold was a king coming to Jerusalem in humility, riding on a donkey, and the context in which he comes is complete peace. The chariots and war horses are removed and the battle bow cut off. As you read on in Zechariah you discover how such a thing can be possible. “Then the LORD will appear over them; his arrow will flash like lightning. The Sovereign LORD will sound the trumpet; he will march in the storms of the south, 15and the LORD Almighty will shield them.” This King doesn’t need to ride a war-horse, because the sovereign LORD is going to bring the victory, not him.
So it’s very significant, isn’t it, that Jesus should allude to this prophecy as he enters Jerusalem for the last time. He comes as a conquering King, but not riding a war-horse. This victory will be won by God, not by human intervention. That’s because the battle is of a spiritual nature, not physical. As Paul says to the Ephesians: “Our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Alexander the Great had entered Jerusalem some 300 years before riding his mighty battle charger, at the head of his all-conquering army. Jesus enters Jerusalem on a donkey, knowing that only God can overcome the enemy that he faces. With the humility that befits one who is truly human, yet is facing a spiritual enemy, he throws off any sense of self-dependence. By his action in riding a mere donkey, a beast of burden, he shows that his trust is in God alone.
Now notice what happens. The disciples go and find the donkey and bring it to Jesus, and as he begins to ride into Jerusalem a very large crowd gathers and the people begin to throw their cloaks on the road, or cut down branches to spread on the road. Why? To acclaim him as King. Again, these are people who know their Scriptures. They immediately recognise that here is the fulfilment of prophecy, here is the King who was promised.
And what do they call out? “Hosanna!” That is “Please save”, equivalent to our “God save the Queen”. It’s both an acclamation of Jesus as King and a prayer for God to preserve him. But at the same time it’s also a prayer that God would save us. “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” is a quote from Psalm 118, from a section that begins “Save us, we beseech you, O LORD!” So there’s a certain ambiguity that Matthew leaves for us to think about. Who is God to save? Well, in the first instance, Jesus, but clearly we’re meant to also think of ourselves. Jesus’ entry to Jerusalem is for the distinct purpose of being put to death so God could save us. And we mustn’t miss the irony in the cry of the people who think they’re merely acclaiming Jesus as King, but are in reality acknowledging him as saviour.
So Jesus, the Messiah, comes to conquer Jerusalem, to drive out her captors, but he deliberately comes in lowliness and humility. His victory won’t be by force of arms. He wants to turn our thinking on its head. Salvation comes in the opposite way to what the people expected. And as he enters, the whole city is stirred up and people ask “Who is this?” The answer: “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.” Again, we’re reminded of the words of Nathanael in John 2, “Can anything good come out of Galilee?” Surely not a saviour! Surely not a conquering King! Yet in humility there is victory.
What are we to learn from this? Well, Paul, in Philippians 2, tells us. He says “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, 7but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, 8he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross.”
What we can learn from Jesus example, is first of all to be prepared to take the path of lowliness and weakness. Now I find that very hard to put into practice. It’s very difficult not to use power and manipulation in our dealings with people isn’t it? When all we’ve been trained to do is to use human methods to gain our own ends it’s hard to avoid it. When I worked as an engineer I was really good at negotiating with contractors to get the best result for the people I worked for. But those skills aren’t appropriate when it comes to preaching the gospel, are they? Because in the end the real battles that we’re called to fight for the gospel aren’t going to be won by those sorts of means. The task we’ve been set is to go into all the world and preach the gospel. That’s how we’re to overcome the enemy. But as you well know, none of us is strong enough to do it. I’ve heard people say: “Oh, I’m not an evangelist. I couldn’t convert anyone.” Well, that’s true. The last bit at least. But everyone of us has some experience of God in our lives. So everyone of us can bear witness to that. We can all use God talk in our everyday conversation, so that our friends start to see that God has an important place in our lives. And God will do the rest.
This is the second thing that we can learn from Jesus’ example. We can learn to trust God to do his will through us. We can trust God to win the victory on our behalf. You see, that passage from Philippians has a circular structure to it. Jesus began with the status of God. He humbled himself even to death, but in the end God exalted him and gave him the name that’s above every name. If God can do that for Jesus, if God could vindicate Jesus in that way, then we can trust him to vindicate us as well. We can trust him to take our halting efforts at speaking to our friends about God and use those words to change peoples lives.
This wasn’t the triumphal entry. This was the humble entry. This was Jesus putting into practice what the gospel is all about: demonstrating to us that God’s strength is shown in our weakness; that when we step out with faith in God, God is powerful to act. Jesus of course was both truly human and truly divine. But in this act it’s his human side that we see, his total weakness and humility, his total dependence on God to bring him victory. I’m constantly thankful to God that I don’t have to rely on my own ability and energy to minister effectively, because I know that by myself I’d fail. No doubt you feel the same way. But I hope you’ll join with me in rejoicing that we can rely on God’s power to bring us victory in our struggle against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.