Divine King on a Dusty Donkey

Introduction

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“The pen is mightier than the sword”

That’s an old adage I never got. I always picture someone pulling out a pen in a sword fight. But that’s not what it means. It means influence, authority, and truth can accomplish what brute force never could.

History proves it. Armies conquer lands, but words conquer hearts.

In Matthew 21, Jesus announces something just as startling: a young donkey is mightier than a warhorse.

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Our need is not just that our heart needs to be swayed or convinced by truth. Our need is much deeper: we need a new heart. Our hearts have been in bondage to sin, stubborn in our old ways. We need our hearts of stone replaced. Under sin, our hearts are idol factories, always manufacturing a new king to rule our heart. We expect each new king we place on the throne of our heart to satisfy our every need. But it never works, and we are left grasping for more.

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Jesus addresses the things we allow to rule our heart by displaying what sort of king he is. He is not the king we so often selfishly want, but he is exactly the king we desperately need.

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Matt. 21:1-11

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King’s Quality

Matthew 21:1–8 ESV

1 Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” 4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, 5 “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’ ”

Revelation

Jesus approaches Jerusalem. The drama heightens as the readers know that Jesus’s death is about to happen.

They enter Bethphage.

The actual location of Bethphage is unknown; however there are historical records show that it was about a Sabbath day journey away from Jerusalem. The meaning of the town is the house of unripe figs, a sign of the fruitlessness that will mark this chapter. It is significant that this village is on the Mount of Olives because this is already giving imagery from the book of Zechariah (Zech. 14:4).

Jesus sends two disciples as his normal practice into the village to get two donkeys—a mother and her son.

He gives them further instruction in v. 3. He says, “If anyone says anything to you. . .

And this seems rather odd. People speculate whether Jesus is utilizing supernatural knowledge or if he arranged this even beforehand. It would seem odd that if he did prearrange this event for anyone to ask the disciples what they were doing. If that were the case, then they wouldn’t need to ask.

I lean heavily toward the fact that this is Jesus’s supernatural knowledge, not because of the context of this chapter, but because of the biblical context. Any Israelite reading a story about finding donkeys would be instantly brought back to the story of Saul.

1 Sam 9 recounts the story of Saul. He was the king the people wanted - a warrior king. Samuel warned the Israelites about having a king. But they demanded one anyway. They said to Samuel, 1 Samuel 8:19b-20 “ No! But there shall be a king over us, 20 that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.”” God acknowledged that they were rejecting him by demanding a king over them in 1 Sam. 8:7.

In 1 Sam. 9, Saul is presented as the very candidate the Israelites want. He’s wealthy, tall, and handsome. And yet, he is also inept. He cannot find the donkeys. Goes far beyond where he probably should to find the donkeys. Does not even consider asking God for help. He’s unaware of who Samuel is, or even that he’s a mighty man of God. Then he stumbles into being king.

But Jesus knew exactly where the donkeys were. Ah, he is not the king Israel wants, but he is the king that she needs.

Israel’s first king began his story chasing lost donkeys. He wasn’t looking for a throne—he stumbled into one.

But centuries later another King entered Israel on a donkey. Not wandering. Not surprised. Not accidental.

Saul searched for donkeys and found a crown he could not keep. Jesus mounted a donkey and walked straight toward a cross He chose to bear.

And this contrast is exactly what Zechariah brings out. Matthew tells us that what Jesus did fulfills prophecy. Then he quotes Zechariah 9:9. Zechariah 9 talks about a king who rides into Jerusalem on a donkey. He cuts off “the war horse” from Jerusalem. Then he brings peace and had a universal rule.

Jesus deliberately chooses to ride this donkey. One commentator notes:

The Gospel of Matthew 1. The King Comes to Jerusalem (21:1–11)

His decision to ride a donkey for the last mile or two into the city, when he has walked more than a hundred miles from Caesarea Philippi, can hardly have been a matter of physical necessity; his disciples apparently had no such need

The Gospel of Matthew 1. The King Comes to Jerusalem (21:1–11)

In that case, to ride the last mile to the city among a wholly pedestrian crowd could only be a deliberate gesture, designed to present his claim as the messianic king (see above

The Gospel of Matthew 1. The King Comes to Jerusalem (21:1–11)

But in deliberately presenting himself before Jerusalem as its messianic king, Jesus has chosen an OT model which subverts any popular militaristic idea of kingship. The meek, peaceful donkey-rider of

This is Jesus’s great announcement—that he is truly the Messiah. He is a great warrior, but he’s not come to kill the human oppressor, but the root of oppression. He’s on this humble, dusty donkey not to kill the prideful, but pride itself. He’s not riding to kill the lustful, but lust itself. This great donkey-rider is not approaching Jerusalem to kill sinners, but sin itself.

Relevance

What kind of king do we need?

I remember when a lot of things were coming out to question President Trump’s morality. Then people were trying to make the argument that Christians should not vote for him because of his immorality. Then certain Christians responded with this retort, “We’re voting for a president, not a pastor.”

I’m not trying to prick your conscious regarding the candidate you voted for. (I voted for Trump). But I do want to pull a thread concerning this reasoning: We’re picking a president, not a pastor. I want to pull on this thread because I’m afraid that if I were in the place of the Israelites in Samuel’s day that I might me whining with them, “No! But we shall have a king!”

And it makes me fear my reaction to Jesus approaching Jerusalem on a donkey. Wouldn’t it be easy for me to think, “But we need a war hero, we need someone to fight our oppressors, we need someone to stand up to bullies.” I fear if I would look with disdain on this dusty donkey-rider.

That statement, “We’re picking a president, not a pastor,” is not about politics, but our own hearts. And it makes me wonder, what kind of king would I choose? What kind of king do I need?

I need a king for those who glance down into their own souls in search for some good and realize, “I have nothing.”

I need a king for those who are afflicted by their sin and yearn to be free from it.

I need a king for those who yearn not to be God but to be with him.

Yet, it easy for other desires to ascend the throne of our hearts. It’s easy to want a king who will make my life easy, comfortable, remove suffering, bring wealth, bring security. But ease, comfort, wealth, and security will never rid my heart of sin!

Look in your heart of hearts now, do you really want a donkey rider? Do you really want to be rid of your sin? Would you give up every ounce of comfort, wealth, security—everything to see God? Do you yearn for him? Are you willing to give up the kings you selfishly want for the king you need?

Our hope does not rest in the king we choose, but in the King who chose the cross.

Bridge

Now that Jesus displays what type of king he is, it’s time for the people to decide. Neutrality is gone. It’s time for people to decide who is king over their heart. This is revealed in the crowd’s question in 21:6-11:

Crowd’s Question

Matthew 21:6–11 ESV

6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. 8 Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” 10 And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” 11 And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”

Revelation

The time for concealment is over. The disciples brings both the donkey and its colt—assuring that the donkey is a purebred and not a mule (thus fulfilling the prophecy). Again, this is a deliberate display by Jesus. And the crowd respond accordingly. The crowd is from Galilee. They’ve seen the miracles. They’ve been with Jesus. And they make some astounding claims about him

They lay down their cloaks and branches as a way to make way for a king. A lot of the things they say comes from Psalm 118. Hosanna literally means “Save us” from Psalm 118:25, but it seems as the people proclaim it they take to mean an expression of praise, like “Hallelujah.” And so they say “to the Son of David” and “in the highest” expressing praise like one might say, “Long live the king.” They also identify Jesus as “The son of David” expressing the fact that he is both royal and the Messiah.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord is the next v. in Psalm 118 (v. 26). This person in Psalm 118 is according to one commentator:

Matthew Exegesis

He is apparently the one who destroys nations in the name of the Lord (

It seems the Galileans saw this person in Psalm 118 as the Messiah, and they identified Jesus as that Messiah.

In v. 10 we get another reaction, a reaction of the people who are in Jerusalem, not a part of the Galilean crowd. To give you a sense of this reaction, I think historical context can add something.

The Galileans are like country folk, a lot of fishermen. The way the average person in Jersualem would think of someone from Galilee would be like the way someone from New York City might think of a redneck from Lower Alabama. We know Biblically that Nazareth did not have a good reputation: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Seemed to be a saying of their day.

Not only that, but this is not the first time someone who claimed to be a Messiah rode into Jerusalem. One of the Maccabees did this during the intertestamental period. Yet his dynasty faded away.

So when the people in Jerusalem ask, “who is this?” you can hear those who are curious, but you can also hear the skeptics.

The crowd from Galilee answers the question claiming that Jesus is “The prophet.” That is, the prophet that will arise like Moses in Dt. 18. They aren’t claiming he is “a” prophet, thus this is another Messianic claim from the crowd. And they make sure to include their own regional pride stating that he is from Galilee.

So Jesus makes this purposeful display, publically acknowledging to the watching world that he is the Messiah. The crowd that knows him proclaims this fact as well. And notice a result in the middle of verse 10: “The whole city is stirred up.”

And this is the force of the text: Jesus has privately acknowledged he is the Messiah for a long time, but now he is publically proclaiming it. And this forces a decision: do you agree or disagree with Jesus’s public claim? There’s no neutral. And whether one agrees or disagrees with who Jesus claims for himself to be will change everything.

Relevance

Imagine that you hear the president is coming to Goshen tomorrow. They announce he will be coming to the co-op at 3PM. 3PM comes around and a large crowd gathers at the co-op in high anticipation. News reporters are there to discover why he would come to Goshen of all places. Then, he arrives, by himself, in an old-beat up golf cart held together by duct tape. What would the reaction be? I feel some might be offended, thinking he is making a mockery of our town. Some may be worried that something happened. Either way, such a display demands a decision.

This is the question the text forces us to ask—because what would you do if you saw the supposed Messiah approaching Jerusalem on a donkey? You know he is purposefully riding the animal rather than walking with everyone else. You see that he is willingly accepting the claims of the crowd. But then you look down and see the dusty donkey. Would it cause you to hesitate?

The Israelites had a lot of expectations for who their king should be. But putting God first was not even in their consideration. But you must also know that the people in Jerusalem had a lot of expectations for who the Messiah would be: overthrowing the Romans, a warrior, establishing a kingdom, etc. A lot of expectations that would be shattered by watching him riding a donkey of all things and being hailed by Galileans of all people.

Would you hold onto all your already formed hopes and expectations and reject the donkey rider?

Because its just as easy for us today to have expectations that we believe Jesus ought to meet. We want Jesus to give us inner peace, we expect that Jesus will give us an easy life. We slowly allow our desire for comfort to overshadow our desire for holiness. We allow our need for security to outgrow our need for God. We allow our drive for entertainment to outgrow our need for sober-mindedness.

Bridge

Is the king on the throne of you heart right now the king who is comfortable riding that humble donkey or have you replaced Jesus with something else?

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Summary

Jesus is the divine king, the one who has all power. He can in an instant throw this world into the abyss. And yet, he chooses not to. He know exactly what he is going to face in Jerusalem and goes willingly. He knows exactly who he is. And rather than choosing to display his splendor and majesty as the universal king, he chose to display his humility. This display was an attack on pride. The display upends are idol kings who exalt themselves and puts the spotlight on the true King, the king we need.

Tell

The kind of king you want is revealed by what you ask him to fix first.

Show

When something goes wrong in your life, what is your first prayer?

“Lord, remove this.” “Lord, fix them.” “Lord, make this easier.”

Rarely do we begin with, “Lord, expose my pride.” “Lord, kill my sin.” “Lord, make me holy.”

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Imagine two prayer lists.

One list says: — Make me comfortable. — Make me secure. — Make me successful.

The other says: — Make me humble. — Make me holy. — Make me like Christ.

Which list sounds more like the war horse? Which list sounds more like the donkey?

Challenge

This week, before you ask Jesus to fix your circumstances, ask Him to confront your sin.

Before you pray for comfort, pray for holiness.

Before you ask Him to remove suffering, ask Him to remove pride.

For the next seven days, begin every prayer with this sentence: “Lord, make me holy, even if it costs me comfort.”