Triumphal entry of Jesus Christ (2)
Jesus Christ rode into Jerusalem on a colt, royally yet humbly, to the rejoicing of his followers, but provoking opposition from the Jewish religious leaders.
Untie them and bring them
■ verb (unties, untying, untied) undo or unfasten (something tied).
The colt used in Jesus Christ’s entry into Jerusalem
Jesus Christ’s instructions to his disciples
The obedience of the disciples
Jesus Christ’s entry into Jerusalem
The response of the crowd to Jesus Christ’s entry into Jerusalem
21:8 Branches Strewn
A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. (See Mark 10:37.)
It was usual to strew flowers and branches and to spread carpets and garments in the pathway of conquerors and great princes, and of others to whom it was intended to show particular honor and respect. In a similar way Jehu was recognized as king in 2 Kings 9:13.
In modern times we see this custom carried on in the wedding ceremony when the brides path is strewn with flower petals as a sign of honor. Important, powerful, or famous people are often honored with a red carpet spread in their walkway during a ceremony. To give someone “the red carpet treatment” is to treat them particularly well.
Proclamation of Jesus Christ’s kingship
Proclamation of Jesus’ messiahship
Proclamation of Jesus Christ’s victory
MATTHEW 21:1–11
SOON AFTER WE ARE BORN into this fascinating but fallen world, a nurse takes our fingerprints and footprints. As you know, this is done to help our parents and the hospital properly identify us. Today, of course, there are other more high-tech ways of identifying individuals. Eye scanners are used in some workplaces, and surveillance cameras are now used almost everywhere. Some cameras, at airports and government buildings, even have the capability of taking a picture of a person and then making an accurate identification simply by noting a few unique facial features.
In the familiar story of the “triumphal” entry, we have a story designed, as are all of the stories in Matthew’s Gospel, to help us recognize from afar some of the distinct features of Jesus, to help us recognize and respond to him as the promised King, as the one who has come in the name of the Lord.
The Theme of Fulfillment
In this sermon I want us to notice two distinct features. In verses 1–7 we are introduced to the theme of fulfillment, the first feature we are to notice. In this famous scene we see two fulfillments—the fulfillment of a present command and the fulfillment of a past prophecy.
First is the fulfillment of Christ’s present command. In verses 1–3 Jesus describes what two of his disciples are to do and what they will encounter in doing it. These two are to go into the village. There they will immediately find a mother donkey and her foal or colt. Those animals will be tied up. These men are to untie them and bring them to Jesus. Jesus adds, “If anyone says anything to you [“Hey, what are you doing?” or “Stop, thieves!”], you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once” (v. 3).
What’s going on here? Did Jesus prearrange this? Did the owner of these animals have an angelic revelation of the plan? Or was the man merely a follower of Jesus, and when these two said the code word “Lord,” he gladly gave them what they wanted? We aren’t told. What we are told, in verses 6, 7, is that what Jesus told the disciples to expect and do was precisely fulfilled.
Such a fulfillment (whether natural or supernatural) is, of course, not the main point of verses 1–7. There is another point, another fulfillment that demands our fuller attention. In verse 3 we read that the “Lord needs them” (i.e., these animals). It’s a paradoxical statement. Does the Lord need anything? Does Jesus, who thus far has walked everywhere—long miles up north and now down south—need these beasts of burden for his overburdened legs? No. That is not the reason he needs them. The reason he needs these animals, and specifically the colt, is to reveal who he is and what his mission is all about. He needs them to fulfill a past prophecy.
In 1 Corinthians 15:3, 4 we are told that Jesus died “in accordance with the Scriptures” and that he rose again “in accordance with the Scriptures.” Here in Matthew’s Gospel we should notice that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a colt, of all animals, also according to the Scriptures—in other words, to fulfill a specific Old Testament prophecy, Zechariah 9:9, which Matthew alone of the four Gospel writers quotes.
This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying,
“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.’ ” (vv. 4, 5)
Zechariah is often labeled a “minor prophet,” but his prophecies are of major importance, for he is alluded to or quoted over eighty times in the New Testament. And in his most famous prophecy (Zechariah 9:9) he exhorts God’s people, whom he calls the “daughter of Zion,” to celebrate their future—to rejoice in the promise of the coming King and in the establishment of his kingdom: “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.…”
As we examine the first part of the verse we might think that it is not so extraordinary to think that if God were to raise up an earthly king to bring divine victory and to inaugurate his peaceful kingdom (as v. 10 of Zechariah goes on to depict), such a ruler would be a righteous deliverer. This makes sense. In contrast to the many wicked kings who have preceded him, we would only expect that God’s divinely appointed king would conform to the morality of God’s Law and bring with him redemption for God’s people. So when Zechariah speaks of this king as being “righteous and having salvation,” we find nothing in such a description to be out of the ordinary.
Yet, when the prophet goes on to depict this great king as being “humble and mounted on a donkey,” we are tempted to think something is wrong. Humble? Donkey? Is this a mistake? Is this a misprint? It should be “glorious.” It should be “warhorse.” But this is no mistake. This is no misprint. The prophet intentionally wrote of this king being humble.
In the context of the book of Zechariah, as well as the rest of the prophets, this word “humble” does not mean so much “gentle” as it means “lowly” or “bowed down” or even “full of suffering.” The word “humble” denotes, as C. F. Keil claims, “the whole of the lowly, miserable, suffering condition, as it is elaborately depicted in Isaiah 53.”1 So, in contrast with the arrogance and violence usually associated with earthly kings, this king, we are told, will be poor and afflicted; he will be a sovereign Lord and yet a suffering servant.
Vers. 1–11.—Triumphal entry into Jerusalem. (Mark 11:1–11; Luke 19:29–44; John 12:12–19.)
Ver. 1.—We have come to the last week of our Lord’s earthly life, when he made his appearance in Jerusalem as Messiah, and suffered the penalty of death. If, as is believed, his crucifixion took place on the fourteenth day of the month Nisan, the triumphal entry must be assigned to the ninth, which day was reckoned to commence at one sunset and to continue till the following evening. This is regarded as the first day of the Holy Week, and is called by Christians from very early times Palm Sunday (see on ver. 10†). He had probably gone straight from Jericho to Bethany, and spent the sabbath there with his friends (ch. 26:6; John 12:1). Bethphage. The name means House of figs, and was appropriate to a locality where such trees grew luxuriantly. The village has not been identified with certainty, though it is considered with great probability to be represented by Kefr-et-Tur, on a summit of Olivet, within the bounds of Jerusalem, i.e. two thousand cubits’ distance from the city walls. Bethany is below the summit, in a nook on the western slope and somewhat further from the city. The Mount of Olives is separated from Jerusalem by the valley of the Kedron, and has three summits, the centre one being the highest; but though it is of no great elevation in itself, it stands nearly four thousand feet above the Dead Sea, from which it is distant some thirteen miles. Then sent Jesus two disciples. Their names are not given, and it is useless to conjecture who they were, though probably Peter was one of them. Alford suggests that the triumphal entry in Mark 11 is related a day too soon, and that our Lord made two entries into Jerusalem—the first a private one (Mark 11:11), and the second, public, on the morrow. But there is no sufficient reason to discredit the common tradition, and St. Mark’s language can be otherwise explained. The deliberate preparation for the procession, and the intentional publicity, so contrary to Christ’s usual habits, are very remarkable, and can be explained only by the fact that he was now assuming the character and claims of Messiah, and putting himself forward in his true dignity and office as “King of the Jews.” By this display he made manifest that in him prophecy was fulfilled, and that the seeing eye and the believing heart might now find all that righteous men had long and wearily desired. This was the great opportunity which his mercy offered to Jerusalem, if only she would accept it and turn it to account. In fact, she acknowledged him as King one day, and then rejected and crucified him.
Ver. 2.—The village over against you. Bethphage, to which he points as he speaks. He gives their commission to the two disciples, mentioning even some minute details. Straightway. “As soon as ye be entered into it” (Mark). Ye shall find an ass (a sheass) tied, and a colt with her.) St. Matthew alone mentions the ass, the mother of the foal. This doubtless he does with exact reference to the prophecy, which, writing for Jews, he afterwards cites (ver. 4). St. Jerome gives a mystical reason; the ass represents the Jewish people, which had long borne the yoke of the Law; the colt adumbrates the Gentiles, as yet unbroken, “whereon never man sat.” Christ called them both, Jew and Gentile, by his apostles. Loose them, and bring them unto me. He speaks with authority, as One able to make a requisition and command obedience.
Ver. 3.—Say aught unto you. This might naturally be expected. Christ foresaw the opposition, and instructed the disciples how to overcome it with a word. The Lord; ὁ Κύριος, equivalent to “Jehovah,” or the King Messiah. Doubtless the owner of the animals was a disciple, and acknowledged the claims of Jesus. His presence here was a providentially guided coincidence. If he was a stranger, as others suppose, he must have been divinely prompted to acquiesce in the appropriation of his beasts. He will send them. Some manuscripts read, “he sends them,” here, as in St. Mark. The present is more forcible, but the future is well attested. The simple announcement that the asses were needed for God’s service would silence all refusal. The disciples, indeed, were to act at once, as executing the orders of the supreme Lord, and were to use the given answer only in case of any objection. Throughout the transaction Christ assumes the character of the Divine Messiah, King of his people, the real Owner of all that they possess.
Ver. 4.—All this was done; now (δὲ) all this hath come to pass. Many manuscripts omit “all,” but it is probably genuine, as in other similar passages; e.g. ch. 1:22; 26:56. This observation of the evangelist is intended to convey the truth that Christ was acting consciously on the lines of old prophecy, working out the will of God declared beforehand by divinely inspired seers. The disciples acted in blind obedience to Christ’s command, not knowing that they were thus fulfilling prophecy, or having any such purpose in mind. The knowledge came afterwards (see John 12:16). That it might be fulfilled (ἵνα πληρωθῇ). The conjunction in this phrase is certainly used in its final, not in a consecutive or ecbatic sense; it denotes the purpose or design of the action of Christ, not the result. Not only the will of the Father, but the words of Scripture, had delineated the life of Christ, and in obeying that will he purposed to show that he fulfilled the prophecies which spake of him. Thus any who knew the Scriptures, and were open to conviction, might see that it was he alone to whom these ancient oracles pointed, and in him alone were their words accomplished. By (through, διά) the prophet. Zech. 9:9, with a hint of Isa. 62:11, a quotation being often woven from two or more passages (see on ch. 27:9†).
Ver. 5.—Tell ye the daughter of Zion. This is from Isaiah (comp. Zeph. 3:14). The passage in Zechariah begins, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem.” The “daughter of Zion” is Jerusalem herself, named from the chief of the hills on which the city was built. Of course, the term includes all the inhabitants. Behold; marking the suddenness and unexpected nature of the event. Thy King. A King of thine own race, no stranger, one predestined for thee, foretold by all the prophets, who was to occupy the throne of David and to reign for ever. Unto thee. For thy special good, to make his abode with thee (comp. Isa. 9:6). Meek. As Christ himself says, “I am meek and lowly in heart” (ch. 11:29), far removed from pomp and warlike greatness; and yet, according to his own Beatitude, the meek shall inherit the earth (ch. 5:5), win victories which material forces can never obtain, triumph through humiliation. The original in Zechariah gives other characteristics of Messiah: “He is just, and having salvation;” i.e. endowed with salvation, either as being protected by God, or victorious and so able to save his people. Sitting upon an ass. Coming as King, he could not walk undistinguished among the crowd; he must ride. But to mount a warhorse would denote that he was leader of an army or a worldly potentate; so he rides upon an ass, an animal used by the judges of Israel, and chieftains on peaceful errands (Judg. 5:10; 10:4); one, too, greatly valued, and often of stately appearance in Palestine. And (καὶ) a colt the foal of an ass; such as she-asses bear, and one not trained. It is questioned whether the conjunction here expresses addition, implying that Christ mounted both animals in succession, or is merely explanatory, equivalent to videlicet, an ass, yea, even the foal of an ass. It seems unlikely that, in accomplishing the short distance between Bethphage and Jerusalem (only a mile or two), our Lord should have changed from one beast to the other; and the other three evangelists say expressly that Christ rode the colt, omitting all mention of the mother. The she-ass doubtless kept close to its foal, so the prophecy was exactly fulfilled, but the animal that bore the Saviour was the colt. If the two animals represent respectively the Jews and Gentiles (see on ver. 2†), it seems hardly necessary for typical reasons that Jesus should thus symbolize his triumph over the disciplined Jews, while it is obvious that the lesson of his supremacy over the untaught Gentiles needed exemplification. The prophet certainly contemplates the two animals in the procession. “The old theocracy runs idly and instinctively by the side of the young Church, which has become the true bearer of the Divinity of Christ” (Lange). No king had ever thus come to Jerusalem; such a circumstance was predicted of Messiah alone, and Christ alone fulfilled it to the letter, showing of what nature his kingdom was.
Ver. 6.—As Jesus commanded them. They simply obeyed the order, not yet knowing what it portended, or how it carried out the will of God declared by his prophets.
Ver. 7.—Brought the ass. The unbroken foal would be more easily subdued and guided when its mother was with it; such an addition to the ridden animal would usually be employed to carry the rider’s luggage. They put on them (ἐπάνω αὐτῶν) their clothes (ἱμάτια). The two disciples, stripping off their heavy outer garments, abbas, or burnouses, put them as trappings on the two beasts, not knowing on which their Master meant to ride. They set him thereon (ἐπάνω αὐτῶν). Thus the received text, and the Vulgate, Et eum desuper sedere fecerunt. But most modern editors, with great manuscriptural authority, read, “he sat thereon.” Some have taken the pronoun αὐτῶν to refer to the beasts, and Alford supports the opinion by the common saying, “The postilion rode on the horses,” when, in fact, he rode only one of the pair. But the analogy is erroneous. The postilion really guides and controls both, but no one contends that Christ kept the mother-ass in hand while mounted on the colt. The pronoun is more suitably referred to the garments, which formed a saddle for the Saviour, or housings and ornamental appendages (comp. 2 Kings 9:13). He came invested with a certain dignity and pomp, yet in such humble guise as to discountenance all idea of temporal sovereignty.
Ver. 8.—A very great multitude; ὁ δὲ πλεῖστος ὄχλος: Revised Version, the most part of the multitude. This interpretation has classical authority (see Alford), but the words may well mean, “the very great multitude;” Vulgate, plurima autem turba. This crowd was composed of pilgrims who were coming to the festival at Jerusalem, and “the whole multitude of the disciples” (Luke 19:37). Spread their garments (ἱμάτια) in the way. Fired with enthusiasm, they stripped off their abbas, as the two disciples had done, and with them made a carpet over which the Saviour should ride. Such honours were often paid to great men, and indeed, as we well know, are offered now on state occasions. Branches from the trees. St. John (12:13) particularizes palm trees as having been used on this occasion; but there was abundance of olive and other trees, from which branches and leaves could be out or plucked to adorn the Saviour’s road. The people appear to have behaved on this occasion as if at the Feast of Tabernacles, roused by enthusiasm to unpremeditated action. Of the three routes which lay before him, Jesus is supposed to have taken the southern and most frequented, between the Mount of Olives and the Hill of Offence.
Ver. 9.—The multitudes that went before, and that followed. These expressions point to two separate bodies, which combined in escorting Jesus at a certain portion of the route. We learn from St. John (12:18) that much people, greatly excited by the news of the raising of Lazarus, when they heard that he was in the neighbourhood, hurried forth from Jerusalem to meet and do him honour. These, when they met the other procession with Jesus riding in the midst, turned back again and preceded him into the city. St. Luke identifies the spot as “at the descent of the Mount of Olives.” “As they approached the shoulder of the hill,” says Dr. Geikie (‘The Life of Christ,’ ii. 397), “where the road bends downwards to the north, the sparse vegetation of the eastern slope changed, as in a moment, to the rich green of garden and trees, and Jerusalem in its glory rose before them. It is hard for us to imagine now the splendour of the view. The city of God, seated on her hills, shone at the moment in the morning sun. Straight before stretched the vast white walls and buildings of the temple, its courts glittering with gold, rising one above the other; the steep sides of the hill of David crowned with lofty walls; the mighty castles towering above them; the sumptuous palace of Herod in its green parks; and the picturesque outlines of the streets.” Hosanna to the Son of David! “Hosanna!” is compounded of two words meaning “save” and “now,” or, “I pray,” and is written in full Hoshia-na, translated by the Septuagint, Σῶσον δή. The expressions uttered by the people are mostly derived from Ps. 118, which formed part of the great Hallel (Ps. 113–118) sung at the Feast of Tabernacles. “Hosanna!” was originally a formula of prayer and supplication, but later became a term of joy and congratulation. So here the cry signifies “Blessings on [or, ‘Jehovah bless’] the Son of David!” i.e. the Messiah, acknowledging Jesus to be he, the promised Prince of David’s line. Thus we say, “God save the king!” This, which Ewald calls the first Christian hymn, gave to Palm Sunday, in some parts of the Church, the name of the “day of Hosannas,” and was incorporated into the liturgical service both in East and West. Blessed … of the Lord! (Ps. 118:26). The formula is taken in two ways, the words, “in the Name of the Lord,” being connected either with “blessed” or with “cometh.” In the former case the cry signifies, “The blessing of Jehovah rest on him who cometh!” i.e. Messiah (ch. 11:3; Rev. 1:8); in the latter, the meaning is, “Blessing on him who cometh with Divine mission, sent with the authority of Jehovah!” The second interpretation seems to be correct. In the highest (comp. Luke 2:14). The people cry to God to ratify in heaven the blessing which they invoke on earth. This homage and the title of Messiah Jesus now accepts as his due, openly asserting his claims, and by his acquiescence encouraging the excitement. St. Matthew omits the touching scene of Christ’s lamentations over Jerusalem, as he passed the spot where Roman legions would, a generation hence, encamp against the doomed city.
Ver. 10.—Was come into Jerusalem. Those who consider that the day of this event was the tenth of Nisan see a peculiar fitness in the entry occurring on this day. On the tenth of this month the Paschal lamb was selected and taken up preparatory to its sacrifice four days after (Exod. 12:3, 6). So the true Paschal Lamb now is escorted to the place where alone the Passover could be sacrificed. Taking A.D. 30 to be the date of the Crucifixion, astronomers inform us that in that year the first day of Nisan fell on March 24. Consequently, the tenth would be on Sunday, April 2, and the fourteenth was reckoned from sunset of Thursday, April 6, to the sunset of Friday, April 7 (see on ver. 1†, and preliminary note ch. 26). Was moved (ἐσείσθη); was shaken, as by an earthquake. St. Matthew alone mentions this commotion, though St. John (12:19) makes allusion to it, when he reports the vindictive exclamation of the Pharisees, “Behold, the world is gone after him!” Jerusalem had been stirred and troubled once before, when the Wise Men walked through the streets, inquiring, “Where is he that is born King of the Jews?” (ch. 2:2, 3). But the excitement was far greater now, more general, composed of many different elements. The Romans expected some public rising; the Pharisaical party was aroused to new envy and malice; the Herodians dreaded a possible usurper; but the populace entertained for the moment the idea that their hopes were now fulfilled, that the long-desired Messiah had at last appeared, and would lead them to victory. Who is this? The question may have been put by the strangers who came from all parts of the world to celebrate the Passover at Jerusalem, or by the crowds in the streets, when they beheld the unusual procession that was advancing.