Sermon Tone Analysis

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

See also

Jesus Christ’s entry into Jerusalem

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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

; Spreading cloaks on the road was an act of royal homage.

Proclamation of Jesus’ messiahship

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Proclamation of Jesus Christ’s victory

Palm branches were used in celebration of victory.

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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.