Palm Sunday (2)
The next day, Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey. He is fulfilling an ancient prophecy. Jerusalem’s king will come to her gently and in peace—not mounted on a proud warhorse, but riding a humble donkey (Zechariah 9:9). The crowds gather to greet him, waving palm branches. Although palms are waved at the Feast of Tabernacles, they have also become a national symbol for the Jews. There are cries of ‘Hosanna!’ which means ‘Give salvation now!’
Jesus gave visible, symbolic expression to this truth by riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. The hymn writer has caught this perfectly in the words:
“Ride on, ride on, in majesty!
In lowly pomp ride on to die”
(TLH 162:2).
In mistaken piety some have tried to “glamorize” the donkey Jesus rode. But such efforts are in vain. That the animal was just an ordinary donkey comes out in the literal translation of Matthew’s line: “on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” The word for “donkey” is, literally, “a beast of burden,” “a draft animal.” Some have even gone so far as to say that the owners in Bethphage had bred donkeys of a superior type. That is pure fantasy. It is also beside the point, for Jesus’ riding into Jerusalem on a donkey is to emphasize that Jesus, though a mighty and majestic King, chose to enter the Holy City as a lowly and gracious King, such a King as God intended for guilty men and such as all sinners needed.