This King is no ordinary king! This King Hits Town On a Lowly Donkey.
The Palm Sunday “Triumphal Entry” of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey is recorded in all four of the gospels – Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John. But each of the gospel writers gives us a different response by the people who beheld this spectacle.
Matthew tells us that, “When He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, ‘Who is this?’” (Matt. 21:10)
Mark leaves us with the positive vision of a supportive crowd of people in front of – and behind – Jesus on the donkey, shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Mark 11:9)
Luke tells us that the Pharisees told Jesus to tell His disciples to shut up! This is when Jesus retorted with His famous words, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.” (Luke 19:39-40)
And finally, John tells us that after seeing the crowd waving the palm branches and shouting “Hosanna!” with Jesus seated on the donkey…
“His disciples did not understand these things…”
There was no reason for any Pharisee who had studied Scripture, or any disciple who had been with Jesus for three years, to misunderstand what was happening here! For as Matthew and John were careful to remind us, this exact scene of the Savior-King’s confusingly humble mode of transportation was foretold by the Prophet Zachariah over 500 years earlier!
“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your King is coming to you;
He is just and having salvation,
Lowly and riding on a donkey,
A colt the foal of a donkey.” (Zachariah 9:9)
But they didn’t understand!
Now, I suspect that there are many of Jesus’ present-day disciples who still “do not understand these things!”
They still do not fully understand the way God does things. They still do not completely understand the amazing grace of Jesus. They still do not understand what God’s plan of salvation via the Cross can accomplish.
As did Jesus’ disciples, many believers still underestimate the broadness of the scope of the salvation that Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross afforded humanity. Many of Jesus’ modern-day followers act just like the disciples did in Matthew 26:6-13: They were “indignant” when the woman poured fragrance on Jesus’ head.
Sometimes they act like Judas Iscariot when the woman poured the perfume on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet – not with a cloth but with her hair! Can you imagine how many of Jesus’ followers today – many of them preachers, deacons, and street preachers, who would freak out seeing a woman with her head down, sweeping her long, silky hair on Jesus’ feet?! “It’s inappropriate! It’s too sensual!” But Jesus told them, “Let her alone!” (John 12:7)
Jesus’ precious blood covers people whom the Pharisees, His ignorant disciples, and modern-day street preachers say it doesn’t! Jesus Christ, the sovereign King of kings who chose to ride into the great city of Jerusalem on a donkey, did – and still continues to do! – the opposite of what people expect! Like granting eternal life to people whom some street preachers say are going to Hell. God guarantees that they will be wonderfully saved, simply by sincerely believing that He was crucified, He died on the Cross, He was buried, and on the Third Day, He rose again bodily from the dead.
“…that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, ‘Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.’ For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For ‘WHOSOEVER calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.’” (Romans 10:9-13)
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that WHOEVER believes in Him shall NOT perish, but have eternal life.”(John 3:16)
“But as many as received him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” (John 10:12)
Jesus died on the Cross for our sins. Do you believe this? Do you receive it? Then no matter what the Pharisees, the non-understanding disciples, or the street preachers tell you, the donkey-riding King says you are saved!
And remember: God has always done things in a way that humans find difficult to understand – things that make no sense to us. His dying for our sins on a Roman cross, reserved for only the vilest of criminals, was the greatest example of this! Praise Him for it!