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NRS Zechariah 9:1 Rejoice greatly, O
daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you;
triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the
foal of a donkey. 10 He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and
the war-horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall
command peace to the nations; his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from
the River to the ends of the earth.
NRS Matthew 21:1 When they had come
near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent
two disciples, 2 saying to them, "Go into the village ahead 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, just
say this, 'The Lord needs them.' And he will send them immediately. " 4
This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying,
5 "Tell the daughter of Zion,
Look, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a
colt, the foal of a donkey." 6 The disciples went and did as
Jesus had directed them; 7 they brought the donkey and the colt, and
put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. 8 A very large crowd
spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and
spread them on the road. 9 The crowds that went ahead of him and
that followed were shouting, "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the
one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!" 10
When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, "Who is
this?" 11 The crowds were saying, "This is the prophet
Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee." 12 Then Jesus entered the
temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he
overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold
doves. 13 He said to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be
called a house of prayer'; but you are making it a den of robbers." 14
The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he cured them.
The story from Matthew is one most
everyone is familiar with that has studied the Gospel and the stories of the
life of Jesus. But what does it mean to us that Jesus would come into the city
of Jerusalem riding a donkey and a colt? In order to answer that question we
first must answer two other questions. How does a future ruler arrive and what
did it mean in the 1st century when Jesus arrived in this way.
First I want to
deal with the question, how does a ruler arrive in the city of his or her ruler
ship? Well in order to answer that question, we need only to look at history.
In the ancient times and even today in many parts of the world, the ruler or
future ruler arrives in the city based on what he or she expects the
inhabitants to understand as the role of the ruler. If the role is to be one of
military might, they might well ride into the city on a horse surrounded by
their army. In today’s standards, that might be in some form of military
vehicle surrounded by the machines of war. If the person is coming as a peacemaker,
then they might well come into the city in a humble way without much fanfare.
In ancient days
this would have often been done by walking or riding a working animal like a
donkey or a work horse as opposed to a war horse. In modern times where would
be without the inauguration parade and all the pomp and circumstance of the
ceremonial crowning of the new ruler. In our own country, the parade would
include military might as well as signs of domestic peace and tranquility, mom
and apple pie.
In the first
century, rulers would often arrive into the city with the placing of palms on
the road as a sign of peace. The waving of palms and laying down of coats was
no accident or coincidence. Palms are a sign of victory and military
achievement. The Romans gave palms to the winners of the games. When Jerusalem
had achieved its independence, the Hebrew people had used palms to display
their joy. 2 Kings 9 reminds us when it describes cloaks spread on bare steps
for the anointing of the new king Jehu. So from all of this we would expect
that the Hebrew people, expecting a new King would roll out the welcome carpet,
wave palms, through cloaks on the ground and celebrate the entrance of this new
King.
But why the
donkey and the colt?
One of the most
perplexing thing about the life of Jesus to the modern day person is often the
way in which things were done. We neither have the appreciation or
understanding of the customs of the day, or often, the biblical prophecy that
he fulfills. So in order to truly understand his style of entrance, let us take
a walk through biblical history and prophecy. In the 49th chapter of
Genesis we are told that the scepter, the sign of royal power, will not pass
from Judah until he who is the rightful heir comes to claim it. And when he
comes he will bind his foal, listen carefully, the young donkey and his male
donkey to the vine which he will wash his garments in the wine and his robe in
the blood of the grapes. I find this passage to be intriguing in several
arenas. First, Jesus rides into Jerusalem on the foal of the donkey. Second, it
will be his blood shed that we will celebrate with the fruit of the vine each
and every communion. Solomon was brought into the city of Jerusalem on the back
of a donkey where he was anointed king following in the footsteps of his father
David. And then there is Zechariah 9. “Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion!
Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having
salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” 480
years before the birth of Jesus, Zechariah writes these words of prophecy to
identify not only how we will know this rightful heir, the new King, but also
to tell us about him. He will be righteous and bringing salvation and he will
be gentle. Now history tells us much about the life of Jesus and I suspect that
we all can agree that his ministry was all about being gentle and healing and
the cross is all about salvation. His entrance into Jerusalem meant something
only if you were paying attention to the details. God is determined to reveal
the very nature of his plan to those who are paying attention. The Hebrew
people were looking for the Messiah to come into their city. They were looking
for the king who would remove the oppressive Roman rule and restore the kingdom
to its greatness. And yet Jesus was intent on demonstrating the power of God in
a way that reveals its very nature to the world. He had already spent much time
revealing the paradox that is God.
That God’s
strength is made perfect in weakness and the really wise people in the world
are those of us willing to become weak in the strength of God. The donkey
symbolizes the power of the throne of Solomon, the strength of the prophecy of
Zechariah and yet it also shows the power of peace in the gentle hands of the
man who rode it into the city on that day.
Funny that he
would enter Jerusalem as he entered Bethlehem, on the back of a donkey.
Jesus is
reminding us of the entrance that the way to peace is through the strength of
faith. We who think of ourselves as not having the power to change the world
are the instruments that God uses to do just that thing. We, who focus our
attention on being humble before God and reaching out to the world in a
servant’s role, are the very strength that allows the world to be reached and
transformed.
But I wonder if
the story would somehow be complete if we carried it further into the story. We
know from the Gospel of Matthew that Jesus then proceeds to the temple were people
have set up shop, in the temple itself in order to make money off the people
coming to make offerings there. Imagine with me for a moment the front of the
church filled with people trying to get you to buy birds, doves, lambs, souvenirs
and other things, all focused on taking your money from you while you are here
for the Passover celebration. And Jesus comes into this place in righteous
anger and cleans the house. I wonder if the significance has been lost on us as
to what has occurred. Jesus enters the city in the way of peace and royalty,
fulfilling the prophecy. And then he demonstrates his power and authority as he
cleans the temple area. Is it possible that in doing so he is making a
statement about judgment?
Are we the
people of the temple, trying to sell our wares to any who would buy them,
taking advantage of those who are there for righteous reasons? Or are we the
righteous coming there to pray and worship having to deal with the world which
is intent on taking from us everything that we own? And what is it then that Jesus
is reminding us of on this day so many years ago? Is it possible that he wants
us to remember whose job it is to judge? Is it for us to remember how we are
supposed to be in our walk of life?
I want to end
this sermon today with a story. As you hear its words, imagine yourself in it.
Are you the young girl or the father? In November 1991 Jerry Jenkins wrote a bizarre
story about a man awakened in the middle of the night by a phone call. He was
groggy. The girl on the end of the phone was weeping. “Daddy” she said, “I’m
pregnant and alone.” His daughter was away at college. Through stunned beyond belief,
he forgave her and prayed with her. The next day he wrote several letters to
his daughter. Here are the excerpts: Part of me seemed to die last night. Not
because of what it means to me as much as what it means to you. You were free
to make all kinds of choices. Now you are shut up to a few and none of them to
your liking. But God will see you and us together through it all. Though I weep
inside, I can’t condemn you because I sin too. You transgression is no worse
than mine, just different. We think of acts as sins. But sin is a package, an
attitude that expresses itself in different ways and to different degrees. But
it all comes from the same sin package you inherited through us. Christ is the
only difference. God forgives this sin as well as others – really forgives and
cleanses. David was a man of God when he went into his experience with Bathsheba
and in the grace of God he came out a man of God. And his sin included murder! We’re
praying much. We love you more than I can say. And respect you, too, as always.
While we can’t say that God causes failures, He does permit them, and I think
it’s clear He uses them to build character and beauty that we’d never have
without them. Remember that God’s love is in even this, maybe especially in
this. We’re glad that in a measure, at least, we can help the daughter we love
so much. This is a day of testing, but hold our ground we must. God will give
us victory. We’re looking forward to your being at home. Love Dad.
Imagine the
surprise by all when the daughter called three days later. His daughter was
shocked by the letters. She was not the one who had made the phone call
earlier... another girl must have dialed the wrong number. “These letters are
my treasure,” the daughter later said, “real love letters written by a godly
father who never imagined that he would have to write them to his own
daughter.”
Jesus comes
into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey. Humble, a man of peace offering
forgiveness and salvation to the world. From that gateway he would walk to the
cross, shed his blood there for you and me. What does the entrance mean? To
those who are listening, everything!
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