Jesus came riding into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday riding on a donkey and her colt. Matthew says this was to fulfill what God prophesied through the prophet Zechariah. It says, “See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey…” (Zech 9:9).
Thirty-three years had passed between Christmas and Palm Sunday and Matthew does not record a single time when Jesus was called “king” during that gap of time. Jesus was proclaimed a king in the other parallel accounts of this event written in Luke 19 and John 12. He rode on an ordinary, lowly beast of burden rather than an Arabian stallion. Jesus didn’t wear kingly clothes or a royal crown. He held no scepter in his hand. His attendants were majestic by any means-mostly just Galilean fisherman. Christ was called “king;” however, his entry in the royal city of Jerusalem didn’t look kingly.
And Jesus had no intentions of showing himself as an earthly king. The throne he would ascend was not a throne of plated with precious metal, but an old rugged cross. The crown he would wear wasn’t bedazzled with large jewels; it was woven together with sharp thorns. He would not shed the blood of his enemies, but his own blood to establish the power for his kingdom. Nevertheless, Jesus would establish a kingdom of greater glory and majesty than any earthly king ever before or after him. He did all this through his lowly humility. He did all this for his love for you and me, in order to give us the crown of glory and honor before God the Father. Christ Jesus fulfilled all these things (his activities during Holy Week): from Palm Sunday to Maundy Thursday and Good Friday to Easter morning, so that we may have a triumphal entry of our own through the gates of heaven! We sing his praises:
Ride on, ride on in majesty!
In lowly pomp ride on to die.
O Christ, your triumphs now begin
O’er captive death and conquered sin.
(Christian Worship: A Lutheran Hymnal, #133, st.2)
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