The King Arrives (Matthew 21:1-11)

We now enter the account of the final week of the life of Jesus and yet there is still almost a fourth of the Gospel of Matthew still to read. All the Gospels give a large amount of their accounts to telling what occurred during this final week, a reminder that it contains events crucial to how we should understand the mission of Jesus.

This day is celebrated in the Christian Year as Palm Sunday. In the week of the time, it was the day after the Sabbath and so the first day of a new week. But what the people were expecting to happen as they anticipated the Passover and what they received were two different things because it was clearly a day of surprises.

Matthew does not say where Jesus had come from. We know that Bethany and Bethphage were near each other. John tells that on the previous day Jesus had been anointed with oil by Mary, which means he had spent the Sabbath at Bethany with his friends there. This was the last ‘first day of the week’ of the old order. When the next one came around, it was a new order because on it Jesus rose from the dead. 

No doubt, there would have been many pilgrims staying in the villages around the city and perhaps they had merged as they made their way on this day into the city to go to the temple. Among them would have been those who had journeyed with him from Jericho and they could have been sharing with others what Jesus had done there and also the amazing things that he had been speaking about.

Some of the details that are connected to this incident, but which I don’t intend to develop, may provide topics for your own reflection. First, this is the only time in the Gospels where Jesus is described as not walking or sailing to his destination. If that was the case, then it would have given the disciples a very different perspective on their Master. Normally they would have been behind him, listening to him. Here they are acknowledging that he is King.

Second, it was customary for a specific psalm to be sung each day in the temple. The psalm that was sung on the first day of the week was Psalm 24 which describes the character of the Messiah (a perfect man) and his entrance through city gates. Surely some of the onlookers saw a connection between the psalm and the procession that was taking place.

Third, Spurgeon mentions in a sermon the care that Jesus showed for animals when he took the mother donkey along with the foal. The famous preacher said that if Jesus had left one behind it would have been pining for the other. And Spurgeon linked this to the day when the creation will be delivered from its futility.

Fourth, you may ask why we call this day Palm Sunday. If we only had three of the Gospels – Matthew, Mark and Luke, we would not use this title. It is John who mentions palm branches. So here we have an example of comparing what the different authors do with the same incident.

Jesus and discipleship

The first detail that Matthew focuses on as he begins his description of this remarkable day is discipleship. After all, from a human point of view, the events of this day would have been different if the two disciples had not obeyed the instructions of Jesus about collecting the donkey and the colt. The donkey was probably the mother of the colt. Matthew does not tell us if Jesus had made arrangements for the animals to be there, so it is pointless to speculate about that. Nevertheless, we can see in the words of Jesus to those disciples some basic features of discipleship and we can note them briefly.

The first aspect is an obvious one and that is that Jesus can ask some disciples to do something that he does not ask other disciples to do. That is a basic feature of discipleship and is a reminder that everyone does not have to be involved with everything that takes place. They may have wondered why two of them were chosen, but I suppose the fact that there were two animals could cover that detail.

The second aspect is that Matthew does not tell us which of the two disciples were given this task. Maybe he was one of them and maybe he was not. We can deduce from this that often things can be done quietly, without drawing attention to those who have done it.

A third detail is that Jesus can make it straightforward to his disciples regarding what he wants them to do for him. He informed the two disciples that the donkey they were to take would be one with a colt beside it. It is possible, perhaps likely, that several houses in the village would have a donkey beside it, but it looks as if only one would have a donkey and a colt. The disciples may have had to walk around the village a bit to locate the animals, but they had been told what to expect. We don’t get instructions like that from Jesus today, but in his Word he does tell his followers what he expects them to do for him.

What would Jesus want us to see?

Obviously, the Saviour knew why he was going to Jerusalem because he frequently explained to his disciples that when he reached there on this occasion he would be arrested and put to death. He would have known many of the details of his death from what the Old Testament said would happen to the Messiah. He would also have known that the Old Testament predicted other details concerning him which initially seemed to be very different from his death. One of those events had been foretold by the prophet Zechariah about the entrance of the King into the city. Jesus knew that this week was the last week he would be in the city and that the fulfilment of the prophecy would be part of the week.

It is important to note what Jesus was not doing here. Sometimes, we hear it said that here Jesus offered himself to Israel to be their King and initially there was some enthusiasm for him which waned very quickly over the next few days. Jesus is not offering himself as King. Instead he is showing to them that he is the King and he is also showing to them what kind of King he is. So what kind of King is he?

The main emphasis here is that he is a humble King. Many other kings had ridden into Jerusalem but had done so in displays of pomp and self-exaltation. Concerning whatever else that could be said about them, none of them were totally humble. No doubt, good kings like David had their measure of humility, but none were as humble as he. 

What do we mean when we say that Jesus was humble? One way to describe him would be to say that he was constantly doing the will of God from the heart. Although he was the Son of God, he had come into this world as a servant. He is the servant-King.  

Riding into Jerusalem, he is a King who has not yet received his crown. And he will only receive it if he does something incredible in Jerusalem. In Jerusalem, the city of peace, he is to engage in the battle of all battles when he will take on and defeat the powers of darkness, which he did on the cross.

Moreover, as he rides into Jerusalem, he was going there to have a different crowd sing about his coming. Sadly, many of the ones praising him here may have changed their minds when they saw him overcome by the Roman authorities. Their song was short-lived, but Jesus was concerned with having a people who would have an eternal song. The only way that would happen would be if he paid the penalty of their sins on the cross.

The crowd

The first comment that can be made about the crowd is that it is easy to form a crowd. As they say, a crowd forms a crowd. On this occasion, if we compare the four gospels, there were more than one crowd and they converged together as Jesus rode into the city.

The crowd reminds us what to do in the presence of Jesus and that is to treat him royally. They provided for him a special covering on which he could ride into the city. When a king entered the city, he would be treated according to his stature. We should never treat Jesus as if he was an ordinary person. I suppose we can say that we should make a special path for him to walk in our hearts, that he alone has the right to use.

The crowd reminds what to say in the presence of Jesus. Hosanna means ‘save us’. It is likely that the crowd were looking for some kind of political deliverance and the Passover would have reminded them that God could rescue them from a mighty political power. But we know that the deliverance that was needed was from a far greater bondage, that of sin. We can place ourselves with the crowd and sing with greater understanding, ‘Save us, Son of David, by going to the cross!’

Moreover, the crowd made use of the words of Psalm 118 when they affirmed, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’ Of course, whether they knew it or not, they were stating the gospel succinctly. This statement is a reminder that God is for us. Since we are sinners, we would imagine that the One coming in the Lord’s name, would be here to judge us. Yet the opposite is the case. Instead of coming to judge us, we can say that future Judge will take our place and pay the penalty that we should have undergone.

This statement is also a reminder to us to say something good about Jesus. They are basically saying, ‘Blessed is Jesus,’ and ‘Blessed be Jesus,’ because he is the One coming in the name of the Lord. When we say ‘Blessed is Jesus’ we are stating how much we value him and when we say ‘Blessed be Jesus’ we are stating that we want him to experience increasing glory.

The crowd also remind us to think of heaven when they cry, ‘Hosanna in the highest!’ When Jesus was born, the angels sang, ‘Glory to God in the highest.’ Here, the crowd say that the salvation that the King will provide is the worthy theme for heaven to think about. Whatever their estimation of the salvation, we know that the actual salvation Jesus procured will be the theme of the songs of heaven for eternity. Sometimes we hear people singing about triumphs from the past, but we know that they will never be able to be with those heroes to celebrate the victory and its consequences. How different with Jesus and his victory. When the new creation comes, it will be accompanied with songs of joy. 

The crowd also show us how to descend from the heights very quickly because when they were asked who had arrived they reduced Jesus to the level of a prophet. There he was fulfilling a passage from Zechariah that proved he was the Messiah and they reduced him in their conversation to the level of Zechariah. Zechariah was a great man of God, but he was only a prophet. To say that Jesus is only a prophet is not to commend him.