City Life Starter

Written by Paul Lane

The Word

²⁸ And when he had said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. ²⁹ When he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of the disciples, ³⁰ saying, “Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here. ³¹ If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say this: ‘The Lord has need of it.’” ³² So those who were sent went away and found it just as he had told them. ³³ And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?” ³⁴ And they said, “The Lord has need of it.” ³⁵ And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. ³⁶ And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. ³⁷ As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, ³⁸ saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” ³⁹ And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” ⁴⁰ He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”

Luke 19:28-40 (ESV)

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
    Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you;
    righteous and having salvation is he,
humble and mounted on a donkey,
    on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Zechariah 9:9

Reflection

I have two questions for you today.  First, why did Jesus go through all these motions?  He has his disciples go and find a baby horse, a colt.  He tells them that if the owner asks, just tell them that “I need it”.  And, shockingly, that works!  People place clothes on the colt and then he rides it through town. 

The short answer is that Jesus did not come just to save us from our sin, but also to fulfill prophesy (e.g. Zechariah 9:9).  God spent thousands of years planting prophecies in our history, which pointed at Jesus.  So, Jesus had to fulfill every single prophesy to ensure that there was no mistake about who it was doing the saving when the time case.  And by no other name shall we find salvation.

Second, why did the people respond to Jesus in such a clear way.  If I tell my friends to take someone’s horse, my friends would think I had lost my mind.  Also, if I got on that horse and rode it into town, no one would think I was trying to take over the city. 

But the people around Jesus did respond.  So clearly, these actions of Jesus meant something to them.  In that day, when a conquering king entered a city, they would ride either a war horse which would signal that they would rule it by force, or a donkey which would signal that they would rule it through peace and diplomacy.  So, clearly, Jesus enters as a conquering king offering peace.

Application

When I was in high school, our church would do a Palm Sunday walk, in the middle of a big public road.  At the time, I was embarrassed to be seen carrying a palm branch down the middle of the street.  I didn’t think I looked very cool.  But no one teased me.  No one ever said anything about it.  In fact, later I found out that some of my classmates were Christian’s and they had done similar things. Still later I learned that the followers of Jesus did their Palm Sunday walk at the risk of their lives, and my embarrassment turned to shame. I felt bad about not being a stronger Christian. 

But with spiritual maturity, one can get over the desire to be cool.  But it takes developing a deeper relationship with the Lord to actually take a stand for Christ. The people on the first Palm Sunday paved the way for Jesus because they believed in who He was.  So, who do you believe Jesus is?

Prayer

Dear Lord, please forgive my weakness and feelings of embarrassment and shame when confronted with standing for the name of Jesus.  I pray that You draw me closer to You and given me the courage to stand for His name.  And in Jesus’ name I pray, amen.