Luke 19:28-40--The Triumphal Entry

Luke 19:28-40
English Standard Version
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The Triumphal Entry
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.”

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As Jesus proceeds to Jerusalem, He is going to stop on the Mount of Olives and send some of His disciples ahead of Him into the city to find a colt (a young donkey) that is tied there.  They are supposed to untie it and bring it to Him and if anyone questions them about it, they are simply to say that "The Lord has need of it."  This is a strange request and a strange answer, because this donkey did not belong to any of them nor are they purchasing or renting it, but it shows in some ways that everything does belong to Jesus.  It also seems apparent that everyone in town was supposed to know who they were talking about when the disciples would say that "The Lord" has need of it.  I'm not sure everyone would know and understand the prophecy as to why the one they thought to be Messiah might need a donkey, but many of them might have known this--for every king that was going to ride into Jerusalem would ride in on a horse if the king was going to make war, but on a donkey if the king was coming during a time of peace.  Jesus is telling the people both by His parables and by how He chose to enter Jerusalem that now is not that time that Messiah had come to make war with the nations of the world.  We will see Jesus come as the Conquering King in the book of Revelation and He will follow this same path from the Mount of Olives, but He will come riding on a white horse then which heaven will supply, and He will need no sword other than the words that come from His mouth.

On this day that we are studying that we call Palm Sunday, the disciples went into the city and found the colt just as Jesus had told them, and the owners of the colt questioned them as Jesus had implied someone would, and the disciples gave the answer He told them to give, and there was no objection.  So, why did the Lord have need of it?  I sort of already answered that question in the first paragraph of this journal entry, but let's look at the prophecies that Jesus is fulfilling from the book of Zechariah and the book of Isaiah.


Zechariah 9:9
English Standard Version
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The Coming King of Zion
9 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.

The book of the prophet Zechariah speaks much of the coming Day of the LORD, but there was not distinction between the First Advent of Christ and the Second Advent of Christ.  Everything that Zechariah saw that was related to the coming of Messiah in the future got all blended together for him. So, this prophecy about riding in on the colt of a donkey from Zech. 9:9 identified Him as Messiah, who had come to make peace, not war, but in Zech. 14:4 we see the prophecy of how He would return when He returns and He will stand on the Mount of Olives and the earth will split in two because of the power that He brings with Him when He comes in judgment.  So then it is understandable that the people, even those who knew the prophecies, were somewhat confused on the purpose of His mission.  Even if they understood this event to mark that He was the Messiah, He's also in the right place (the Mount of Olives) for where His journey would start when He would come into the city to execute judgment.  If it is time for that, the people both want to welcome their king and go out to meet Him to let Him know they are not His enemies.

There is a moment during this Triumphal Entry when Jesus does pronounce judgment over Jerusalem and the Temple though.  As He is riding down the mountain, He is sad because He has longed to gather His people Israel under His proverbial wings like a hen gathers her chicks, but they will not come to Him, so He will not be able to protect those who are not in Him when the time of judgment is to come.  Just like the mother hen covers her chicks to protect them and it keeps them from having to be concerned about what's going on outside, they don't have to see it (even though they may hear it) because they are protected by their mother and are close to her, and that's all that matters.  So it should be with us that we shouldn't care what the world throws at us as long as we are in Christ and being comforted and protected by the Holy Spirit.  But, as much as this was His desire, He could not make His people love Him, and so, it was time prophecy what would be the result of them rejecting Him.  (This will be the next passage that I journal about, so I won't tell you too much of this right now).

The people currently give outward signs of accepting Him right now though, but only the version of Him that they are willing to accept.  They are ready to try to make Him king as the Son of David--the rightful heir to the throne, and they would not listen to Him when He said that event though the throne belonged to Him, He was not here to claim it at this time.  So, they sang the words from the Psalms that were meant to be sung upon the coming of the Messiah (these words will be sung again by faithful Israel who belong to Christ at the time of His coming to reign on the throne of David in Jerusalem in the future).  "Hosanna" (which means, "The LORD Saves" and "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD."  They didn't understand who right and how wrong they were.  This was the LORD's Salvation in the person of His Son, but it was not the kind of salvation they expected.  They were expecting something like Joshua (who Jesus shares His name with...both are more correctly transliterated Yeshua, but the Latinized version of this name is Jesus.  It means "Salvation.").  So the people are believing that Jesus is going to live up to His name, but they are thinking of Him in the same way as another who had that same name, and they are imagining Him as the conqueror Joshua, and not the high priest of the Old Testament whose name was Joshua.  Both Joshua the conqueror and Joshua the high priest point us forward to the person of Christ, for He would one in the order of Melchizedek that would be prophet, priest, and king all wrapped up in one, but for right now Jesus came to fulfill those roles of being the Prophet of Deuteronomy that be like Moses, but better as God Himself would teach the people, and the Great High Priest that we read about in the book of Hebrews because He would make intercession for His people by His own body and blood (that is why He was going to Jerusalem).  He would not just be the sacrifice that is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, but He would be the High Priest that would enter the Holy of Holies that is the throne room of God and apply His blood to the Mercy Seat to make atonement once and for all for all His people so that their sins would be blotted at and remembered no more--they would be as far as the east is from the west as far as God is concerned, and as if they had been buried in the deepest depths of the sea for no one to see or remember (and event this last word picture falls short, but in the coming kingdom we are told that there is no more sea as an image that there doesn't even need to be a hiding place for our sins because they are completely gone forever and ever).

All this is going through Jesus' head and He's already exhausted, but He also knows the week that He has ahead of Him where He is going to be tried and tested, and that starts right here where the devil in a way tempts Him to just go ahead and take the throne now without worrying about the cross.  Look how the people were ready for Him to be their King, yet they were not ready for Him to be the propitiation for their sins--the payment of their sin debt that would satisfy God's wrath and justice.  The words were coming out of the mouths of the Jews, but Jesus knew their hearts, so tomorrow, we will see how Jesus will weep over the city and the people.  He is there to fulfill His mission, but it is a mission they are unwilling to accept and instead of welcoming the salvation He is going to provide (as they are saying with their mouths on Palm Sunday) they will be willing participants in His death, but what man meant for evil, God meant for good.  It will be through the hands of these same people that Jesus will be offered up to be crucified and they will a week later sing a different tune of "Crucify Him, Crucify Him" as they cry for Pilate to give them Barabbas (which incidentally is funny because his name means "Son of the Father").  We'll get to all this and more as we study these passages, but this event as seen as the "kickoff" of sorts for what we call Passion Week.  Get ready for the next few chapters to be non-stop action and intense moments full of emotion and stress and Jesus knowing that He doesn't have much time left and He has to try to make His disciples understand a few last lessons before it is too late and He has no more time to teach them.