Approaching Easter - Palm Sunday

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you! He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.  Zechariah 9:9

Four descriptions in this verse describe the Messiah's character:

(1) He is King, (2) He is just, (3) He brings salvation, and (4) He is humble.


When Christ rode that young donkey into Jerusalem at the beginning of that final Passover week, He was fulfilling specific prophecy, complete in detail that could not be mistaken or disregarded.

The next day the great crowd that had come to the Feast heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They  took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,

     "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
     Blessed is the King of Israel!"

Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it, as it is written,

     "O daughter of Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a
     donkey's colt."  John 12:12-15


The Church refers to this event as Palm Sunday, or The Triumphal Entry.

It is recorded in all four gospels and marks a distinctive adjustment in Christ's ministry. Before this He seemed plagued with the problem of too much acclaim (His 'time had not yet come,' He often said).

Now, He even chided the Pharisees when they asked Jesus to quiet the tone of the crowd, "If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out." (Luke 19:40)

Who was in the crowd that day? A group from Bethany, still rejoicing at the miracle of Lazarus being brought back from the dead. Many pilgrims from all over the Empire arriving for Passover. Matthew talks about the lame, the blind and children being there. The text also refers to religious leaders.

And Roman legions were there to keep the crowds in check as the population of the city began to swell in advance of the Feast.

Crowd control in Jerusalem was always a security problem for the Romans, and for their puppet Jewish administrators who were jealous of their positions of authority within the structure of the Empire.

But about those Roman legions. I wonder what they thought. Were they secretly - or not so secretly -  making fun?

The typical Roman officer on duty in Jerusalem would have witnessed a number of important processions and 'Triumphal Entries.'

Probably even in Rome where the spectacle of the event would have dwarfed this small occasion in Jerusalem.

Might it have been like the Oscars being presented in Mississippi?

Jerusalem was an important city - a hub of the Empire. But not the place to honor a great King?

Did the Roman soldiers hang back and sneer at the procession of peasants from Galilee with the blind, the lame and children?

Did they perhaps laugh at all the provincial pomp and zeal? Thinking of how it would have been done in Rome, where they really "knew how to put on productions like this!"

Accustomed to honoring a triumphal king riding on a stallion or chariot, surrounded by the glitter of important adoring crowds, the object of this crowd's attention was a solitary figure, on a small donkey, with a borrowed coat draped across the backbone serving as his saddle.

And he was "weeping" (!) we are told in Luke 19 as He considered the fate of the city!

What kind of King was this?

Not the usual kind of King, that's for sure.