1. Jesus claims
what is his:
- the obedience of his disciples; they had to go into town, acting like horse thieves, and risk retribution, to obey what Jesus said.
- a donkey; the owner was perfectly content with the explanation “The Lord needs it”.
- a city, Jerusalem, that he enters like a King.
- and the praise of all the people.
- And within that city, in verse 12, a temple;
Was Jesus being like
a two-year-old – who insists that everything in the room is
“mine”...
As C S Lewis says, there are three
options in dealing with Jesus' claims about Himself: either Jesus ' claims were correct; or they were deluded
(Lewis colourfully says, if Jesus was wrong about being God he would
be as crazy as a man who thought he was a poached egg!); or they were
deliberate deception. The events that followed Palm Sunday - the death and resurrection of Jesus, confirm that his claims were absolutely correct!
2. The
underlying history; the sub-text...
In the second
century BC, the Eastern Mediterranean was ruled by the Seleucid
Empire – which was formed after Alexander the Great's empire
collapsed. In 169 BC,King Antiochus IV (whose nickname was Epiphanes
– meaning “God manifest”) had removed gold and silver items
from the temple. On 25 December 167, Antiochus was back, and this
time he desecrated the temple by setting up a pagan altar in the Holy
of Holies and offering pigs flesh to Zeus, as well as using the
temple rooms used as a brothel. Three years later, in 164BC, a man
called Judas Maccabeus had led a revolt, defeated Antiochus and
rededicated the temple to God. After the dedication, the people sang
hosanna , waved palm branches, and looked forward to redemption. The
pagan yoke had been broken and they expect the son of David to come
and set the whole world free of sin forever. This became the newest
“Festival” in the Jewish calendar.
And when Jesus rode
into Jerusalem, claiming it as his own, claiming to be its King,
people recognised the signal: it was like
the festival of Dedication. So they began to wave their palm branches and to sing
the Hallelujah Palms. “Hosanna!” It had echoes of that great
victory nearly two hundred years earlier. And that in turn had
echoes of the feast of “Tabernacles” when the people remembered
surviving in the desert, and made shelters of palm branches. So as
people come to Jerusalem for the Passover – when God's victories
for his people began – Jesus' action takes them right through to
the latest of God's victories. It places Jesus as the saviour, the
bringer of a new age. And yes, that is what he is!
People were
beginning to get carried away with the idea that Jesus the King, was
going to do what Judas Maccabeus had done two hundred years earlier,
get rid of the foreigners, drive them out of God's land, set up
“proper” worship in the temple and establish a reign of peace and
prosperity for the Jewish people.
But,
the way Jesus does this, shows the real
nature of that new
age. Matthew says he is riding “A colt,
the foal of a donkey” And
it almost reads like Matthew thought Jesus was riding on both the
mother and the colt. Except that
"them" refers to the cloaks,
not the donkeys. I
believe Matthew is right to include the mother and the colt
the best and most humane
way to deal with an
unbroken colt
would be to bring its mother along also. So
even the donkey that he claims as his own, is treated with gentleness
and respect.
And
it is worth noting this is the only time we see Jesus travelling in
any other way than on foot. He enters his capital, not as a messianic
figure on a warhorse but gentle and riding on the donkey (Zechariah 9.9)
By riding a colt, Jesus wants to make the people of Jerusalem see
that though he is their rightful king his reign is one of peace and
service. Jesus is acting out the principle of humble service he is
just enunciated in the previous chapter.
Michael
Green points out, "He has come to rule over the hearts and lives
of men and women not to kick the Romans out". Jesus is the
suffering Son of Man, who comes to Jerusalem to give his life as a
ransom for many.
But the suffering
servant, the humble King is still King. He exercises his rule and
authority. Judas Maccabeus Jesus entered the Jewish temple, to
cleanse it from Gentile defilement. Jesus enters the temple, to
cleanse he court of the Gentiles from Jewish defilement! His rule
is inclusive, international, for everyone.
His reign is
cleansing, and it is healing. I like Peterson's rendering of v. 14:
Now there was room for the blind and crippled to get in. They came
to Jesus and he healed them.
3. Jesus' actions
raise the question – “Who is this?” The question is important.
- The answer supplied by the crowds “The prophet Jesus” seems trivial. But it looks back to Deuteronomy 18.15. where Moses prophesies that God will sent “A Prophet like himself.”)
- Matthew says that the entry of Jesus in to Jerusalem fulfils Zech 9. 9: “Your King is coming”. Jesus is Messiah; he is saviour, combining in himself both suffering and glory. Jesus is the Victor, achieving that victory through his death and resurrection. Jesus is King – a king whose rule is global, and deeply personal.
- The Galileans in the crowd can identify Jesus as theirs: He's from Nazareth. The daughters of Zion – the people of Jerusalem – are told he is theirs. He cleanses the court of the gentiles so all nations can pray so he's for the whole world. Is he yours?
Matthew and Zechariah say “Your
King is coming...” And the Church could read that, as a renewed
promise of the fulfilment of the Kingdom, when Jesus come back.
The Church would read it as a reminder that Jesus was the Suffering
Servant.
They would read it
as a reminder that their suffering servant was the Victor.
We have learned as
we have prepared for Easter this year that suffering and glory go
together. That the way to victory is through sacrifice
They would read it
as a reminder of Christ's right to rule in their lives, over all the
details.
Matthews
readers would realize the implication of the story was "God will
judge bad Churches " , this judgement on the temple having been
fulfilled in 70 A.D. " his
severest judgement
will be at is reserved for those Churches whose worship is
hollow, where corruption and dissension are rife, and which
repel rather than
attract 'gentile' outsiders."
They would read it
as a reminder that their King – the same Jesus who came on the
donkey – was coming again, in victory.
© Gilmour Lilly March 2015
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