Jesus arranges this entrance down to the detail. He sends two disciples ahead to a village, tells them they will find a donkey tied with a colt beside her, and gives them an answer in case anyone objects: 3"The Lord needs them." Matthew explains why the arrangement matters. 4"This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet," and the prophet is Zechariah (Zechariah 9:9). The disciples find everything as he said, and they 6"did as Jesus had directed them." Jesus knows what waits in the next village, and he knows what waits in the next city. Jesus walks into the city on a plan, and the plan has been in the Scriptures for centuries.
A king arriving on a donkey was making a statement. Zechariah's own prophecy sets the animal against the horse, saying God will cut off the chariot and the war horse, and the king will speak peace to the nations (Zechariah 9:10). Jesus had refused to be made king by force before (John 6:15). Now, at the moment he finally lets the crowds hail him in public, he chooses the one image that corrects what they think a king must be. The donkey tells the crowd, and everyone watching, what kind of kingdom has arrived.
Spreading cloaks on the road is how a crowd once greeted Jehu as king (2 Kings 9:13). The crowd here spreads cloaks and branches on the road and shouts 9"Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!" Hosanna is a plea to be saved. They have the title right, and a cry that welcomes the Son of David to Jerusalem is a cry for a king. Matthew does not tell us what each person in the crowd expected, and he shows a king about to answer that plea in a way nobody on the road is picturing.
Within days, crowds in this same city will be calling for his crucifixion (Matthew 27:22-23). A hope aimed at the wrong description of the king has nothing left to hold when the true king turns out to be a servant who dies. The risk of praising Jesus loudly is the risk of praising a king we have designed ourselves.
The whole city is stirred, asking 10"Who is this?" The crowd answers 11"This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee." The answer is true and small. He is a prophet, and the donkey says more than that: the king the prophets promised has come to his city, near enough to touch, on a borrowed animal. Majesty in this scene has chosen the lowest way in, and the lowness belongs to the glory.
Name one place where you have wanted Jesus to rule by force, whether over a person, a problem, or your own schedule. Ask him to rule there the way he rode into Jerusalem.
Prayer
Father, we have cheered the parts of you that serve what we already wanted and gone cold when your kingship asked something different of us. Give us eyes for the shape of your reign, humble, near enough to touch, patient with our misplaced hopes. Thank you for a King who rode toward his own death on a borrowed colt. In Jesus' name, amen.