This is not what anyone expected . . .
a king on a donkey
When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, ‘Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, just say this, “The Lord needs them.” And he will send them immediately.’ This took place to fulfil what had been spoken through the prophet, saying,
’Tell the daughter of Zion, Look, your king is coming to you,
humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’
The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting,
‘Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!’ Matthew 21:1-9
A few weeks ago, my husband and I set out to walk a couple of miles along the north bank of the River Thames in London, to see an exhibition. We didn’t expect it to take more than half an hour. But no sooner had we turned the corner at Blackfriars Bridge than we found ourselves swept into a huge, organised walk. All the participants were wearing badges that said ‘walking marathon’, along with the logos of various charities or causes they were supporting. We fell into conversation with a few of these people, who said that among the reasons they loved to take part was that it was ‘like a marathon for ordinary people’ – no fanfare, no press or cameras, no trophies to win, no personal bests, just hundreds of people turning up to join a walk with a purpose. There was a stark contrast between this walk and the level of importance and publicity given to a huge event such as the Olympics, or the World Cup.
You might say there was a similar contrast between a typical triumphal procession in the ancient world, and the procession that Jesus joined from Bethany to Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday. In the ancient world, if a king processed through the streets, or made a triumphant entry into an arena, you would expect him to be riding on a magnificent horse -- probably a white stallion – with a great deal of pomp and circumstance. Kings were not usually shy and retiring, and people wanted a confident and visible leader, so public processions were designed to enhance the King’s image, and to gain public support. But when it came to that first Palm Sunday, the evidence suggests that the procession was much more like the ‘walking marathon’ – not a grand event planned especially for Jesus, but an annual event, something like a pilgrimage, that ordinary people took part in every year.
On that particular occasion, just a few days before Jesus was arrested and put to death, he and his friends joined the procession at Bethany. Soon after that they found him a donkey to ride on, and at some point, as the crowd walked down the hillside from Bethany to Jerusalem, he became the centre of attention. Even so, this was nothing like the kind of triumphal procession you would associate with kings.
All the way through the gospels, we see Jesus turning people’s expectations upside down. They expected a saviour figure to be sombre and serious, perhaps like John the Baptist in his hair shirt and ascetic lifestyle, but Jesus regularly wined and dined with all kinds of people, and turned water into wine. They hoped for a Messiah who would overthrow the Roman occupation; what they got was a man who told them to put their weapons down. They thought a Messiah would proclaim himself king; but Jesus consistently pointed them away from himself. And now, on the way down to Jerusalem, he turned things upside down once again. Rather than an event planned to showcase him, he just slipped into an annual event with the ordinary people. Instead of a magnificent, white stallion, he rode on a young, small donkey.
What did it all mean? Maybe, among the crowds, there were many who simply saw it as that controversial preacher and miracle worker making his pilgrimage into Jerusalem along with everyone else. But others – especially the disciples, who had been listening for some time to Jesus as he made oblique references to suffering, death, and resurrection – might have been adding together the symbolism of kings on horses, and the prophecy concerning a peaceable Messiah riding a donkey’s colt (Zechariah 9:9). Perhaps the cries of ‘Hosanna’ included some who were just carried along by the excitement of the crowd – but others whose recognition of him was growing by the hour.
Even so, I imagine that they still did not foresee what was coming next. They did not expect to see a Messiah on a cross, any more than they expected to see a king on a donkey.
