Exalted!

Matthew 21:1-11
By Harold Dinsmore, M.Div.
© 2008 Harold Dinsmore

Palm Sunday!  A time to reflect on the excitement of the day Jesus rode into town on a donkey.  A day when the crowds cried forth with joy and jubilation.  A day when Jesus was exalted as the king.  It was foretold by the prophet Zechariah who lived 500 years before the birth of Christ.  Zechariah 9:9 proclaims, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!  Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!  Lo, your king comes to you, triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt the foul of a donkey.”

               Palm Sunday is a time for us to remember the greatness and magnificence of Christ.  We sometimes over emphasize his humanity and neglect his divinity.  Jesus is the king.  Why so the importance of the king riding into Jerusalem on a donkey?  History of this particular time period reveals that if a ruler or anyone of wealthy means came into a town or city such as this they would be riding upon a horse.  A horse was an expensive item and only those who were rich and powerful or were soldiers of rank rode in on such animals.

               In our text both in prophecy of the event know as the triumphal entry and the event itself, Jesus rides into Jerusalem triumphant and victorious on just the opposite of what a king would normally ride into town on.  A king would naturally flaunt his power riding preferable on a white steed of war.  Jesus chose a lowly beast of burden.  An ordinary donkey that even the poor might have owned.