“Who Is This?”
[Matthew 21:1-11]
April 13, 2014 Second Reformed Church
Who is Jesus?
Who did the people at the Triumphal
Entry understand Jesus to be?
Who are we to understand Jesus to
be?
In this morning’s text, we see:
First, Jesus claimed to be God, the
King.
Second, the crowd recognized Him as the
King of Israel.
And third, the crowd worshipped Him
as the promised Messiah – the Savior.
It was Sunday – the first day of the
week. Jesus had been leading His
disciples towards Jerusalem, where He told them that He must suffer and die. It was time:
“Now when they drew near to
Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two
disciples, saying to them, ‘Go into the village in front 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, you shall say, “The Lord
needs them,” and he will send them at once.’”
Now, Jesus did not tell the
disciples to get the donkey and her colt because He was tired and couldn’t make
it the rest of the way to Jerusalem – it was only about two miles away – and
they were walkers – it would not have been a big deal for them to make the
journey. No, the point of getting the
donkey and the colt was the symbolism that would arise from the use of them.
Consider how Jesus showed Himself to
be God in requesting that His disciples get the donkey and the colt: His instructions to them either involved a
plot on Jesus’ part, a great deal of luck, or a divine knowledge of who and
what lay before them.
Jesus’ told His disciples to go into
the village, and immediately, when they arrived, they would find a donkey and
her colt tied there. How did Jesus know
that?
Jesus told them to take them and
bring them to Him. How did Jesus know
that the owner would be home? That it
would convenient for them to borrow the donkey and the colt? That the owner would lend them to strangers? And so forth?
Jesus told them if they were
questioned, they should say that “the Lord” needs them. Now, that doesn’t mean much to us in English,
but in Greek, it’s another matter. The
words that are used here can simply mean someone who has authority, but,
phrased as they are, Jesus was using that most Holy Name of God that God gave
to Moses for Himself – Jesus was saying, “If anyone asks you why you are taking
them, tell them that the Lord God Almighty – YHWH – has need of them.” “The Creator of Heaven and Earth, the Judge
of the Living and the Dead, has need of this donkey and her colt.”
Why?
Matthew explains the picture Jesus was painting – and remember – though
many people couldn’t read – they had memorized vast portions of the Scripture
that they had heard read:
Matthew explains, “This took place
to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, ‘Say to the daughter of
Zion, “Behold, your king is coming to you, humble,
and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.”’”
As Zechariah wrote, “Rejoice
greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout
aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold,
your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and
mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zechariah 9:9, ESV).
Zechariah wrote sometime after 538
B.C., after Israel returned home from her captivity in Babylon. Zechariah was a contemporary of Nehemiah,
Ezra, Zerubbabel, and Haggai. Zechariah
prophesied against the people, warning them not to go back into the sins that
their fathers had committed, lest they be sent away into exile again. He also prophesied of the fulfillment of
God’s promise to send the Savior.
Zechariah’s text, which is quoted by
Matthew, is one of those texts which points to the fulfillment of the promise
of God to send the Savior. In this text,
Zechariah prophecies that the Savior God will send is their King – the rightful
heir to the throne of David. He is
righteous and is the provider of salvation – He will make God’s people right
with God. Yet, He will come – the
announcement of Who He is – will be that He rides into Jerusalem, lowly,
humbly, on a donkey, on a colt.
In riding into Jerusalem in this
way, Jesus was announcing Himself to be the King and Savior that God had
promised to send. Jesus was announcing
that He has a kingdom. Yet, He was
coming to them on a borrowed donkey, sitting on clothes – not a saddle, and
cheered on by the poor. Jesus’ Kingdom is
not like other kingdoms – and it is not the one that some people expected the
Savior would bring.
Jesus explicitly states this in His
trial before Pilate:
“So Pilate entered his headquarters
again and called Jesus and said to him, ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’ Jesus
answered, ‘Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you
about me?’ Pilate answered, ‘Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests
have delivered you over to me. What have you done?’ Jesus answered, ‘My kingdom
is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have
been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom
is not from the world.’ Then Pilate said to him, ‘So you are a king?’ Jesus
answered, ‘You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this
purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who
is of the truth listens to my voice.’ Pilate said to him, ‘What is truth?’” (John 18:33-38a, ESV).
The expression, “You say that I am a
king,” is an idiomatic expression which means, “You’re exactly right – it’s
just as you say – I am a king.”
The truth is what some people didn’t
recognize that day: Jesus is God, the
King. Jesus rode into Jerusalem to
fulfill the prophecy and the promise made that God would send the Savior to
save His people and make them right with the Father that they might enter into
His Kingdom
Second, the crowd recognized Him as
the King of Israel.
“The disciples went and did as Jesus
had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their
cloaks, and he sat on them. Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road,
and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the
crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, ‘Hosanna to
the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in
the highest!’”
The disciples made the preparations
Jesus requested – bringing Him the donkey and her colt. They lay their coats on them, and Jesus sat
on the coats on the donkey. And He rode
the donkey – with colt in tow – down the main road – and a crowd of – mainly –
the poor – the commoners – gather around Him – and they begin to praise Him –
to call to Him for salvation as the King of Israel.
They sang – at least portions – of
Psalm 118 – a psalm of David in which he reflects on being deserted by his friends
and colleagues as he endured attack from his enemies, yet found his hope in the
Lord and in His sanctuary and in the promised Savior:
“Oh
give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures
forever! Let Israel say, ‘His steadfast
love endures forever.’ Let the house of
Aaron say, ‘His steadfast love endures forever.’ Let those who fear the LORD say, ‘His
steadfast love endures forever.’
“Out of my distress I called on the
LORD; the LORD answered me and set me free.
The LORD is on my side; I will not fear.
What can man do to me? The LORD
is on my side as my helper; I shall look in triumph on those who hate me. It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the LORD than
to trust in princes.
“All nations surrounded me; in the
name of the LORD I cut them off! They
surrounded me, surrounded me on every side; in the name of the LORD I cut them
off! They surrounded me like bees; they
went out like a fire among thorns; in the name of the LORD I cut them off! I was pushed hard, so that I was falling, but
the LORD helped me.
“The LORD is my strength and my
song; he has become my salvation. Glad
songs of salvation are in the tents of the righteous: ‘The right hand of the LORD does valiantly, the
right hand of the LORD exalts, the right hand of the LORD does valiantly!’
“I shall not die, but I shall live, and
recount the deeds of the LORD. The LORD
has disciplined me severely, but he has not given me over to death. Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks
to the LORD. This is the gate of the
LORD; the righteous shall enter through it.
“I thank you that you have answered
me and have become my salvation. The
stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the LORD's doing; it is marvelous in
our eyes. This is the day that the LORD
has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
“Save us, we pray, O LORD! O LORD, we pray, give us success! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the
LORD! We bless you from the house of the
LORD. The LORD is God, and he has made
his light to shine upon us. Bind the
festal sacrifice with cords, up to the horns of the altar!
“You are my God, and I will give
thanks to you; you are my God; I will extol you. Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for
his steadfast love endures forever!” (Psalm 118, ESV).
As the crowd sang this song and
watched Jesus ride into Jerusalem on the donkey, they confessed belief in Him
as the King of Israel – and called out to Him for their salvation. He had not come in on a military steed, but
on a donkey; He had not come in with victorious pomp, but with meekness – Him
only understanding that this was, indeed, a ride to victory – a ride to the
cross – victory through His Blood for Himself and for us.
And the Gospel writers highlight one
section of the song:
Matthew notes:
“Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he
who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” (Matthew 21:9, ESV).
And Mark:
“Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in
the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!
Hosanna in the highest!” (Mark 11:9b-10, ESV).
And Luke:
“Blessed is the King who comes in
the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” (Luke 19:38,
ESV).
And John:
“Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in
the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!”
(John
12:13, ESV).
“Hosanna” is a word which means
“save us, we pray!” and it is directed either to the king or to God.
When the crowd said that Jesus
“comes in the Name of the Lord” – they were saying that He came in the power
and the authority of God – He is God’s legal representative.
They called Him King, they said that
the Kingdom of David is His, they said He is the Son of David – that is, the
legal heir to the throne of David.
But the call and confession of Jesus
as King is upped as they confessed that Jesus is blessed and that their
“Hosannas” are directed to the “highest” – to the “peace” and “glory” of
“heaven.” This is a confession of Jesus
as the Divine Messiah – this is the crowd confessing that Jesus is the Promised
Savior. This is the crowd announcing
that God came to earth in the Person of Jesus to save His people.
“But,” you may be thinking, “if
Jesus claimed to be God, the King, and the crowd proclaimed Him to be King, and
the crowd worshipped Him as the promised Messiah – the Savior, why did they
crucify Him?”
John tells us, “ His disciples did not understand these things
at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things
had been written about him and had been done to him” (John 12:16, ESV).
Some of these people – most of these
people? – spoke the correct words, but they didn’t understand what they really
meant. They hadn’t received salvation in
their hearts. Not a week later, they
would say, “But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel” (Luke 24:21,
ESV). They didn’t get it. So it doesn’t surprise us as we read:
“And when he entered Jerusalem, the
whole city was stirred up, saying, ‘Who is this?’ And the crowds said, ‘This is
the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.’”
The crowd confessed that Jesus is the prophet – not a prophet – and the crowd noted that He was their prophet – He was from Nazareth in Galilee – He was a local –
an Israelite – the Son of a carpenter – someone just like them.
John explains that this crowd was
made up – largely – of those people who had been at the resurrection of Lazarus
and those who had heard about it: “The
crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised
him from the dead continued to bear witness. The reason why the crowd went to
meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. So the Pharisees said to
one another, ‘You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone
after him’” (John 12:17-19, ESV).
“And some of the Pharisees in the
crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, rebuke your disciples.’ He answered, ‘I tell you,
if these were silent, the very stones would cry out’” (Luke 19:39-40, ESV).
Who is this? The stones know. The Creation knows. And in the mercy of God, some people have had
the scales removed from their eyes, and their hearts of stone replaced with a
heart of flesh, and they have been raised to spiritual life, so they can see
Jesus riding a donkey into Jerusalem, flanked by the praising crowd, who is
calling Him King and Savior, Divine Prophet of God, and confess, “You are the
Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16, ESV).
The answer you give to the question,
“Who is this?” is the most important question you will ever answer – because it
has eternal consequences.
Is Jesus the prophet of God?
Is Jesus King of Israel?
Is Jesus God the Savior?
Who is this?
Let us pray:
Almighty God, we thank You for sending
prophets so we can read Your Word and see how Jesus fulfilled all that was said
about Him. We ask that You would open
our hearts and ears to hear Your Gospel – to recognize and receive Jesus as
Prophet, King, and through His Sacrifice on the cross – our Priest – the Only
One Who can make us right with You. In
Jesus’ Name, Amen.
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