There is a strange little detail in Matthew’s account of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. I point it out every time we read this part of Matthew’s gospel, but it’s very easy to overlook. It bears repeating.
How many animals does Jesus ride on as he comes into Jerusalem? According to all the other gospels: Mark, Luke, and John, Jesus rides in on one animal. They call it either a colt or a young donkey. But in Matthew we read this:
[Jesus said 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.”
Then we get a quote from Zechariah 9:9 and the story goes on:
“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.”
So, how many animals does that add up to? Two. Now how does Jesus possibly ride on two animals at the exact same time? If you try to imagine it you end up with all sorts of strange images of how he could stretch himself across two donkeys. In seminary we used to joke that Jesus must have been incredibly bow legged because he needed to sit astride two donkeys!
Silliness aside, I’m quite sure Matthew does not want us to envision Jesus somehow straddling two animals at once. But he is being careful to get at a serious point.
The idea of a Jewish king coming in on a humble donkey is rooted in the prophesy of Zechariah 9 in the Old Testament. Zechariah 9:9 says, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
There’s where Matthew gets the idea of two animals. Though Zechariah means only one animal, and repeats that it’s a ‘colt, the foal of a donkey’ for poetic emphasis, Matthew interprets it to mean both the mother and the colt. He is surely aware that Zechariah is using poetic emphasis. But remember that Matthew was almost certainly a highly trained Jewish scribe. Details matter greatly to him. And so to be emphatic about the fulfillment of prophesy, he describes the disciples as fetching two animals, a donkey and her colt, and Jesus riding on them.
We didn’t choose the Zechariah reading for worship today because it would be quite long if we wanted to have enough of it to get his point. But it boils down to this is Zechariah 9. God is depicted as a divine warrior traveling from the north towards Jerusalem. Along the way he has attacked and conquered every city and territory that has threatened the Jewish people. But then it is not God who enters Jerusalem with power and pomp. It is the Jewish king.
Now when a king returns to his capital city from a victorious battle he usually comes in riding on a massive warhorse. He wears his armor and carries his weapons. All of that is a sign of his victorious power. Behind him would come his army – some on horses, some walking; probably depending on their rank. And also in the procession might be captured prisoners, forced to walk in humiliation. Or perhaps the corpses of the leaders who were conquered. It was all a display of power.
But that’s not what Zechariah describes. Zechariah describes God as the divine warrior who is victorious. It is not the king. It is because God conquers, and not the king, that the king enters Jerusalem on a humble animal; and without his army behind him. Zechariah’s point is clear. It is God and God alone who is powerful. God demilitarizes the region so that the Jewish king comes in meekness and ushers in peace.
These are the themes that Matthew is working with as he describes Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. He wants his readers to notice Jesus’ meekness, not his miraculous power. And he is setting the stage for how God will overcome earthly power. It will not come about by military might, or miraculous power, or fancy theology, or a charismatic presence that sways the multitudes to rise up against the Romans. It will come about by Jesus’ crucifixion. At this point in the story it’s only a few days away.
The gospel of Mark describes Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on a Sunday and then his overturning the tables of the money changers the next morning. But here in Matthew Jesus enters Jerusalem and immediately causes a ruckus in the temple. Which day it actually happens on isn’t important. What is important for Matthew is that the humble and peaceful Jesus, as the Son of God, immediately enacts a prophesy from Jeremiah by driving out the merchants from the temple precinct and ending false teachings. By the actions of Jesus’ God’s promises of salvation are coming about.
All of that is a fine interpretation of Matthew’s words. But what does it all mean for today?
While many things have changed tremendously between then and now, some things are remarkably similar. Remember when we began reading Matthew’s gospel this church year we reminded ourselves of the original readers. They were almost certainly a small community of believers in Jesus who had Jewish roots. They’d probably been thrown out of the synagogues for their beliefs. Families were tense or broken. Being a follower of Jesus could cost you a lot. Plus, Matthew was written sometime after the Roman crack down on the Jewish revolts that occurred in the late 60s. Roman ultimately destroyed Jerusalem and killed many leaders.
It was a chaotic time to be living in Palestine. The whole world seemed to be unstable. The small Christian community was frail and powerless. Lives were uncertain. And where was God in all of it? What about God’s promises? What was God up to? Were they wrong to be putting their trust in Jesus?
It is into that chaotic, fear-filled reality that Matthew wrote. You’ll remember that he starts off the story of Jesus with a genealogy. Matthew shows that it was orderly and structured. Matthew goes on to describe a world that was chaotic where the small and insignificant people were getting bullied by the powerful. But despite it all, God’s plans for salvation were unfolding in an orderly way exactly how God intended them to go.
Jesus faced temptation, ran into opposition, and was hit with problem after problem. But through it all he steadily and calmly stayed faithful knowing that God was in control.
And so when we get to the Palm Sunday text we see the same thing at work. Matthew is clearly showing that Jesus is continuing the path exactly as God intended it to go. Our text started off with Jesus telling the disciples exactly what they would find with the colt and told them what to say when they were questioned about taking it. All of Jesus’ predictions proved to be true. And so God’s plans of salvation continued to unfold in an orderly way down to the last detail; including interpreting Zechariah 9 to mean two animals.
While we live in the United States of America and have lives infinitely more secure than Matthew’s original readers did, it can still feel like life is chaos.
Declines in Christianity lead many parents to wonder what they did wrong in rearing their children. Declines in the church make many wonder what the future will be, or if there’s a future for the church in America at all. The cost of living is becoming impossible. Jobs are not secure. Politics has become a circus of tribalism and nonsense. News outlets are biased. People are impatient, pushy, and rude. Virtues like integrity, decency, patience, and conscientiousness are not valued. Science and logic seem to be corrupted by whatever is the perspective of the biggest financial backer.
Even as we live in a relatively safe and stable country, we still have our fears and anxieties.
So Matthew’s words come down to us too.
What did Zechariah prophesy? That the people would rise up and protect themselves from those who threatened them? No. God took care of them. God did it in God’s own time and would continue to do so. The king would ride in on a donkey, simple and humble. And God would continue to work in ways that are orderly and dependable. Though the world may seem like chaos that is beyond our control, we live securely in God’s kingdom. It is a place of value, of peace, of respect, of dignity; and of purpose and meaning.
These are the values that we keep. And in so doing we also create a space that the world may overlook and even scoff at. The powers of the world certainly scoffed at Jesus. But the church today must continue to be God’s community that invites those haggard by the chaos of the world to find God’s peace and God’s promises.
You know the stories of Holy Week. The week will not end well for Jesus. But Matthew will continue to be at pains to show that even as everything seems to be out of control for Jesus, it is all falling into God’s plans for salvation. And so it is for our lives. Even if things seem out of control, it is all in God’s hands. It is in believing in that and staying true to it that God’s kingdom comes to life on earth.
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