“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” Today’s reading gives us a stark picture. Jesus has his disciples steal a colt (it seems) as He and His followers come in to Jerusalem. No-one seems to mention whether or not this is morally ok!
Jews knowing prophecy might well have perceived His entering of Jerusalem on a donkey as fulfilment of prophecy (Zech 9:9). It’s likely that the crowd who cried “hosanna” were expecting a powerful political or militaristic saviour to wrest control of Jerusalem from the Romans. The disappointment and resentment the Jewish authorities were able to stir up a few short days later as Jesus was handed over to Pilate may well stem form the subverting of expectations which Jesus’s “triumphal” entry in to Jerusalem almost certainly would have been. Jesus came not as an all-guns-blazing political usurper, but as a servant king. Even though this was not what Israel wanted at this point, it was what it, and the whole world, needed. Jesus “failed” in order to succeed. He did so whilst remaining in complete control of Himself and what He was doing, and trusting His Father with His life.
Sometimes it is easy for us to demand of God that He show the strength of His arm, that He gives us victory, superiority, vindication or anything else. Jesus was due these things and more as the perfectly righteous God-man. And yet. And yet, He chose to give Himself for us all. God has given us everything we could possibly need. We are not called to run society, not given the right to be heard, to be powerful or anything else of that ilk. We’re called to serve, to humble ourselves and put the needs of others before ourselves, as Jesus ultimately modelled for us in the final week, which begins with this story. As we begin a new week, let’s ask God to bless us with the courage to humble ourselves and serve, so that He might be served and glorified.