Calvary Road Baptist Church
“PREPARING TO RIDE A DONKEY COLT INTO JERUSALEM”
Matthew 21.1-7; Mark 11.1-7; Luke 19.29-35; John 12.12-16
One of history’s significant events was the Lord Jesus Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the Sunday before His crucifixion and one week before His resurrection, which we will celebrate on Easter Sunday.
Triumphal entries are known throughout the ages, from Alexander entering conquered cities to the Caesars returning to Rome from foreign conquests to the Allies entering Rome, Paris, and Berlin during and after World War Two to the ticker tape parades in New York City after World Wars One and Two.
Of course, our King’s triumphal entry will come at His Second Coming in power and great glory. However, Christ’s return will be a triumphal entry of conquest. I propose that we currently consider the Lord Jesus Christ’s triumphal entry in peace, offering Himself as Israel’s long-awaited Messiah.
Because the passages are numerous and so long, I would ask you to set your Bible or device aside to follow along as I proceed at a fairly rapid pace to unfold to you several aspects leading up to our Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem on the Sunday before His crucifixion:
First, THE DONKEY COLT
Three passages:
Matthew 21.1-2:
1 And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples,
2 Saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me.
Mark 11.1-2:
1 And when they came nigh to Jerusalem, unto Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount of Olives, he sendeth forth two of his disciples,
2 And saith unto them, Go your way into the village over against you: and as soon as ye be entered into it, ye shall find a colt tied, whereon never man sat; loose him, and bring him.
Luke 19.29-30:
29 And it came to pass, when he was come nigh to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount called the mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples,
30 Saying, Go ye into the village over against you; in the which at your entering ye shall find a colt tied, whereon yet never man sat: loose him, and bring him hither.
When you get home, look at the map of Jerusalem in your Bible, which shows the approximate locations of the small towns of Bethphage and Bethany. Let me also describe their relative locations. The East Gate, known as the Golden Gate, is directly to the East of the Temple Mount. That gate has been closed for centuries, so our Lord Jesus Christ will return through it at His Second Coming. Further East, across the Kidron Valley, is the Mount of Olives, on the side of which is the Garden of Gethsemane. On the back side of the Mount of Olives was Bethphage, about two miles away, halfway to Bethany.[1]
Therefore, we know from John’s Gospel that the Lord Jesus Christ arrived at the home of Lazarus, Mary, and Martha in Bethany from Jericho on Friday afternoon. He spent the Sabbath in the house of His friends, from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. Then, on Sunday, on the first day of the week, as they walked from Bethany to Bethphage, He dispatched two of His disciples to where a donkey tied up with its foal, a young colt that had never been ridden. He instructed His men to untie the donkey colt and bring it to Him. The town of Bethphage is not mentioned in the Bible except in connection with our Lord’s triumphal entry.[2]
What, pray tell, is the significance of a donkey colt? There are several significances: First, Psalm 18.10 informs us,
“And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind.”
Our Lord Jesus Christ could have been born on the back of a mighty and majestic angel, but He chose to ride a little donkey instead. Second, it was a borrowed colt, reminding us that He not only did not have a place to lay His head, but that He possessed no property or riches in His humanity. The One who owns the cattle on a thousand hills and the wealth in every mine left it all behind when He left heaven’s glory to come to this earth. Third, our Lord had no intention of skulking into Jerusalem to hide His presence from His enemies. No, He would enter the city in full sight of everyone, in a procession that proclaimed His claim to royalty by His actions. Fourth, consider our Lord’s various uniquenesses. Born to a woman who had never known a man or delivered children, He would be buried in a tomb that had never held a body, as He prepared to ride on the back of an animal that had never borne a rider. What an incredible series of events!
Next, CHRIST’S DEITY IS ASSERTED
Four passages:
Matthew 21.3-7:
3 And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them.
4 All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying,
5 Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.
6 And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them,
7 And brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon.
Mark 11.3-7:
3 And if any man say unto you, Why do ye this? say ye that the Lord hath need of him; and straightway he will send him hither.
4 And they went their way, and found the colt tied by the door without in a place where two ways met; and they loose him.
5 And certain of them that stood there said unto them, What do ye, loosing the colt?
6 And they said unto them even as Jesus had commanded: and they let them go.
7 And they brought the colt to Jesus, and cast their garments on him; and he sat upon him.
Luke 19.31-35:
31 And if any man ask you, Why do ye loose him? thus shall ye say unto him, Because the Lord hath need of him.
32 And they that were sent went their way, and found even as he had said unto them.
33 And as they were loosing the colt, the owners thereof said unto them, Why loose ye the colt?
34 And they said, The Lord hath need of him.
35 And they brought him to Jesus: and they cast their garments upon the colt, and they set Jesus thereon.
John 12.12-16:
12 On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem,
13 Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.
14 And Jesus, when he had found a young ass, sat thereon; as it is written,
15 Fear not, daughter of Sion: behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass’s colt.
16 These things understood not his disciples at the first: but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of him, and that they had done these things unto him.
It is significant that the Lord Jesus Christ asserted His deity in three ways when He directed two of His disciples to fetch the donkey colt for Him to ride:
First, He displayed His omniscience by knowing the exact circumstances of the colt’s location and disposition next to its mother and His awareness that His disciples would be challenged when they took the colt. Omniscience, as you know, is an attribute that only God possesses. Only God knows everything.
Second, He claimed the honorific title of “Lord” when He instructed His disciples to refer to Him as “the Lord” when explaining their actions with the owner’s animal. He “knew the two would be challenged as to why they were leading off the property of another, and He told them to reply, ‘The Lord needs it’ (Mark 11:3). In referring to Himself as the Lord, Jesus was asserting His authority as Messiah, for in Psalm 110:1 this title is used of Israel’s King, David’s Descendant.”[3] Thus, by referring to Himself as “the Lord,” He identified Himself as David’s Lord while also being David’s descendant, which is only possible if He is God.
Third,
“In riding the unbroken colt, Christ demonstrated His authority as Creator over all creation. By divine appointment (Gen. 1:26) creation was subjected to the authority of man, and that authority would be exercised by the Son of Man (Ps. 8:4-8). Now as the Son of Man Jesus was exercising authority over creation .... Thus began a procession that would take Jesus from Bethany over the Mt. of Olives, through the Kidron Valley, and into the city of Jerusalem.”[4]
Have any of you ever tried to ride a wild horse, mule, or donkey that has never been ridden before? Yet, that is precisely what the Lord Jesus Christ did. Why did the previously unridden donkey colt not buck and kick? Perhaps the animal had some sense of who its Master was, the Creator and Lord of all.
In Matthew 21.3-4, reference is made to two Old Testament prophecies, the first half found in Isaiah 62.11, that reads,
(“Behold, the LORD hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.”),
and the latter half found in Zechariah 9.9,
(“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass”).
Do you not think the Biblically literate people in Jerusalem that day were unaware of these ancient predictions?
Only one person would ever ride into that city on the foal of an ass. None ever did before, and none has ever done since. Solomon rode into Jerusalem on his father’s full-grown mule when he was enthroned.[5] When Alexander the Great entered Jerusalem, he was almost certainly riding his famous horse Bucephalus. You do not think the Babylonians rode anything other than war horses, or the Romans, as well, when their general, Pompey the Great, conquered the region. “The multitude recognized that this incident was a fulfillment of messianic prophecy and responded accordingly, ‘shouting ‘Hosanna’ to the Son of David (Mark 11:9).”[6]
Why were the people so exuberant? Their salvation was coming, whatever they understood that meant. Prophecies were being fulfilled—that was obvious. God was working in their midst at long last. Were they particularly concerned about being saved from their sins? To some degree, perhaps. However, their delight was also in assuming the hated Roman occupiers would be overthrown. At the same time, Jerusalem swelled with pilgrims.
For the high holy days, there would be a corresponding influx of Roman troops from Caesaria to augment those permanently stationed in the Antonia Fortress that overlooked the Temple and its courtyard. These were a bitter reminder of Roman authority and oppression. As the Lord Jesus Christ asserted Himself as their long-awaited Messiah, so would the Romans and the religious establishment, who believed the Romans to be invincible, forcefully push back.
In John 12.16, we are told our Lord Jesus Christ’s disciples simply did not grasp the significance of what was happening around them:
“These things understood not his disciples at the first: but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of him, and that they had done these things unto him.”
They were in a kind of spiritual fog and did not fit the pieces together in their thinking until the Lord Jesus Christ was glorified.
Let me conclude by stating that you and I are in a better position to benefit from the Lord’s preparation for His triumphal entry than anyone alive and witness to the actual events as they occurred. How so?
Consider the limitations of geography. If you had witnessed the events in Bethany, you would not have seen what happened in Bethphage. If you witnessed events that unfolded in Bethphage, you did not see what happened afterward. And if you were standing outside the East Gate to see the Savior’s triumphal entrance, you saw nothing in Bethany or Bethphage, and your ability to apply what you knew from God’s Word to what you saw unfolding before you was limited.
One typically assumes that he is in a better position to exercise judgment when you are on the scene, an eyewitness to the events as they unfolded. But such is not the case at all. An eyewitness sees only a tiny part of the picture as it unfolds, primarily when simultaneously occurring events in different locations.
On the other hand, we have the inspired account of everything that happened, along with the opportunity to consider, ponder, meditate, compare prophesies from the Old Testament, and see how everything fits together in a way that absolutely defies the possibility of coincidence because of the astronomical improbabilities of these series of events.
On top of what we have looked at in this message from God’s Word, we also have everything else found in the Word of God, from the predictions made centuries before in the Old Testament to the fulfillments that are recorded in the Gospel accounts, all of them showing that Jesus Christ is God, that Jesus Christ is the Son of David, that Jesus Christ is Israel’s long-awaited Messiah, that Jesus Christ is the Savior of sinful men’s souls, and that Jesus Christ applied to Himself the honorific title of Lord.
Consider what you will do with this body of truth, this bin full of facts that occurred in history, that you will neglect to your own eternal damnation. So, what should you do? What ought you to do? What does God want you to do? What did the Savior suffer, bleed, and die for you to do? What did He rise from the dead for you to do? What do your friends, loved ones, brothers, and sisters who are Christians pray that you will do?
What does the Devil not want you to do? What does your sinful nature and self-will not want you to do? Trust Christ. Come to Jesus Christ now. Believe on Him to the saving of your wretched soul, now!
I close with a single comment. A sinner closes with Jesus Christ and the salvation of his eternal and undying soul alone, as an individual, and in the company of no one else. The Lord Jesus Christ may save a husband and a wife, a sibling and a sibling, a parent and a child, but no two sinners are given eternal life and the forgiveness of sins together.
The Spirit of God does not convict of sins except individually, and the Savior does not deliver from sins except individually. The Father draws individuals to Christ, and while He may draw two simultaneously, they will not be drawn to Christ as pairs but as individuals.
Therefore, understand that you stand at the judgment bar of God alone. It is your sins and no one else’s that are dealt with. And if you pass from this life into eternity without Christ, you will spend eternity alone, without Christ, and also without the person you valued more than Christ.
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[1] Matthew Poole, A Commentary On The Whole Bible, Volume 3, (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers), page 96.
[2] See footnote for Matthew 21.1 from John MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible, (Nashville: Word Publishing, 1997), page 1431.
[3] J. Dwight Pentecost, The Words & Works Of Jesus Christ, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1981), page 372.
[4] Ibid.
[5] 1 Kings 1.44
[6] Pentecost, page 373.
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