1 Now when they drew near Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples; 2 and He said to them, “Go into the village opposite you; and as soon as you have entered it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has sat. Loose it and bring it. 3 “And if anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it,’ and immediately he will send it here.” 4 So they went their way, and found the colt tied by the door outside on the street, and they loosed it. 5 But some of those who stood there said to them, “What are you doing, loosing the colt?” 6 And they spoke to them just as Jesus had commanded. So they let them go. 7 Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes on it, and He sat on it. 8 And many spread their clothes on the road, and others cut down leafy branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 Then those who went before and those who followed cried out, saying:
“Hosanna!
‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’
10 Blessed is the kingdom of our father David
That comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest!”
11 And Jesus went into Jerusalem and into the temple. So when He had looked around at all things, as the hour was already late, He went out to Bethany with the twelve.
Devotional
In ancient times traveling to Jerusalem from Jericho meant that you passed through Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives; a series of gentle rounded north to south hills that rises to about 2600 ft; which was in ancient times covered by dense olive groves, and thus its designation. And so Jesus with the twelve and a large throng of followers are now headed west from Jericho onto Jerusalem. But to get there they must pass through Bethany, a village on the southeastern slopes of the Mount of Olives about three kilometers east of Jerusalem, near the road to Jericho (Nelsons). If you’re a student of the Bible you may remember that Bethany was the home of the siblings Martha, Mary and Lazarus and it was here that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11). While Bethphage was the finial village that one passed by on the road to Jerusalem. According to Nelson’s Bible Dictionary, it has been described as a suburb of Jerusalem. While the Mount of Olives is such a prominent feature in the Bible, where so many important and crucial events took place; and are still to take place, one cannot possibly mention them all here. Suffice it to say that as one crested the Mount of Olives on the ancient road leading to Jerusalem, the city of Jerusalem and its most prominent feature, the Temple came spectacularly into view***. And it was the Temple (and all the institutional corruption there) that Jesus as the now heralded Messiah was heading towards. To first cleanse His Father’s house, as the Scriptures foretell He would, before He would be betrayed and crucified to death by those who would defend the corrupt status qua. And so it was while on the way to Jerusalem that Jesus wept over Jerusalem, before pronouncing its destruction, because they did not discern that this was the time of their visitation (Luke 19:41-44). Now the Mount of Olives is where the garden of Gethsemane is located, which will be the scene of Jesus’ last night, spent in prayer, before His betrayal by Judas, then arrest by the chief priests and their forces. And so it is from the Mount of Olives, before Jesus enters Jerusalem, that He sends two of His disciples telling them to go into the village opposite you; which may mean either opposite of the one they were currently in as Matthews parallel account seems to indicate (Matt 21:1-17) or these disciples Jesus sent may have been residents of either Bethphage or Bethany and thus the village opposite you would be the one not native to them. Therefore having giving them the command to go into the village opposite them, Jesus tells them what they will find when they enter the village: …“Go into the village opposite you; and as soon as you have entered it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has sat. Loose it and bring it. 3 “And if anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it,’ and immediately he will send it here.” Vs. 2-3
Now the significance of Jesus’ Words here must not be lost on us. For in Jesus saying to them to go and bring a colt on whom no one who had ever sat, Jesus was fulfilling the Word of God spoken through the prophet Zechariah who foretold of this very act of how the Messiah would arrive (Zech. 9:9). Not on a war horse (as the Jews always wanted to conquer the Gentile nations) but first on a gentle lowly donkey offering salvation and peace to every person and nation who will turn from their sins and trust in Him. Now there will be a time when Jesus returns again, when He will indeed be on a conquering war horse to destroy all who rejected Him and His offer of salvation and peace with God through His Person and His work alone, but instead choose for themselves their sins and ultimately Satan (See Rev. 19:11-21). Therefore Jesus' coming to Jerusalem on a lowly colt was to be another sign to the Jews (and to all who know the Scriptures) that the Messiah of the whole world had arrived, the day of salvation is now! Now as the disciples go into the village, as Jesus commanded them, they find the colt tied just as He described it would be, and so they loosed it (vs. 4). And when they loosed it, the Scripture says that some who were standing by said to them …“What are you doing, loosing the colt?” vs. 5 But they responded to them just as Jesus told them to do, saying ‘the Lord has need of it’ and with that they let them go (vs. 6). Suffice it to say that when they heard Jesus’ Word’s repeated to them, they immediately recognized the authority of them, and quickly yielded the colt to the disciples whom Jesus sent for it. How about us? When we hear Jesus Words how quickly do we respond to them? For it’s not in our reading or hearing the preaching of Jesus Christ’s Words that we come into a right relationship with God. Rather it’s in our personally responding to them in repentance and faith by receiving the Lord Jesus Christ here and now as our Lord and Savior that we enter into life and thus our faith grows stronger and God blesses us (Matt. 7:24-27; James 1:22-25; Rev. 3:20). Now when they brought the colt to Jesus, they threw their clothes on it and Jesus sat on it (vs. 7), and many people spread their clothes on the ground, or laid leafy branches on the ground before Him (vs. 8). All which is reflective of the Feast of Tabernacles (Lev. 23:40) though the significance here is not that they are heralding in one of the Harvest Feast celebrations the Jews under the Law of Moses were commanded to observe, rather Jesus’ triumphal entry (as it is often called) into Jerusalem as the Messiah, saying:
“Hosanna!
‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’
10 Blessed is the kingdom of our father David
That comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest!” vs. 9-10
Now Jesus' entry into Jerusalem was triumphal in that Jesus was no longer commanding anyone to conceal His true identity. For this was the Lord Jesus Christ’s public unveiling to Jerusalem; the religious center of Israel; and thus the nation, as Messiah. Yet in doing so Jesus does not come as a military conqueror, but again rather as one offering peace and salvation to all. That is how Jesus will come to you if you will receive Him here and now, not as a conqueror of your person, but just and lowly as your Savior and friend (consider Luke 9:51-56); 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 18 He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." John 3:17-18
Therefore it is incumbent upon us all that we believe and thus receive the Lord Jesus Christ here and now, trusting only in Him for the remission of all our sins and the salvation of our souls, and thus our deliverance from the wrath to come on the unbelieving and unrepentant world.
Now the jubilant declaration of the multitudes in verses nine and ten are principally taken from a psalm the Jews would sing in Messianic expectation, either on the way to and or in the Temple, being derived mostly from the passage of Psalm 118:26. And thus their words here being both a declaration of praise as well as a call for God through the Messiah to save them, indeed the entire nation. Their declaration then is almost an extension of the earlier blind man’s unsilenceable faith back in Jericho who continued to appeal to Jesus as the Son of David; even when warned not to; until Jesus healed him, and thus they too are now declaring Jesus Christ to be the Messiah. And so it will be against that backdrop of the worshiping multitudes, that Jesus will enter Jerusalem, and having looked around at all things, He leaves and returns to Bethany and lodges there with the twelve.
Scripture Quotations
The Holy Bible, New King James Version, (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, Inc.) 1982.
Note: Jesus' Temple Visitation, and His cleansing of it, is found in Mark 11:15-18
“Hosanna!
‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’
10 Blessed is the kingdom of our father David
That comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest!”
11 And Jesus went into Jerusalem and into the temple. So when He had looked around at all things, as the hour was already late, He went out to Bethany with the twelve.
Devotional
In ancient times traveling to Jerusalem from Jericho meant that you passed through Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives; a series of gentle rounded north to south hills that rises to about 2600 ft; which was in ancient times covered by dense olive groves, and thus its designation. And so Jesus with the twelve and a large throng of followers are now headed west from Jericho onto Jerusalem. But to get there they must pass through Bethany, a village on the southeastern slopes of the Mount of Olives about three kilometers east of Jerusalem, near the road to Jericho (Nelsons). If you’re a student of the Bible you may remember that Bethany was the home of the siblings Martha, Mary and Lazarus and it was here that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11). While Bethphage was the finial village that one passed by on the road to Jerusalem. According to Nelson’s Bible Dictionary, it has been described as a suburb of Jerusalem. While the Mount of Olives is such a prominent feature in the Bible, where so many important and crucial events took place; and are still to take place, one cannot possibly mention them all here. Suffice it to say that as one crested the Mount of Olives on the ancient road leading to Jerusalem, the city of Jerusalem and its most prominent feature, the Temple came spectacularly into view***. And it was the Temple (and all the institutional corruption there) that Jesus as the now heralded Messiah was heading towards. To first cleanse His Father’s house, as the Scriptures foretell He would, before He would be betrayed and crucified to death by those who would defend the corrupt status qua. And so it was while on the way to Jerusalem that Jesus wept over Jerusalem, before pronouncing its destruction, because they did not discern that this was the time of their visitation (Luke 19:41-44). Now the Mount of Olives is where the garden of Gethsemane is located, which will be the scene of Jesus’ last night, spent in prayer, before His betrayal by Judas, then arrest by the chief priests and their forces. And so it is from the Mount of Olives, before Jesus enters Jerusalem, that He sends two of His disciples telling them to go into the village opposite you; which may mean either opposite of the one they were currently in as Matthews parallel account seems to indicate (Matt 21:1-17) or these disciples Jesus sent may have been residents of either Bethphage or Bethany and thus the village opposite you would be the one not native to them. Therefore having giving them the command to go into the village opposite them, Jesus tells them what they will find when they enter the village: …“Go into the village opposite you; and as soon as you have entered it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has sat. Loose it and bring it. 3 “And if anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it,’ and immediately he will send it here.” Vs. 2-3
Now the significance of Jesus’ Words here must not be lost on us. For in Jesus saying to them to go and bring a colt on whom no one who had ever sat, Jesus was fulfilling the Word of God spoken through the prophet Zechariah who foretold of this very act of how the Messiah would arrive (Zech. 9:9). Not on a war horse (as the Jews always wanted to conquer the Gentile nations) but first on a gentle lowly donkey offering salvation and peace to every person and nation who will turn from their sins and trust in Him. Now there will be a time when Jesus returns again, when He will indeed be on a conquering war horse to destroy all who rejected Him and His offer of salvation and peace with God through His Person and His work alone, but instead choose for themselves their sins and ultimately Satan (See Rev. 19:11-21). Therefore Jesus' coming to Jerusalem on a lowly colt was to be another sign to the Jews (and to all who know the Scriptures) that the Messiah of the whole world had arrived, the day of salvation is now! Now as the disciples go into the village, as Jesus commanded them, they find the colt tied just as He described it would be, and so they loosed it (vs. 4). And when they loosed it, the Scripture says that some who were standing by said to them …“What are you doing, loosing the colt?” vs. 5 But they responded to them just as Jesus told them to do, saying ‘the Lord has need of it’ and with that they let them go (vs. 6). Suffice it to say that when they heard Jesus’ Word’s repeated to them, they immediately recognized the authority of them, and quickly yielded the colt to the disciples whom Jesus sent for it. How about us? When we hear Jesus Words how quickly do we respond to them? For it’s not in our reading or hearing the preaching of Jesus Christ’s Words that we come into a right relationship with God. Rather it’s in our personally responding to them in repentance and faith by receiving the Lord Jesus Christ here and now as our Lord and Savior that we enter into life and thus our faith grows stronger and God blesses us (Matt. 7:24-27; James 1:22-25; Rev. 3:20). Now when they brought the colt to Jesus, they threw their clothes on it and Jesus sat on it (vs. 7), and many people spread their clothes on the ground, or laid leafy branches on the ground before Him (vs. 8). All which is reflective of the Feast of Tabernacles (Lev. 23:40) though the significance here is not that they are heralding in one of the Harvest Feast celebrations the Jews under the Law of Moses were commanded to observe, rather Jesus’ triumphal entry (as it is often called) into Jerusalem as the Messiah, saying:
“Hosanna!
‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’
10 Blessed is the kingdom of our father David
That comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest!” vs. 9-10
Now Jesus' entry into Jerusalem was triumphal in that Jesus was no longer commanding anyone to conceal His true identity. For this was the Lord Jesus Christ’s public unveiling to Jerusalem; the religious center of Israel; and thus the nation, as Messiah. Yet in doing so Jesus does not come as a military conqueror, but again rather as one offering peace and salvation to all. That is how Jesus will come to you if you will receive Him here and now, not as a conqueror of your person, but just and lowly as your Savior and friend (consider Luke 9:51-56); 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 18 He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." John 3:17-18
Therefore it is incumbent upon us all that we believe and thus receive the Lord Jesus Christ here and now, trusting only in Him for the remission of all our sins and the salvation of our souls, and thus our deliverance from the wrath to come on the unbelieving and unrepentant world.
Now the jubilant declaration of the multitudes in verses nine and ten are principally taken from a psalm the Jews would sing in Messianic expectation, either on the way to and or in the Temple, being derived mostly from the passage of Psalm 118:26. And thus their words here being both a declaration of praise as well as a call for God through the Messiah to save them, indeed the entire nation. Their declaration then is almost an extension of the earlier blind man’s unsilenceable faith back in Jericho who continued to appeal to Jesus as the Son of David; even when warned not to; until Jesus healed him, and thus they too are now declaring Jesus Christ to be the Messiah. And so it will be against that backdrop of the worshiping multitudes, that Jesus will enter Jerusalem, and having looked around at all things, He leaves and returns to Bethany and lodges there with the twelve.
Scripture Quotations
The Holy Bible, New King James Version, (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, Inc.) 1982.
Note: Jesus' Temple Visitation, and His cleansing of it, is found in Mark 11:15-18
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