Part One · The Clues · Chapter 3
He named the ride five hundred years before anyone took it.
Zechariah 9:9 · Written ~520 BCEHosanna! What does that mean to you? Probably nothing.
To the Jewish people at the time, it meant everything. Jesus didn't come into town with a sword on a mighty horse, although that's what people thought the actual Messiah would do. He arrived on the back of a donkey.
I know donkeys. We have one at my best buddy's farm. His name is Dominic the Donkey and you can hear him from a mile away. Dumb animal, if we're being honest. But seriously, donkeys are weird. If I were the king of the universe come down to earth, I think I'd pick a better ride.
Brady, Drew, Trevor — if you're reading this. I know you've probably shoveled your fair share of Dominic's mess. Is he the ride you'd pick if you were riding into town? Probably not.
"Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey."
"They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, 'Hosanna to the Son of David!'"
The Roman Empire is something guys think about pretty much every day. Ladies, trust me on this one — Roman history gets the boys fired up.
Jewish history isn't far from that. They believed their Messiah would be a war hero, not a man like Jesus who preached nothing but love and died for that belief.
Don't believe me? Jesus's own disciples asked the same question. They all thought he was coming with a sword. They thought he was the next David vs. Goliath.
What did Jesus answer with? Love.
Here is what makes the donkey more than a detail. Jesus did not simply show up on one. He planned it.
Before entering Jerusalem, Jesus sent two of his disciples ahead with specific instructions. Go into the village, he told them. You will find a donkey tied there with her colt. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone asks, tell them the Lord needs them.
That is Matthew 21. That is not a man who stumbled onto a donkey. That is a man who knew exactly what he was doing and why.
Some people will say: that proves nothing. He read Zechariah. He knew the prophecy. He staged the whole thing to look like a fulfillment.
Consider that. Really consider it.
A man who knows he is riding into the city where he will be arrested, beaten, and executed — who knows this because he has already told his disciples it will happen — chooses to enter that city on a borrowed donkey, on purpose, to announce himself as the Messiah to a crowd of thousands. That is not a man running a con. That is a man making a declaration.
And the crowd? Nobody handed them palm branches and said shout Hosanna. They did it on their own, because something in that moment moved them to. Zechariah wrote down the scene five centuries before it happened. The people played their part without knowing they were in it.
If Jesus staged the entrance, he staged it knowing it would get him killed. He staged it as a confession of exactly who he was, in front of a crowd that included people who would hand him over to Rome within the week. Nobody performs that kind of theater unless they are absolutely certain of who they are.
He rode in on a donkey because Zechariah said the king would. And because he was the king.