Recognizing THE King

Scripture: Luke 19:29-40

²⁹ As Jesus came to Bethphage and Bethany on the Mount of Olives, he gave two disciples a task. ³⁰ He said, “Go into the village over there. When you enter it, you will find tied up there a colt that no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. ³¹ If anyone asks, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say, ‘Its master needs it.’” ³² Those who had been sent found it exactly as he had said.

³³ As they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?”

³⁴ They replied, “Its master needs it.” ³⁵ They brought it to Jesus, threw their clothes on the colt, and lifted Jesus onto it. ³⁶ As Jesus rode along, they spread their clothes on the road.

³⁷ As Jesus approached the road leading down from the Mount of Olives, the whole throng of his disciples began rejoicing. They praised God with a loud voice because of all the mighty things they had seen. ³⁸ They said,

“Blessings on the king who comes in the name of the Lord.
    Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heavens.”

³⁹ Some of the Pharisees from the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, scold your disciples! Tell them to stop!”

⁴⁰ He answered, “I tell you, if they were silent, the stones would shout.”

Questions

1. What was the significance of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey?
2. The people see Jesus and respond with Psalm 118, what is the importance of this message?
3. Why are the Pharisees so upset and what did Jesus mean that the stones would shout?

Background

Related Scriptures: Deuteronomy 17:14-20; Psalm 118; Zechariah 9; Luke 2:11, 9:20

Christ is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word Messiah which means one who is anointed. In the Old Testament priests and kings were anointed as a sign they were set apart from the people for God’s work.

This passage marks the first time in Luke’s account that Jesus has been back to Jerusalem since his childhood and this event signifies God’s anointed entering God’s holy city to establish God’s reign on earth.

Jesus tells the disciples to instruct the colt’s lords “the Lord needs it” this is a subtle indication of Jesus’ status that he can make demands of the lords of this earth on how they use their property.

The kings of Israel would ride to their coronations on colts, and the spreading of clothes on the ground was a symbolic gesture of making the king’s journey as comfortable as possible.

The refrain the crowd sings is from Psalm 118:26 but they noticeably change the words from “Blessed is the one” to “Blessed is the king”, Psalm 118 was traditionally sung on the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, but this change is clearly meant to announce that Jesus was the king in David’s line and it is this that the Pharisees take exception with.

Jesus’ disciples sing about peace on earth, this echoes the angels’ message in 2:11 and indicates that it is when Jesus enters Jerusalem that God’s peace begins to be realized on earth.

Reflection

One of the most striking features about the Triumphal Entry narrative in Luke is that he changes the crowd’s praise from “Blessed is the one…” to “Blessed is the king…”. This change makes explicit what was implicit in Psalm 118 (the source of the quote) and has a significant impact on how we view what happened that day. There would have been nothing strange about the crowds entering Jerusalem singing Psalm 118, it was a Psalm, associated with Passover and the last of the Hallel which the disciples would sing again that Thursday. However, the change Luke records to Psalm 118:26 is very significant when coupled with Jesus sitting on the back of a donkey and the disciples (and presumably others) lining the path with their coats. This demonstration was reminiscent of the kings of David’s family riding to their coronation. The disciples’ actions are clearly meant to highlight they saw Jesus as the true king entering his capital to claim his throne. Knowing this background should help us understand why the Pharisees were up in arms about this demonstration.

We are so used to saying the name Jesus Christ that we may not always comprehend what that word Christ means. But Christ is the word that was used by the angels in Luke 2:11 to describe Jesus to the shepherds and it simply means “the anointed one”. In the Old Testament there were two offices that a person could have that would require being anointed priest and king. To say Jesus is THE anointed one is to say he is the king. This was not simply a dangerous thing to say in 1^st century Judea it was treasonous and deadly. Jesus’ disciples are saying to those crowded in the streets of Jerusalem Caesar is not our king this man riding the donkey is and today he rides to his coronation. Obviously, the Pharisees, who are simply trying to keep the tentative peace they have with Rome intact are going to oppose Jesus’ disciples identifying him as a king coming home. The Pharisees may not have been particularly loyal to Rome, however at the least they knew that for someone to ride into the city being identified as king was going to cause serious issues with Roman authorities.

Jesus and his disciples understood the conflict also, yet they knew that what God wanted from a king and what Rome brought were vastly different ideas. We get an outline of God’s idea of a king in Deuteronomy 17 where we see the king rejecting wealth, power, and military might, while taking on a religious role, copying and meditating on the Scriptures. Deuteronomy presents a picture of God’s people governed by a ruler who is committed to embodying the Scriptures more than any other person in Israel. And when Jesus’ disciples walked in front of Jesus on that Sunday, they were proclaiming to the crowds the king described in Deuteronomy had arrived. Jesus came to overturn the system of kings that are focused on gaining power and wealth, and who wanted military might and conquest. Jesus comes to the temple and his first act after arriving is to drive out those looking for wealth and to praise a widow whose generosity shines above everyone else (Mark 11:15-19, 12:38-44). Jesus’ activities that last week in Jerusalem included bringing the outcast into his circle (Mark 14:3-9). Jesus came demonstrating that if we he is the true anointed one (Christ) then he is both he is both priest and king. He is priest, the one who leads us into God’s presence, and he is king the one who leads and governs our lives.

Unlike modern Christian Nationalists, what Jesus wanted was not a kingdom where he forces people to follow him. Such a king would be the same coercive despot as the one in Rome he opposed. Rather, Jesus came freely offering his reign and saying to his disciples “I will not claim power over you, you must come willingly to me.” Jesus was the person the Scriptures spoke of who would reign in humility and love, caring for everyone in the community, especially the downtrodden. The modern Christian Nationalist movement is a thinly veiled attempt at power and control. They want everyone to believe and act according to the dictates they put in place, even where those might override Christian liberties and freedom of conscious. They want to say Christ is king while forcing people to submit not to Jesus but to them as Jesus’ proxies. Christ being king means something different, it is a call to service and love. Jesus’ call praises the hurting and remonstrates the powerful and rich. Jesus is certainly king but this looks very different from the government wielding power “on his behalf”. Jesus being king means rejecting these kinds of abuses of power, in favor of allowing people the opportunity to freely allign themselves with Jesus as we did.

When we call Jesus the Christ we are acknowledging him as ruler of our lives; and not simply pledging allegiance not simply to him as a person, but to his ways as king. We are saying with the disciples that Jesus is our king and that we are going to unite with him and his way of reading the scripture and seeing the world, even when that causes us to have conflict with the government of our day. It is not that we seek conflict with our government but that we are so focused on how Jesus sees the world that we live in. Identifying Jesus as Christ means that we accept him as the ruler of Deuteronomy 17 and give him our love and loyalty. We like the disciples of old cry our “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” understanding that if we did not then the world around us would.