(Transcribed from the Words of Life Radio Program)
It is good to be together again to look into the Word of God. The title for the lesson that we will share now is: Hosanna to the Son of David. And the text is the gospel of Matthew chapter 21 and the first 11 verses. Let’s listen together to the Word of God.
As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethpage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you and at once you will find a donkey tied there with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them and he will send them right away.” This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: Say to the daughter of Zion. See your king comes to you gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the colt, placed their cloaks on them and Jesus sat on them. 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 who followed shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.”
When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?” The crowds answered. “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”
At coronations of kings or queens there is always great pomp and pageantry and ceremony and there are many marks of royalty. For example, regarding British coronations they take place at Westminster Abbey and they include a crown, a scepter, a rod, swords of the state, a ring and the new ruler sits on the coronation chair clothed in a cloak of gold cloth and holds a scepter or a staff which, for the British, at the top of this scepter is the star of Africa, the largest cut diamond in the world weighing 516 and a half carats. The crown is encrusted with giant rubies and sapphires surrounding a 309 carat diamond.
At Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation eight perfectly matched horses drew the royal coach in a procession through the streets of the capital in London from Westminster Abbey. And then an eloquent banquet followed the coronation. Quite a contrast to today’s Scripture passage here in Matthew 21 of the Son of David who is the King of Kings who offered himself publicly to the nation of Israel at the capital of Jerusalem.
The setting was at passover time. It is estimated according to scholars that there were possibly as many as two million Jews in and around Jerusalem during Passover season. This is the only time that Jesus Christ planned and promoted a public demonstration. But why? At least two basic reasons. First, Jesus was obeying and fulfilling prophecy recorded about 500 years earlier by the Hebrew prophet Zechariah in chapter nine and verse nine to verify, to validate that he, Jesus of Nazareth, was and is, in fact, Messiah King, the rightful descendant of the dynasty, of the lineage of King David. And, secondly, to fulfill all the prophecies regarding Messiah kings first coming and to press the Jewish leadership to act, not for a coronation, but for a crucifixion at the Passover feast as the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world.
God’s plan from then very beginning was first the crown of thorns and, second, at the second coming of Christ, according to Revelation 19 and verse 12 it will be when he will wear many crowns. And next time the nation of Israel sees her king, it will be with great power and glory. All four of the gospel evangelists record this significant event, Christ’s final public entry into Jerusalem.
In Matthew chapter 21 and verse five it quotes Zechariah 9:9. See your king comes to you gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. Notice that Jesus Christ is a king. Your king, meaning here Israel’s king, the king of the Jews.
With our 21st century western world mindset, usually we do not associate kings riding on donkeys, but this was a practice for leaders in Israel. For example in the book of Judges in the Old Testament in chapter 10 and verse three and following it says there that Jair led Israel for 22 years, one of the judges. And then also it says in verse four that he had 30 sons who road 30 donkeys who controlled 30 towns in Gilead. Of course Christ first needed to exactly fulfill uniquely the prophecy of Zechariah nine and nine, which indicated that he ride a donkey. But also in the Hebrew mindset a donkey was symbolic of humility and servitude and peace. And certainly Christ humbled himself in his incarnation. He came as a suffering servant. At his first coming his mission was to bring peace with God by offering himself an atoning sacrifice for us for the sin of the world.
Jesus Christ knew at his first coming that he had not come to reign in earthly splendor or power, not in wealth and poverty, not in grandeur, but gentleness and meekness, not to slay Israel’s physical enemies, but to save mankind from our sins, from our sin proper. He came to bear the burden of mankind’s sin, the sin of the world upon himself. And, therefore, appropriately, he came riding a lowly beast of burden on that day offering himself as king. And it was not yet to be an earthly kingdom, but a spiritual kingdom.
And what a picture? Consider also Matthew chapter 21 and verse five the last part where it says that he rode on a coal, the foal, that is the young of a donkey. Even the lowest of low which brings us to another mindset shift. In the first century AD in Israel according to archeological, skeletal finds, the average male was about five foot four to six inches tall and due to diet, especially for the very poor, like Jesus, they would have had a very light, trim frame and, therefore, a weight of about 110 to 125 pounds. Such would have been the full grown body of Jesus Christ in his humanity, which, therefore, he could have easily ridden even the colt of a donkey.
In Matthew chapter 21 and verse eight a very large crowd spread their cloaks, their garments on the road. And other cut branches from trees and spread them on the road. These were acts of homage and tribute to royalty. And this is confirmed in the Old Testament also in 2 Kings chapter nine and verse 13 where they took their cloaks and spread them under him and shouted, “Jehu, who is king,” at that time, so as to say, “We place ourselves at your feet.” And the same was true in Jesus’ day as the King, the Son of David.
In Matthew chapter 21 and verse nine they shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.” Hosanna is a word in Hebrew which is an exclamatory plea which means ‘save now’. Their meaning that day was save now Israel from these detested Romans, not save now sinners from sin. To the Son of David was the exclamation of praise to the royal descendant, to the Son of King David, to a descendant of King David as a messianic kingly title to deliver them from their enemies, the hated Gentile occupiers and oppressors. And it was Passover. It commemorated the Lord’s deliverance from the Egyptians. And on this first century AD Passover, their expectation was that the Son of David would deliver them from the Romans.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And so they also quoted from Psalm 118 and verse 26 meaning here that they applied this to Jesus Christ as the Lord’s anointed, his Messiah, Savior, King who comes in the name of the Lord. And Hosanna in the highest or save now in the highest meaning save now from heaven, from God who is in the highest by the will, by the word and the power of God, the highest. These Jews had already witnessed the supernatural, miraculous power of Jesus Christ.
So, in effect, they were saying to Jesus of Nazareth: Use you miracle power to overthrow the Romans and to reestablish the political, physical kingdom of the nation of Israel at that time.
Psalm 118 and verse 25 says: Oh, Lord, save us, oh Lord. Grant us success. That is usually the kind of success that we wall want, health and wealth from our earthly enemies. Before we are too hard on these first century AD Jews, we should realize that today in the 21st century by application most people usually demand deliverance, too. First the focus is usually the physical, not the moral, not the spiritual, but the physical. Save us from sickness. Save us from disease. Save us from economic troubles. Save us from unhappiness. Save us from our trials and tribulations. Oh, Lord, grant us success now.
When Christ did not deliver to the first century Jews what they desired most deserted him. And today by application when God does not deliver the health and wealth that many today demand they desert him. So, really, a lot hasn’t changed. People are the same today in the 21st century as they were in the first century in large part. But Christ did not come the first time to make war with the Romans, but to make peace with God for mankind, including all of us.
The first century people wanted a king that did their bidding. And today most want a King of kings primarily to fulfill their desires, their dreams, even their demands. Yet Jesus Christ did deliver. He delivered mankind from our sins, if only we would receive him and his work on the cross through obedient faith, whether in the first century or down through the centuries, down through the church age, generation after generation even to today.
In Matthew chapter 21 and verse 10 is still very valid as a question today. Jesus entered the Jerusalem. The whole city was stirred and asked: Who is this? Today Jesus deeply desires to enter our hearts, the whole of our inner being and to stir us to himself by the conviction of the Holy Spirit and to answer the question in our minds, in our hearts correctly according to Matthew chapter 21 and verse 11. The crowds answered in the first century: This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.
And, sadly, today the crowd today also often asked: Who is this? And they answer Jesus was just a prophet. Was he only just a prophet from Nazareth? Was he only just of human origin? Our answer, according to Scripture, must be as the great confession, the good confession the apostle Peter found in Matthew chapter 16 and verse 16: You are the Christ, meaning the anointed of God, the Son of the living God, meaning deity, divinity. Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, God in bodily form, God and man at the same time.
Well, how can he do that? How is that possible? He is God. All things are possible with God. Do you believe this? You and I must believe this for Hosanna, which means save now, to be applicable to each one of us that we also would be saved from our sin first and foremost and Jesus through saving faith in him and his work on the cross can accomplish this in our lives as we persevere in saving, obedient faith in him.
David Johnson is minister of the Sellersburg Church of Christ, Sellersburg, IN.