Many of us know that feeling of pure satisfaction when someone or something lives up to or even exceeds our expectations. When we share these experiences with others, the emotions can be intensified. Take for example, Liverpool Football Club winning the Premier League last year.

Thousands of fans packed the city centre as the club celebrated with a victory parade. The club had delivered, and the fans were ecstatic. But what happens when our deeply held expectations fail to produce the results we’d anticipated? When what we hoped for doesn’t materialise?

Fast backwards to Bethphage, a suburb of Jerusalem, where Jesus had arrived after his long journey to the holy city. This is Jesus’ first, and will be his last, visit to Jerusalem in Matthew’s Gospel, so this pause on the Mount of Olives is a significant moment – his carefully orchestrated plan is about to unfold dramatically. It begins with specific instructions to two disciples to fetch a donkey and her colt from a nearby village. Jesus knew precisely where the animals would be – even providing the disciples with a code (‘The Lord needs it’), should they be challenged. This strongly supports the idea that it had been pre-planned. Up until then, Jesus had journeyed to Jerusalem by his usual mode of transport: on foot. Did the remaining two miles warrant him entering on a donkey, something he apparently had not done before? By entering Jerusalem during Passover, in this manner, Jesus deliberately evoked the past and signalled the future.

PROPHECY AND PURPOSE

In our Western culture, to make an entrance usually means to arrive in style, or to make a statement by creating a visual impact. Perhaps one of the main events we see this is the annual film award ceremonies – notably the Oscars. ‘Stars’ make their entrance on the ‘red carpet’. Fans and the media alike expect gorgeous attire and expertly done hair and make-up and are seldom disappointed.

Jesus’ entrance into the city may have lacked style according to today’s norms, but it certainly delivered up drama and substance in spades. His followers, in an impromptu celebration, spread their cloaks before him, waved palm branches and shouted praises from scripture. Jesus’ clear intent was to enact prophecy and the crowd caught on immediately, recognising the allusion to Zechariah 9:9.

‘Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he,
humble and mounted on 
a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’

His followers saw in Jesus his unspoken statement – that he is King, the Messiah they had been waiting for. Only royalty was deserving of the spreading of cloaks and the waving of palm branches. They hailed and praised Jesus as the ‘King who comes in the name of the Lord’, a direct quote from Psalm 118:26. To welcome Jesus as the son of David was a direct nod to the revered King David, a brave warrior who thousands of years earlier had conquered their enemies. Jesus was a new King who would rescue them not from pagan tribes, but from oppressive Roman rule. Royal symbols, cheers, cries of praise.

It’s no wonder ‘the whole city was stirred, and asked “who is this?”’ Jesus had one purpose in mind as he entered Jerusalem. But what about the crowd? 

WHO IS JESUS?

Jesus’ followers were convinced they already knew the answer, ‘this is the prophet from Nazareth’. But expectations and reality are about to clash spectacularly. Jesus is indeed their King, but not one the crowd would recognise. He is ‘gentle,’ not warmongering. He comes on a lowly donkey, not the majestic horse that befits a warrior. Jesus has come to usher in a new world order – a kingdom built on values of love, justice and peace, achieved through servant leadership, not force or might. The crowd’s shout of ‘Hosanna’ (‘save us’) was no doubt a cry to be saved from oppressive rule, but they have misread Jesus’ action. It’s Passover, when the Jews celebrate their liberation from slavery in Egypt. Jesus, the new Moses, saves us not just from oppressive rulers, but came to gift us a pearl - salvation. In the crowd’s eyes, Jesus had failed them, and their jubilant cries would turn to baying for his blood. But defying expectations, he achieved his ultimate purpose – to lay down his life for the crowd and for us. That, more than words, tells us who he is – and so we bring our own praise; ‘All Glory, Laud and honour to thee Redeemer King.’