All throughout this last week of Jesus' life, Jesus fulfills prophecy after prophecy, showing that he IS the Messiah, the anointed one to save the world. Yet, the Jews at this time had a very different view as to who they thought the Messiah would be and what they thought the Messiah would do. Because of this, there is a lot of confusion with the Jewish leaders, even oppositions, because this is not the Messiah they expected. Yet Matthew shows over and over again, that Jesus was the Messiah that was predicted. Let's read this passage:
1 As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2 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. 3 If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.” 4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:
5 “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.’”
There are basically two parts to this passage, Preparation and Prophecy.
The first part has to do with verses 1-3, which say:
1 As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2 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. 3 If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.”
The Mount of Olives is in between the two cities of Bethany and Jerusalem, which are two miles apart. Jesus, according to John 12, was just anointed by Mary in Bethany and is now on his way to Jerusalem. So the Mount of Olives was like a good halfway point. If you read the end of John 11, you will see that the tension between the Jewish Leaders and Jesus is very high. They want to kill him, so Jesus stayed kind of in hiding. Because of the Passover week starting, the tension somewhat tripled! Hundreds of thousands of Jews are asking if Jesus is going to come, and the Jewish Leaders were looking for a way to arrest him.
Because of this, it seems like Jesus made previous arrangements the last time he was in Jerusalem with the owner of the donkey. This way, he has safe travel into the town using this man's colt. The same kind of preparations occur later for his disciples to find the upper room where they eat the Lord's Supper together (Mt. 26).
Next, Matthew presents to us the Prophecy that Jesus fulfills when he enters Jerusalem.
5 “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.’”
There are basically two parts to this passage, Preparation and Prophecy.
The first part has to do with verses 1-3, which say:
1 As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2 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. 3 If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.”
The Mount of Olives is in between the two cities of Bethany and Jerusalem, which are two miles apart. Jesus, according to John 12, was just anointed by Mary in Bethany and is now on his way to Jerusalem. So the Mount of Olives was like a good halfway point. If you read the end of John 11, you will see that the tension between the Jewish Leaders and Jesus is very high. They want to kill him, so Jesus stayed kind of in hiding. Because of the Passover week starting, the tension somewhat tripled! Hundreds of thousands of Jews are asking if Jesus is going to come, and the Jewish Leaders were looking for a way to arrest him.
Because of this, it seems like Jesus made previous arrangements the last time he was in Jerusalem with the owner of the donkey. This way, he has safe travel into the town using this man's colt. The same kind of preparations occur later for his disciples to find the upper room where they eat the Lord's Supper together (Mt. 26).
Next, Matthew presents to us the Prophecy that Jesus fulfills when he enters Jerusalem.
4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:
5 “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.’”
‘See, your king comes to you,
gentle and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”
Notice how clear this passage is, yet how wrong the Jewish leaders got it. This is a quote from Zechariah 9.9, which was written during the rebuilding of the temple. When Zechariah was prophesying, the Jews were struggling to see how they were going to succeed in rebuilding the temple. They had opposition from foreigners, the walls were half built, and they didn't see any kind of success in sight. So Zechariah said that God will bring them to victory through a Messiah. The problem was, Zechariah's prophecy was that this Messiah would bring about victory by suffering, by riding on a donkey of peace instead of a horse of war.
The Jews didn't like that idea of God and his Messiah, so they changed it. They actually took a a passaged from Zechariah 12.10-11, which states that God himself, not the Messiah, will be pierced, and they changed it to make it say they will "dance" before him instead of "pierce" him.
They did not like the idea of a humble, gentle, peace bringing Messiah and God by suffering.
And neither do we.
We do not like the idea of Jesus as someone who lives by the ethic, by the lifestyle of self-sacrifice. Yet that is what brings about victory for God's people. And the life of the cross, the life of self-sacrifice, is how we win, it is how we as the kingdom of God, bring heaven on earth.
My question today today is this: are you going to follow the Jesus presented in the Bible and the prophets, or are you going to follow your own idea of who Jesus was? When you get to decide what kind of Jesus you follow, Jesus begins to look a lot like you instead of you beginning to look a lot like Jesus.
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