S121P9 – The Savior’s many faces: the lowly king

Mt. 21:6‭-‬8

So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them. They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them. And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road.

They had been ruled for so long by the aristocratic bloodline that they could not conceive of a leader who resembled them in any way.  Those who lived a hand-to-mouth existence and who filled the streets of that kingdom were ruled over by a class completely disconnected from their needs and wants.  Then, like a miracle no one ever thought worth asking, he emerged as a force to take down that aristocracy.  He lived among those people and came from those streets; he understood them because he was like them.  It would take more than this commonality to make him a great leader of a kingdom, but they were willing to place their hopes there and support his cause expecting that he would prove himself worthy. 

Jesus was not the kind of king many expected to emerge and save God’s chosen people from their oppression.  Yet, the evidence for this case was right before them in scripture.  This scene had been foretold centuries earlier and was memorialized in writing. [Isa. 62:11]  The people should have expected their king to enter not like a general leading a cavalry but like one of their own emerging from their very depths.  Jesus knew what it was like to be them in that place, to be oppressed by their enemies physically and spiritually.  He suffered through the human experience just as we do, and that gives him so much street credit when He tells us to live as He lived.  He knows it is possible because He already has done it.

To one who had no idea what this scene was all about, I can imagine that it looked rather sad and strange.  A poor man with nothing special about his countenance or attire is being led down the road atop a pony and a donkey.  The red carpet rolled out before him is nothing more than clothing and twigs.  It might have looked more like a low budget performance than a real triumphal entry.  No apparent power or prestige about him, He looked just like them, but that is what makes him the most fitting king.  He understands what it is to be us and suffer like us.  Father, have your Spirit remind us of this picture of triumph, that we would see in our great King a little bit of ourselves.