Section IV

the festal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem

(Mat 21:1-11; Mar 11:1-11; Luk 19:29-46; Joh 12:9-18)

It was at once known in Jerusalem, probably through the Passover pilgrims, that Jesus had arrived at Bethany. In consequence, great crowds wandered out towards that place, not only to see Jesus, but Lazarus also, whom He had raised from the dead. This outward movement probably occurred before the beginning of the Sabbath, towards Friday evening, or else at the latest, as the Sabbath drew to a close.¹ There might be many who made an exception to the rule of resting on the Sabbath; for it was not the strict Jews, but the more liberal ones, who went in quest of the Lord. Thus perhaps the Sabbath holiday, on that rest-day of Jesus, was greatly enlivened. Many of those guests who saw the newly living man by the side of the Prince of Life, returned again to Jerusalem in the evening, believing. Probably, moreover, the high priests on the same day, after the close of the Sabbath, held the council at which the dubious suggestion was expressed, whether Lazarus also must not be put to death. He was a lively offence to them, because he was a lively memorial of the glory of Jesus.

The road which led out of the valley from Bethany and over the hill-top from Bethphage,² up towards the middle summit of the Mount of Olives, descending then towards the valley of Kidron, which separates the heights of Jerusalem from the summit of the Mount of Olives,³ raised as it is four hundred feet about the bed of the Kidron, winds through rich plantations of palm-trees, and fruit and olive gardens. If we were to name the localities in English, we should say that the road led from Datetown across Figtown, towards the Mount of Olive plantations.⁴ In the Passover time, moreover, this road, by reason of the many companies of pilgrims, and the encampments on the declivity of the Mount of Olives,⁵ might be likened to a camp aroused for festivity. On Saturday evening, and early on Sunday morning, this road was still more enlivened by the troops of pilgrims who were returning home to Jerusalem, and carried thither the intelligence that Jesus was coming on the morrow to the city. All the worshippers of Jesus were excessively elated by this news, and without concert or premeditation, it happened that soon a still larger festal procession was formed to go out to meet Him. The powerful presentiment of the New Testament age was the living spirit which, so to speak, improvised this reception. The great hope that Jesus would now make His entry among His people as the Messiah, prepared this triumph for Him.

Even at His first departure from the house of His friends at Bethany, Passover pilgrims met the Lord bearing in their hands branches of palm-trees, and singing the words of a psalm which may be considered as the peculiar Messianic hymn. Hosanna! (God’s salvation be near,)⁶ ‘Blessed be Thou who comest in the name of the Lord, Thou King of Israel!’ Thus they sang an old song in a new sense, with new festal rapture. For centuries the elect in Israel had mused in spirit on the hymn with which they would greet the Messiah, and had sought to devise in their soul the kind of song for the purpose. Now they found that an old preluding prophetic strain of a psalm (Psa 118:26) had been given them for this very celebration.

Thus, as they hailed the Lord with a Messianic psalm, so He seemed ready to answer them at once with a Messianic sign. He would make His entry into the holy city in the character of the King of Peace, as the prophet Zechariah had described Him (chap. 9:9). The prophet had depicted the King bringing salvation, as He comes to His city, not upon a war-horse, but on the beast of burden of peaceful intercourse, lowly and gentle, and as if announcing therewith a new era of peace. Jesus felt with certainty that this moment had now come, and He found that it was now His duty to manifest Himself to His people in the form in which the prophet had proclaimed Him. Thus it was not perhaps His care to fulfil in an external manner a prophetic Scripture word, but to respond to a theocratic expectation,—to fulfil a theocratic law and symbol,—and therein to satisfy the will of God, which assuredly was altogether in harmony with the exigencies of the moment. For as regards the latter, it could not be at all fitting that the hero of a festal procession should be lost among the crowd of foot-passengers; He must, in one way or another, be made prominent. But how could He more unassumingly form the prominent centre of the procession than by riding upon an ass? Thus, at this point also in the life of Jesus, the requirement of the moment corresponded with the requirement of eternity.

But here also the Lord obtains the means needful for the occasion, in the simplest and most suitable manner. Just as the march had begun, He sent forward two disciples (who are not more accurately identified), to provide for Him a beast to ride on the way. The testimony of the Evangelist Mark must inform us of the meaning of the specification of places which is given here both by Matthew and Luke. They drew near, it is said, to the places Jerusalem, Bethphage, and Bethany. According to the position of those stations, it is plain that the Evangelist first mentions the exact end of the journey, and that from that he enumerates the intervening stations. Hence they are thus on the point of coming to Bethany, then to Bethphage, and lastly to Jerusalem.⁷ But how can it be said that they had approached to Bethany, Bethphage, and Jerusalem, when, nevertheless, they came out from Bethany? This assertion must be explained entirely by the local relations of Bethany; and by reference to them it is easily explained, if we suppose, for instance, that it was a scattered town, and that the lodging of Jesus was in one of the houses at the eastern extremity of the town.⁸ If, now, from this place as the beginning of the journey, Jesus sent forth the disciples to the next town, by that must certainly be meant Bethphage, especially if the Evangelist Matthew in particular be considered.

Jesus said beforehand to these disciples, that just at the entrance of the town they would find a she-ass tied, and a foal with it. These animals He bade them loose, and bring to Him. But if any one should ask them, Wherefore do ye that? they were to answer them, The Lord hath need of them; then he would at once let them go. It is perhaps evident that the accurate directions of the Lord in this place almost present the appearance of a statement of appointed words; and this would lead us to conceive of a concerted arrangement which might have been come to at an earlier date, between Him and confidential friends in Bethphage.⁹ Even the connection in no wise compels us to see in the occurrence an absolutely direct prediction of Jesus. But, on the other hand, a precise agreement would hardly have taken this mysterious form, which might so easily be misunderstood, nay, so easily evaded. Thus much may with certainty be supposed, that the proprietor of these animals belonged to the faithful followers of Jesus. Further, perhaps it may be conjectured that he might once have declared that he would wish to render to the Lord a service of this kind at His festal entry into the holy city. But the particulars might have remained entrusted to the occasion, and to the wondrous insight of Jesus. He, however, saw clearly in the Spirit how the disposition of His friends was now excited, and how He now might reckon on the devotion of that family in Bethphage. He certainly knew, therefore, that even this remarkable blossom of that disposition must have now ripened.

But how comes it that Matthew speaks of an ass and of a colt belonging to her, whilst the other Evangelists only know of the foal? Strauss explains this circumstance by the supposition, that Matthew had misunderstood the passage in the prophet Zechariah—that from the parallelism of the sentence which speaks of an ass, the foal of an ass, he has made two animals, and modified the history accordingly. But the Evangelist, who, doubtless, understood the poetic parallelism of the Hebrews, had in view another parallelism—that, namely, between the dam and the foal as it actually appeared in the history of that procession. No doubt the prophet had represented the beast on which Jesus rode as an ass’s foal. The Evangelists lay stress upon it, that Jesus has made His entry upon a foal never yet ridden. The character of the animal must be symbolical, because the entire palm-procession formed a symbol. An altogether new era, a new Prince, a new animal to ride on.¹⁰ But as this foal had never yet carried a rider, it followed, therefore, in order that it might be somewhat tamed and quieted for its first service, that the dam should be led by its side.¹¹ Thus Matthew was guided by the parallelism of facts, in conformity with his accuracy in special details, whilst the other Evangelists merely mentioned the foal which bore the Lord, which, after all, was the substantial thing.

If criticism asks wherefore Christ ventured to ride an unbroken animal, we are reminded of certain riders who consider it perilous work to mount a mettlesome beast; perhaps, also, of that parson in Jean Paul, who believed that his horse, when quietly trotting along, was running away with him frightfully. And if he is really uneasy on this account, about the dignified Rider and about the young ass—under the impression that it is unseemly to mount an animal not yet broken, young, unweaned—he forgets that there is a period in the life of such an ass, when for the first time he is ridden without risk for him or for his rider, and that, according to the intimation of the Evangelists, this period had just arrived for this colt; and, moreover, as it appears very soon, that he was actually passing through it.

The Evangelist Matthew, in his reflective manner, refers in the narrative of this event to the word of the prophet Zechariah. He appeals to it freely with the words: ‘All this happened that the word of the prophet might be fulfilled, which says, Say unto the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, riding upon an ass, and (indeed¹²) on a colt the foal of the burden-bearing ass.’ John also reminds us that this place of the prophet was then in process of fulfilment, and remarks thereupon, that the disciples, during the procession itself, had not thought on this reference, but that it was first disclosed to them after the glorification of Jesus.

The two disciples went forward and found the beast standing in the street of the village, tied beside a door. The owners of the beast, observant men, stood close by. The disciples must decide before the eyes of the bystanders (whom they do not appear to have known as being likewise disciples of Jesus) upon a proceeding which had the appearance of violence; and which yet was not violence, since the Spirit of their Lord was certain of the spirit of those men, and had communicated the certainty to their spirit. Thus without further delay they loosed the animals. Those who stood by came forward with the question, Wherefore they loosed the colt (with the mother)? They gave the appointed answer, ‘The Lord hath need of them.’ The mysterious answer satisfied the mysterious questioners. In fact, it cannot be without purpose that Jesus chose precisely this form of words for obtaining an animal to ride on which He needed. He therein expressed the character of the progress of His kingdom throughout the world. He is a King who keeps no royal stable at any appointed place of exit for Himself or for His people. But when He needs it, when His work needs it, there are always waiting secret friends at the door—those who gladly hear the word. The elected ones of Him or of His people—these are the ministering spirits at hand: and even the needed beasts on which to ride stand on the way to His order.¹³ And in this confidence His people ought to proceed; and when they are certain of the spirit of men turned to the Lord, then they ought not to reject their help, but to avail themselves of it in the simple, humble, and frank manner of their Lord. The Lord hath need of them! A singular expression. At that moment, when the King of kings needs an ass’s colt, then it can and must not fail Him. Thus He walked on earth as one having nothing, and yet possessing all things; and to such a walk He is here educating all His disciples.¹⁴

The disciples brought the animals and led them to the Lord. They also were filled with the general excitement—they spread their garments for a covering upon the beast, and Jesus mounted and rode thereon.¹⁵

The people also now began to express their joy in a more and more lively manner. Many strewed their garments in the way, others pulled branches from the trees and strewed them on the path of Jesus. Thus these made for Him a festal march, whilst others, going before and following Him, arranged themselves into choirs, and with loud voice sang the hosanna psalm. With a loud hosanna Jesus was proclaimed the Son of David. With a loud hosanna it was announced that now the kingdom of His father David is returning, and now is beginning the Messianic kingdom. Yes, even a hosanna was carried to the dwellers in heaven.¹⁶

This jubilee reached its height when the triumphal procession had attained the summit of the Mount of Olives; and at once the holy city, spread out on the opposite heights below, unfolded all its glory before them.¹⁷ And now His disciples began to glorify God in songs of praise, and to celebrate the wonderful works that Jesus had done.¹⁸ Possibly, indeed, this was the prelude of their acclamations at Pentecost, when also they declared the great acts of God (in the miracles of Jesus). But especially, according to John, they praised His latest, grandest work of wonder—the raising of Lazarus; and the rather, that this work was the strongest inducement which had led the people forth to meet Him.¹⁹ This unbounded, energetic, and public devotion appears to have driven to despair some Pharisees who had mingled with the procession, perhaps as spectators. They were so completely bewildered, that they at once approached Jesus, and called upon Him to rebuke His disciples. It is plain that they drew His attention to the dangerous consequences of such a public gathering, and they wished to make Him responsible for them.

But the Lord knew what was the divine right and what were the privileges of humanity, and would not check them. He knew that this celebration was no encroachment upon the right of the world, neither of the Roman supremacy nor of the Jewish priesthood; that it was every way due to Him and to the people. He knew that this festival belonged to His people’s freedom of faith and worship; yea, that it was the last beautiful grand act of His people’s theocratic national liberty, which, in its spirituality and heavenly nature, superseded the Roman claim. In this sense He answered, ‘I say unto you, If these should hold their peace, the stones would soon begin to cry out.’ Perhaps the loud songs of praise echoed on the rocky walls of the opposite temple-mountain, of the temple itself, and of the palaces of Zion; and the perception of this might have given the external occasion for the grand word of Jesus. But the actual meaning of this word was a terrible prophecy. When it has come to that point, that these crowds are silent from the praise of their King, then shall those stones opposite to you echo of His praise with their cry. Those who were learned in the Scriptures might know what Jesus meant by the word, The stones shall begin to cry out; for they knew the word of the prophet Habakkuk (2:11), ‘For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it’ with which he had threatened the destruction of the blood-built city—of the violent tyrant of the city of Babylon. They must thus be thoroughly aware that Jesus foreboded a great judgment of destruction, which should be the consequence if His worshippers should forcibly be put to silence—that Jerusalem would thereupon be laid waste, like a second Babylon.²⁰ And therein He expressed a great law of life of the kingdom of God. If men refrain from uttering the praise of God, and especially if a gloomy disposition imposes upon the better men such a silence, if the Gospel is suppressed, then the stones begin to cry out. Stones of down-falling temples, of bursting citadel walls, of falling towns—stones of torn-up pavements—these announce the judgments of God, whose glory can have no end. For God’s majesty must continually be traversing the earth in some festal procession—either in angels of grace or in angels of judgment—either in spring days and summer joys of the Spirit’s life and its fair edifices, or in autumn and winter storms of ruin.²¹ This is specially true of the honour of Christ. He must be praised even to the end. For since humanity is inalienably connected with Him as the Head, so from all great realizations of this connection must proceed hosanna festivals-from all great disturbances of the same, times of judgment.

This, then, it was that occupied the soul of Jesus at this time, amid the loudest jubilee of those around Him. But now when, on descending from the summit of the Mount of Olives, His eyes rested on the city, He burst at once into tears over it, and uttered a lament—words which, as if moistened with tears, appeared to be checked by the interruptions of the weeping voice: ‘If thou hadst known, even thou (so soon to incur judgment as those great cities of the heathen, even now, late, terribly late, as it is), in this thy day (even now in this day, which, according to thine ideal destiny, should be the day of thy world-historic bridal), the things which belong unto thy peace.’ He does not declare what course Jerusalem might then adopt for its salvation—what judgments, what centuries of calamity, might then be spared her; but after a sad pause, in prophetic awe of spirit, He adds, ‘but now they are hid from thine eyes.’ That is to say, The doom is already decreed; thou hast incurred it, that thy salvation, as well as thy ruin, is hidden from thee. And now He declares the coming judgments: ‘For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.’

Thus also the Lord spake in the language of the spirit of insight, even as His companions did. His lamentations mingled with their jubilee and song of praise. If at any time among those who surrounded Him, any spirit of carnal excitement or of sedition might have been sought to be roused, assuredly this penetrating wail of the love of Christ over the holy city would have allayed and expelled it. Gradually, perhaps, the waves of jubilee would partially subside as the procession descended lower; and in the valley of Kidron, defiled past the garden of Gethsemane, who knows what forebodings of the cross, what anticipation of the holy death-sorrow of a later time, might be suggested to the nobler spirits among them in the valley of Kidron? Nevertheless, in general, the glad festal voice continued: for hardly could those who were at a distance from the Lord, either spiritually or bodily, understand His suffering; and His own serenity soon cheered up again even those who understood Him best. Thus the festal pilgrimage went on, so large and important that at their entrance into Jerusalem the whole city was moved. It was at once seen everywhere that this procession concerned some individual highly celebrated. Hence the question, ‘Who is this?’ and many perhaps might ask it in doubt and indignation, offended and irritated. The crowds answered, ‘This is Jesus, the Prophet of Nazareth in Galilee.’ It was as if the first chilling breeze had already blown upon them in the city, and lowered the tone of their acknowledgment.

But Jesus passed through the city in the direct way towards the temple. And in the temple He now made His appearance as King and High Priest, according to theocratic right. In this capacity He went around, and cast His eyes upon all things (περιβλεψάμενος πάντα²²). It was as in a symbolic and real church visitation that He thus inspected everything. Silently and penetratingly He took in everything in His glance,—everywhere discerning spiritual death under the glistening curtain of life, the completest ruin in the apparent bloom of living worship: everywhere complete heathenism upon Moriah. Thus He went around, and perceived everything with clear glance and deep silence in His true heart. He had not completed this work until late in the evening.

The great Palm-Sunday was over. In the little company of the twelve, Jesus returned to Bethany through the approaching night. In the Spirit He had beheld the holiday times which the new humanity would owe to Him, and had rejoiced with them. But in the Spirit He had also beheld the judgments which impended over the city, and had been compelled openly to bewail them on His own day of honour. He had heard the speech of the destroyers of the Sunday and holiday already proclaimed by the fathers for His city and His people—had perhaps seen them look out of the windows of the palaces of Jerusalem with the mocking question, Who is this? And He had seen them steal about in the temple with such recollections and with the deepest presentiments of joy and sorrow. He returned over the dark Mount of Olives. Judas also walked near Him among the twelve. But the sadness and the seriousness of the evening could not deprive the Lord of the blessedness which the Father had appointed for Him on His Sunday. Even His tears themselves had been tears of love and of intercession shed in the deep and heavenly peace of a pure sympathy, and they were wept into the bosom of the Father. Thus His Sunday had strengthened Him for the great work of the week

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Notes

1) 'It was only lawful to go a thousand paces on the Sabbath; but Bethany was twice as far as that from Jerusalem. In such a case, it was customary so to contrive as that the first thousand paces might be taken before sunset on the Sabbath, when there would remain only the other half to be gone. Neander,'—390.

2) Schubert, ii. 571. Compare Robinson, i. 431. [Stanley's Sinai and Palestine, 188.]

3) 'The height of Moriah amounts to 2280 Par. feet; that of the hill of Sion, at the‏ ‎Cœnaculum, 2381; at the Latin Convent, 2457; at the Church of the Ascension,‏ 2530; ‎and of the summit of the Mount of Olives, 2556. The bed of the Kidron lies; ‎about 416 feet lower down, at a level of 2140 feet.’—Schubert, ii, 521. [The pro‎portion of the English foot to the French is as 15 to 16.—ED.]‏

4) When it is mentioned that Bethphage ) (בֵּית פַגֵּא)‎ means house of figs, the ex-‎planation of the name of Bethany by house of dates (בֵּית חִינֵי‎ Talm. אה־נה) might perhaps seem preferable to the other interpretations, since it often happens that the names of two adjacent places have ‏some‎ relation to one another. Another derivation suggests the translation of Bethany by house of the valley, or nether-house (בֵּית עניה)—Friedlieb, 5.

5) Many pilgrims dwelt during the feast in tents outside the city. This was allowed on condition that they placed the tents within the circumference of the Sabbath-day’s journey (not above 1000 paces from the city), Besides, they were bound to pass the first night of the feast within the city.—Sepp, iii. 5

6) The expression, (הוֺשִּׁיעָה נָּא (יהְוָֺה Jehovah, help! is perhaps the Messianic ‎Hail! or, Good luck! bearing many significations, according to the occasion, in this case unfolding its highest significance,

7) Robinson draws also a false conclusion from Matt. xxi. 1, Luke six. 29, when he supposes that Jesus came first to Bethphage, then to Bethany, i. 433.

8) From the expression referred to, it in no wise follows, as Strauss supposes (ii. 268), that the three first Evangelists represent Jesus as going forth directly from Jericho; just as little, as Schleiermacher assumes (Lukas, 244), that the Evangelists represented two public separate entries into Jerusalem

9) Compare Neander, in loc.

10) According to Justin Martyr (Trypho. c. 53), the colt was a figure of unrestrained heathenism; the ass, accustomed to the burden, a figure of heathenism subjected to the yoke of the law. Even Dr Paulus acknowledges this symbolism. Compare thereupon, Strauss, ii. 277.

11) Ebrard, 372.

12) The words of the prophet (ix. 9) declare, 'Rejoice greatly, daughter of Sion; and shout, daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King shall come to thee, just, endowed with salvation and victory, poor (in appearance), and riding upon an ass, on a foal of the she-ass.'

13) Even here Strauss appears utterly unconscious of the religious importance of this passage. The narrative, according to him, was intended to furnish a proof of the supernatural knowledge of Jesus, and of the magic power of His name (ii. 280).

14) Compare 2 Cor. vi. 10.

15) On the ἐπάνω αύτῶν, vide Winer, N. T, Gram.

16) Mark xi. 10. Upon similar festival processions, see Tholuck, 291; Sepp, iii. 186.

17) The view from the Mount of Olives over the city of Jerusalem is praised even still as most imposing. Similar to this recognition of the holy city was the jubilee with which the first Crusaders caught sight of it.

18) Luke xix. 37.

19) John xii. 17, 18.

20) Stier, iv. 329

21) Ibid. iv. 331.

22) Tholuck follows Strauss (280) in supposing, without foundation, that Mark does not make the procession reach the city till late. The observation assumed to be made by Ebrard, according to which ὀψίας, &c., should be referred to ἐξήλθεν, is well founded. The entire narrative perhaps at least suggests to us that the procession descended the declivity of the Mount of Olives while it was yet broad daylight. But then it was already near to the gates of the city. Certainly the union of the participial form, περιβλεψάμενος, with this statement proves that, upon the whole, it was too late for Jesus to have intended anything more than the 'look round.'