Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.  Zech 9:9

.....Men have written “Harmonies of the Gospels”; but God has given us a Harmony of the Old and New Testament.  The passage referred to is in Zechariah 9:9.  It represents Zion’s King as meek and lowly even in the hour of his triumphant entrance into his metropolis, riding, not upon a war-horse, but upon a young ass, whereon no man had sat.  He had before said of himself, “I am meek and lowly in heart,” and now he gives one more proof of the truth of his own words; and, at the same time, of the fulfilment of prophecy: “Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass.”  He did not, like Solomon, fetch horses out of Egypt to minister to his pride; but he who was greater than Solomon was content with a colt the foal of an ass, and even that humble creature was borrowed, for he had none of his own.  The tenderness of Jesus comes out in the fact of his having the ass brought with her foal that they might not be parted.  He was, as a King, all gentleness and mercy: his grandeur involved no pain, even for the meanest living thing.  How blessed is it for us to be ruled by such a King!.....
.....When men previously had tried to take Jesus by force, to make him a king in earthly fashion, he withdrew himself from them but the hour for his public entry into Jerusalem had arrived, and he therefore allowed his disciples to set him upon the lowly beast that was to carry him into the city.  Gladly they put the Lord in the place of honour, and joyfully they walked at his side.
.....The crowd was in a state of great excitement, and came marching along with Jesus in high enthusiasm. Carpeting the road, they spread their garments in the way; and as if this were not enough, others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way.  Our first parents, in their shame, made clothes of the leaves of trees; but now both clothes and leaves are at the feet of man’s Redeemer.  John says that the people “took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him......”
.....Oh, that our teeming populations knew as much of Jesus as the multitudes of Jerusalem knew!  And yet it may be that, if they did, they might act as basely as did these sinners of Jerusalem, when their Hosannas were so soon changed into cruel cries of “Away with him! Crucify him!”.....
                                                                                                                                          C. H. Spurgeon

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