The King on a Donkey

Scripture: John 12:12-19 (ESV)

The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt!” His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him. The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.”

Have you ever felt let down by something that was supposed to be amazing? Maybe it was a movie that got a lot of hype, but when you watched it, you found yourself glancing at your phone halfway through. Or maybe it was a gadget you bought, promising to change your life, only to end up collecting dust in a drawer. To be honest, I have probably bought more gadgets that end up in a drawer than most of you reading this. I love the newness of things, but they do get old pretty quickly and then I move on to the next thing.

I would guess that that sense of unmet expectation is what the crowds felt as Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the donkey. They were clearly excited. They were hopeful. They were celebrating their new Messiah King. To many minds Jesus was clearly the one they had been waiting for. He had done many signs, including raising Lazarus from the dead. He spoke with such authority that even demons submitted to him. The crowd recognised that there was something special about Jesus and they thought he would finally be the God-sent saviour of Israel. Except he salvation they wanted was salvation from the Romans. They wanted Jesus to liberate them as their political king, not their spiritual one.

They wanted a king on a war horse. But this king came on a donkey. A young donkey. Not really the stuff of legends. But Jesus rode in on a donkey because he was signaling the type of salvation he was bringing. Jesus chose the donkey because he wanted to show he was fulfilling the prophecy Zechariah made in Zechariah 9:9. Jesus was sending a message that he wasn’t so much interested in their physical liberation from Rome. He was keen to deal with people’s deeper need. He came to free people from their oppression under sin and death.

I wonder though whether we sometimes get things wrong like the crowd did. They expected salvation in a very specific form. They wanted a king who could save them from Roman oppression. But God had a better salvation in mind for them. So too I wonder whether we misunderstand what we really need from God. What kind of salvation are we really looking for? Do we want Jesus as the king who will fix all our problems and make our lives easy? Do we want a saviour who rides in on a war horse into our lives and smashes down the problems we think we need solving?

Or do we in faith accept the salvation God knows we really need? We don’t need a king who only cares about our surface level issues. Thankfully in Jesus we have a king who cares about our deepest problem. Our sin.

Will we, like the crowd in Jerusalem, cry out “Hosannah”, only to turn around in a week to cry out “Crucify” because Jesus didn’t give them what they thought they needed. Or will we, like the crowd in the new Jerusalem, cry out “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever”, because we got the king we needed?

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for being the king I really need even if you aren’t the king I sometimes think I want. Teach me true humility and thankfulness. Amen.

Spiritual Challenge: Today, reflect on an area of your life where you’ve wanted Jesus to ride in on a warhorse and fix everything instantly. Instead, invite him in as the king on a donkey. How does your perspective change?