John 12:12-19 describes Jesus entering Jerusalem for the final events of his earthly ministry leading to the cross and resurrection. He was met by an excited crowd made up of Passover pilgrims who’d either personally witnessed him raising Lazarus from the dead or had heard about it. And the resulting scene caused the Pharisees to express with exasperation, “The world has gone after him!”
This passage contains quotes from two Old Testament messianic prophecies. The first one is chanted by the enthusiastic throng, and the second is recorded as having been recalled later by the disciples as they considered what happened that day.
According to the custom for someone worthy of high honor, the people began laying palm branches along Jesus’ route into the city. And then, they quoted from Psalm 118:25-26 crying out, "Hosanna! 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!' The King of Israel!" But they misinterpreted this prophecy and allowed themselves to get caught up in a frenzy of ecstatic hope that Jesus was about to fulfill it by overthrowing their Roman overlords and establishing the kingdom of God among them.
But Jesus neither incited nor fed their foment. In fact, he very strategically chose to enter Jerusalem with an act of humility. The symbolism was stark and clear. A king engaging in conquest would ride a strong warhorse. One arriving in peace would sit astride a docile donkey. And that’s what he did.
We’re told the disciples didn’t grasp the significance of this contrast between the triumphal shouts of the crowd and the humble optics of Jesus’ choice of ride until after his resurrection. Then, they recalled the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9, “Behold, your King is coming to you...lowly and riding on a donkey.” And the Hebrew word translated as, “lowly,” means poor, humble, gentle, or meek.
Jesus couldn’t have sent a clearer message. Even as the crowd clamored for political regime change through messianic power, he was declaring his mission to bring about a spiritual one through messianic surrender. He hadn’t come to set himself up in triumph but to lay himself down in sacrifice. And specifically, because he humbled himself, Philippians 2:5-11 tells us that every knee will bow before him.
And yet, many of us who claim to follow him, don’t seem to grasp the impact of his example. Based on what I hear from some prominent Christian leaders, catch in conversations with other believers, read on social media, and see on the nightly news, it appears that many of us today – like the chanters in the streets on that first Palm Sunday – think the kingdom of God is established through triumphalism which the dictionary describes as, “The attitude or practices of a church that seeks a position of power and dominance in the world.” But Christian history is littered with the debris of the wreckage caused by this folly.
Jesus said in John 18:36 that his kingdom is not of this world, so his servants don’t need to fight to make it so. Our job is not to establish it through our activism – political or otherwise – but according to Luke 10:9 announce its presence through our acts of service in his name and escort others into it.
Yes, I’m aware that Ephesians 6 commands Jesus-followers to put on the armor of God. But I also know that verse 12 of that chapter declares, “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” And Colossians 2:15 says that battle has already been won, not with weapons of warfare but with a splintered cross where a donkey-riding Jesus, “made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.”