John 12:12-19 - The King on the Colt
- Chad Werkhoven
- 11 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Jesus is a different type of King than what many want.
Gospels: Week 10 — Jerusalem, commandment, service, and Supper
SINCE WE LAST LEFT OFF... Rival factions of the religious establishment in Jerusalem have joined forces seeking to kill Jesus. Word about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead is spreading like wildfire, so...
John 12:10–19 (NASB95)
10 ...the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death also; 11 because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and were believing in Jesus.
12 On the next day the large crowd who had come to the [Passover] feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, 13 took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet Him, and began to shout,
“Hosanna!
Blessed is He
who comes
in the name of the Lord,
even the King of Israel.”
14 Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written,
15 “Fear not,
daughter of Zion;
behold, your King is coming,
seated on a donkey’s colt.”
16 These things His disciples did not understand at the first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of Him, and that they had done these things to Him.
17 So the people, who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead, continued to testify about Him. 18 For this reason also the people went and met Him, because they heard that He had performed this sign. 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are not doing any good; look, the world has gone after Him.”
Heidelberg Catechism
Q&A 31
Q. Why is he called “Christ,” meaning “anointed”?
A. Because he has been ordained by God the Father
and has been anointed with the Holy Spirit
to be
our chief prophet... and priest...
and our eternal king
who governs us by his Word and Spirit,
and who guards us and keeps us
in the freedom he has won for us.
Q&A 123
Q. What does the second request of the Lord's Prayer mean?
A. “Your kingdom come” means,
Rule us by your Word and Spirit in such a way
that more and more we submit to you.
Keep your church strong, and add to it.
Destroy the devil’s work;
destroy every force which revolts against you
and every conspiracy against your Word.
Do this until your kingdom is so complete and perfect
that in it you are all in all.
Summary
John is the only gospel writer to report on Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, and as is evident in the way John slyly tells of the chief priests planning to put Lazarus to death also as he segues into what's often referred to as Jesus' triumphal entry, "it is difficult to overemphasize the impact the raising of Lazarus had on the people who had come to Jerusalem" (source).
Israel at this time simmered with national and messianic hopes, much of it fueled by resentment of Roman rule. So when vast numbers of pilgrims come into the city from the surrounding countryside to celebrate the Passover - the festival that more than any other reminded Israel that God had once liberated His people from a foreign oppressor -the scene is set for a potentially explosive situation.
No doubt by this point many in this crowd had heard about Jesus' miracles over the last three years - especially since many of those who'd come to Jerusalem for Passover were from the Galilean region that Jesus was from. So as the word spread that Jesus has not just given a blind man sight or simply healed some lepers, but had raised a man four days dead, many were seeking for Jesus, wondering if He would come to the feast (John 11:56).
After all, this would be the perfect moment for Jesus to seize the day (carpe diem - to borrow from Roman poetry of the day) and claim His crown.
So as Jesus came near Jerusalem, the crowd took the branches of palm trees, just like their ancestors had done to celebrate victories (which you can read about in the apocryphal book of Maccabees), and they began to chant a paraphrase of Psalm 118:
“Hosanna [Save us]!
Blessed is He
who comes
in the name of the Lord,
even the King of Israel.”
If Jesus intended to seize an earthly throne, there could hardly have been a better moment.
Dig Deeper
But John, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and writing from a perspective decades after Jesus was glorified, when he and others remembered the things written of Jesus by the Prophets, uses a different passage to describe Jesus' royal role (as do the other gospel writers), paraphrasing the prophet Zechariah's ninth chapter
“Fear not,
daughter of Zion;
behold, your King is coming,
seated on a donkey’s colt.”
Commentator D.A. Carson notes the significance of this:
Jesus does not enter Jerusalem on a war horse (cf. Is. 31:1–3; 1 Ki. 4:26), which would have whipped the political aspirations of the vast crowds into insurrectionist frenzy, but he chooses to present himself as the king who comes in peace, ‘gentle and riding on a donkey’ (Zc. 9:9)
Richard Phillips brings all of this into perspective:
Against the backdrop of this well-known prophecy, we see how strongly Jesus’ manner of entry served as a rebuke to Jerusalem’s mood. Little did the Jews appreciate that the kind of Messiah they sought was directly contrary to the Savior whom God had promised to send. What a warning this is to us, as Christians and churches, that our spiritual agenda be the one that God has actually mandated in his Word!
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who sent a Savior coming in His name;
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you would be ruled by the Word and Spirit in such a way that more and more you submit to you King;
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
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