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Matthew 21:1-11
Jesus has taught His disciples that to be great in the kingdom of heaven, one must be as a servant to others (Matthew 20:20-28), and being the example, He states in Matthew 20:28, NKJV, “just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” He has also instructed His disciples in Matthew 19:30, “But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” And then, when others were overlooking two blind men in need, Jesus stopped and healed them – He gave them what they asked for in fulfilling their needs (Matthew 20:29-34).
Jesus and His disciples then continued on to Jerusalem, but Jesus did not enter the city in a glorious spectacle of a great king; He humbled Himself in being the example that He has been teaching others that they too need to be if they desire to follow Him. He sent two of His disciples to get a lowly donkey and her colt in which He would ride into the city. This fulfills prophecy spoken about Him many years earlier.
One more very interesting fact about this procession is that the roads in the time of the earthly ministry of Christ Jesus were made simply of dirt, which may not seem very important at all. But the dirt roads threw up a lot of dust when many people were traveling on them together, so notice what happens in Matthew 21:7-9 as the multitude laid their what would be outer garments/jackets on the road, and others cut tree branches and laid them on the road as well. This would prevent the dust from rising and causing issues with this glorious moment of the humility of Jesus setting the example. And if you can imagine the many different colors of garments and tree branches/palm leaves lying on the road, this would have been a marvelous array of color almost as if beautiful flowers were lining the road for the arrival of Jesus. And how did the multitudes react to Jesus lowering Himself to riding into the city on the colt of a donkey? They cried out (Matthew 21:9b) saying,
“Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’
Hosanna in the highest!”
This is the triumphal entry of Jesus.
God works in mysterious ways and He can take the most humble and lowly situations and make the most glorious moments from them. This is the example that Jesus wants us to see if we will put our faith in Him and seek/follow God’s will for our lives as Jesus leads us through it. He will take our lowly lives and make glorious moments for us over and over again – in Christ!
Dear LORD,
I hope and pray that all who read or listen to this will feel in their hearts the wonder and mysterious glory that You give to us through humbling ourselves to putting the needs of others before us. That we would see through the life-lessons of our Savior Jesus that humbling ourselves to others is not a bad thing but a gift of reaching out to those in need that is a reflection of Jesus and our way, truth, and life that is found only in Him. Thank You so much for the gift of life in Christ Jesus. In Jesus name I pray, amen.