- Jesus supposedly comes to a gun fight with a water pistol riding a donkey colt! Yet, it's humility that will win the battle over the penalty of sin.
- John immediately quotes Zechariah 9:9 to help us understand what Jesus has fulfilled.
- 1. 1. (Jn. 12:15) "Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt!"
- 2. However, John changed something. Zechariah 9:9 begins with 'Rejoice, greatly.'
- a. Why did he do that? Well, I think because if you read through the book of Zechariah, you will find out that 'the Messiah would come only when Israel had completely obeyed God's will. The fulfillment was conditional: (Zech. 6:15) And this shall come to pass, if you will diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God" (Sailhamer 433).
- b. The fact is, in Zechariah's day, Israel had failed and therefore, Messiah did not come. So, Zechariah's message was pointing to the future. He was telling them what to look for. And 500 years later, Jesus rides into town on a donkey colt.
- c. And because they still had not obeyed God's will, John says, 'Fear not . Messiah has come and he will obey God's will perfectly FOR YOU.' The Perfect Son of God meets all the demands HIMSELF!
- d. Messiah comes to bring peace. Peace with who? Well, Israel does not obey God's will. So, their greatest problem is not Rome. They are slaves to their sin. They need to be rescued from the bondage of sin not the bondage of Rome. Indeed, salvation from Rome or Babylon or whatever you want to call it is coming but the most important issue is their unrighteousness because God's wrath is against all unrighteousness.
- e. Jesus comes to free them by living a perfect life and paying the penalty for their sin which is death. Mary anointed Jesus King but also prepared him for burial.
- f. In other words, the King comes to pay their ransom!
- I must pause here and ask, 'Have you disobeyed God?' The answer is yes. Weall have. If you are being crushed right now under the weight of guilt for your sin, I would ask you come to Jesus. He came to save sinners like us. Repent and believe in him and you will be saved. He will forgive you and he will give you his perfect righteousness. And in him, you will have a right legal standing to be a child of God…adopted into his family.
- c. You might be like John says the disciples were. He says in verse 16 that they didn't understand these things at first. This is true of all of us. But in the kindness of God, he shows us grace. Is the Father drawing your heart to Jesus? If so, come to him.
- The disciples didn't understand until Jesus was glorified. What does that mean? It means, when he was raised from the dead, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and these things they did to him.
- So, yes. Jesus fulfilled the promise of Zechariah. And yes, he came riding a donkey colt not a warhorse. And yes, this King has brought the victory by way of humility to the point of death even death on a cross. But God has highly exalted him and given him name that is above every name. Every knee will bow to King Jesus.
- d. Indeed, as the religious leaders of Israel say, ' The whole world has gone after Jesus.'
- Notice in verse 17 is the crowd that had been there when Jesus 'called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead. They were bearing witness to this.
- Additionally, there's another crowd of people who were not there but had heard that Jesus had called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead.