Zechariah 9:9. Rejoice, O people of Zion! Shout in triumph, O people of Jerusalem! Look, your king is coming to you. He is righteous and victorious, yet he is humble, riding on a donkey— riding on a donkey’s colt.
This is a prophecy about the coming of Israel’s great hero, the Messiah. This prophecy was fulfilled by Jesus when he rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.
Do you remember what Palm Sunday was about?
Jesus had done so many incredible miracles and had become so famous, that the people were ready to crown him as king. They saw him as God’s Messiah who had come to rescue them from the wicked Roman Empire. So on the Sunday before the big Passover celebration, Jesus got on a young donkey (a donkey’s colt) and rode into Jerusalem while the people waved palm branches and shouted “Hosanna in the highest!”
What Jesus did was not a new thing. In the Old Testament, the new king would be put on top of a donkey and paraded around Jerusalem while all the people shouted and say. King Solomon did this when his father, King David, died. He got on top of David’s donkey and rode around the city before any of his brothers could. Why? To show the people that his dad had said that he should be king. And why a donkey and not a horse? Because horses symbolized war, but donkeys symbolized peace. A king on a donkey told the people that he wanted to bring peace to the nation, not war.
That’s why Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. Jesus was telling the people that in his first advent he had come to bring peace and not war. He wasn’t going to fight the Roman Empire; he was going to fight Satan by dying on the cross. Jesus would bring peace by letting himself be put to death by the Romans for the sins of the whole world.
Zechariah says that our king will be humble, and that’s exactly what Jesus was. Do you know what it means to be humble? It means putting others first, and not yourself. It means that you think about yourself less than you think about others and what they need. Jesus was humble because he did everything for the sake of others and not for his own sake. Jesus did not need to die on the cross for himself; he was already perfect. He died for us. We needed it. We needed forgiveness and new life, not him.
With Jesus, we too can choose to ride on a donkey. No, I don’t mean an actual donkey. I mean that we can choose to live humble lives, lives of peace and love, not war and fighting. We can live lives that put others first before ourselves. We can choose to have things that don’t show off how rich or cool we are, or how beautiful or popular we are.
Until Jesus comes again he wants us to live like he did – humble. He wants us to be donkey riding kings and queens. Yes, we are God’s kings and queens on Earth, but may we always choose to be servant kings that seek peace with everyone. May we always be kind to all, and generous to those in need. May we choose to ride on “donkeys” not “war horses”…Jesus alone gets to ride the war horse, but that’s tomorrow’s animal.
Questions: Is there any way that you have been acting proud instead of humble lately? How can you be a “donkey riding king/queen” instead of a “war horse riding king/queen?”
TLICfamily 