“As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, ‘Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie then and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.’ This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: ‘Say to the Daughter of Zion, ‘See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”” Matthew 21:1-5
Oh, Jerusalem. They city where Jesus would be crucified–all for His love for and the redemption of humanity. He approached His death purposely, each step laden with understanding and the desire to reconcile each and every one of us to Himself.
The Mount of Olives was an intentional stage, chosen by God and established through Old Testament prophecy. It was a declaration of Jesus’ Messianic identity made without words. It symbolized God fighting on Israel’s behalf [Zechariah 14:3-21]. And it was a place to which Jesus would return often during His last days [Matthew 24:3 & 26:30; Mark 14:26; Luke 21:37 & 22:39; John 8:1].
The donkey–the chosen vessel to carry the Christ into Israel’s capital city, right under Herod’s nose–symbolized kingship, but also Jesus’ Messianic identity and that He came to restore peace not to make war as would’ve been symbolized by a horse [Deuteronomy 17:16; Judges 10:4 & 12:14; 2 Samuel 15:1 & 16:2; Psalm 20:6-9, 33:16-18 & 147:10-11; Proverbs 21:31; Zechariah 9:9-10].
Herod the Tetrarch whose father, King Herod the Great, had tried to exterminate Jesus as an infant [Matthew 2:16] and who, Himself, had John the Baptist beheaded [Matthew 14:1-12]–though he is not the focus.
Jesus sent two disciples to pick up His ride. But this was obviously before Uber existed and before cell phones and internet. So it wasn’t like Jesus opened an app and apple-paid for the donkey then sent the guys to go pick it up. No, this was prophetic. God knew from the Creation that this moment would exist and every detail–from where the donkeys would be, to how they would be tied, and what words the donkeys’ caretaker would need to hear to allow the disciples to take the animals.
And Jesus–being fully God–also knew.
It’s amazing to me how so many people will flock to any human who claims to be able to see/read the future, or have ESP, or consort with the dead, or any other number of superhuman imposs-abilities. While people while believe it possible for a fellow finite human being to possess these capabilities, these same people will read this scripture and dismiss its credibility–as if God couldn’t possess the ability to perfectly know past, present and future.
But God did, does and always will know. He prophesied this moment perfectly in the Old Testament. And He gave these two disciples an exactly detailed advance directive here in the New Testament. No doubt, every time God dropped these kind of miracles into the disciples’ experience, it confirmed His existence and their faith and Jesus’ identity over and over again.
What confirmations of God’s existence have you experienced? What confirmations of Jesus’ identity?
KCS
Generation Heroes 