This post is written by Shaq Hardy as a companion for Unit 25, Session 1 of The Gospel Project for Adults, Volume 9: From Death to Resurrection (Fall 2023).
Matthew 21:1-11 is an important marker in the life of Jesus. In Matthew 21:1-11, what is known as the triumphal entry, Jesus was entering into the last few days of His life. The people recognized that all the signs pointed to Jesus being the fulfillment of all of the Old Testament prophecies about the coming Messiah. They saw Him heal and they heard Him teach with an authority they had never witnessed before. They were excited. Salvation was here and salvation was now. Only the people didn’t understand what exactly Jesus came to save them from. They believed that Jesus was going to save them from Rome, who had conquered so many of their homes. They thought that Jesus had come to reign and rule as their earthly king. They didn’t understand that Jesus had come to save them from a much greater enemy—an enemy that had placed a barrier between them and God. The enemy was sin and death.
Jesus went to Jerusalem humble and mounted on a donkey. He entered the city to the adoration and praise of His people as they threw their cloaks and palm branches on the ground shouting:
“Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
Jesus’s entrance into the city was an entrance fit for a king. The people didn’t fully understand why Jesus had come nor the salvation they were praising Him for, but the adoration that Jesus received as He entered the city was appropriate because of who He is and what He had come to do. Jesus didn’t come to reign as king, at least not yet. Jesus came to die to set the world free from the bondage of sin.
The picture of Jesus in this passage is but a shadow of what is to come when He returns to restore all things. But we don’t have to wait until Jesus returns to give Him the praise He is due for who He is and what He came to do. Our obedience to God opens opportunities for us to see Him for who He truly is and to give Him the worship that He is due.
In this passage, Jesus sent two of His disciples to go and find a donkey and her colt, untie them, and bring them to Him. The reason Jesus gave His disciples to give those watching the donkey as to why they were taking it was that “the Lord needs them.” The word “Lord” in verse 3 is the Greek word kyrios, which could also mean owner. In this passage, Jesus exercised His authority as Lord, or owner, over all things in His request for the donkey and her colt. There is no evidence that the disciples pushed back on Jesus’s request, but the passage, at minimum, shows that Jesus understood that there could be some pushback from those looking after the donkeys. The disciples went at once to retrieve the donkeys, they received very little pushback, and they brought the donkeys to Jesus.
The disciples may not have known everything that was going on, but their learned trust in Jesus allowed them to see a picture of the ultimate exaltation of Jesus as He made His way into Jerusalem for the Passover. The request was strange, but the disciples trusted Jesus’s command anyway. Their obedience at that moment was born out of a repeated trust in the commands of Jesus over the course of the three years that they were with Him. When we obey God and His Word, we show that we trust that He is who He says He is. Even if we don’t fully understand what God is doing at any given moment, we are still called to obey Him and His Word. Your obedience to God opens up opportunities for you to see God for who He truly is because it’s through your obedience to God that you learn that He is trustworthy.
Shaq Hardy is the president of the Orphan No More Foundation and has dedicated himself to working toward helping kids without families become orphans no more. Shaq has served as an itinerant preacher for the past ten years and served as a full-time student pastor for six years.
