When they drew near Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find an ass tethered, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them here to me. 3 And if anyone should say anything to you, reply, ‘The master has need of them.’ Then he will send them at once.” 4 This happened so that what had been spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled: 5 “Say to daughter Zion, ‘Behold, your king comes to you, meek and riding on an ass, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’” 6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had ordered them. 7 They brought the ass and the colt and laid their cloaks over them, and he sat upon them. 8 The very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and strewed them on the road. 9 The crowds preceding him and those following kept crying out and saying: “Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; hosanna in the highest.” 10 And when he entered Jerusalem the whole city was shaken and asked, “Who is this?” 11 And the crowds replied, “This is Jesus the prophet, from Nazareth in Galilee.”
Bethpage was on the outskirts of Jerusalem, about a Sabbath day’s journey from the city (Acts 1:12). Jerusalem was the capital of Judea and the religious center for the Jews because the Temple was there. The Mount of Olives was to the East of the city and about 2,500 feet high. The village where Jesus sent the disciples to get an ass and a colt was probably Bethany where Jesus was anointed by Mary, Lazarus’ sister (Jn. 12:1-12). Matthew stresses Jesus’ foreknowledge and lordship (v. 3). Matthew combines quotes from Isaiah (Is. 62:11) and Zechariah. He ignores the Hebrew parallelism in the quote from Zechariah which offers two descriptions of the one animal; “Behold: your king is coming to you, a just savior is he, Humble, and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey (Zech. 9:9).” It would be difficult for Jesus to sit on two animals at the same time (v. 7).
Jesus had recently raised Lazarus from the dead (Jn. 11:1-44) and many in the crowd that witnessed the miracle expected him to go to Jerusalem for the Passover. When he arrived riding on the donkey, they spread cloaks and branches of trees on the ground. That was a gesture of welcome, honor, and reverence usually shown to rulers and kings in the ancient world (2 Kgs. 9:13). “Hosanna to the Son of David (v. 9)” is a shout of joy similar to shouting ‘glory to God on high’. “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,” was originally a welcome to pilgrims coming to the Passover feast and is from the Psalms (Ps. 118:26). The city of Jerusalem was in turmoil and visitors who knew nothing about Jesus wondered who the acclaimed Messiah was.
Collect Prayer for Palm Sunday
Almighty
ever-living God, who as an example of humility for the human race to follow
caused our Savior to take flesh and submit to the Cross, graciously grant that
we may heed his lesson of patient suffering and so merit a share in his
Resurrection. This we pray through the
same Christ our Lord. Amen!
Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River, NJ, United States, Prentice Hall, 1990.
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