Archived Daily Manna | Rejoice Fellowship | A mission to release people to rejoice in the world.

Message: Chapter 21 marks a clear division in Matthew. If we divide Matthew into five sections, this is the opening of Section Four, “The Death of the King.” he setting is Jerusalem at Passover. We could compare it to the Vatican at Easter, or Times Square on New Year’s Eve. It was the most important feast day in the Jewish year. Jewish men who lived within 15 miles of Jerusalem were required to attend at the site of the Temple, and every pious Jew in the world wanted to attend. (Acts 2:7-11 details 15 nations or regions from which Jews had come to Jerusalem for Pentecost, a less important feast.) To get an idea of the crowd, a Roman governor a few years later counted 250,000 lambs sold. By regulation, a sacrificed lamb was supposed to be shared by at least ten men, the basic unit of worship in Judaism. (A synagogue, for example, might only be built in a town where there were ten Jewish men of age — a rule still in effect today.) So there were by this calculation 2.5 million men — not counting women and children, who often came — crowded into and around a city of perhaps 30,000 to 125,000 inhabitants. I doubt many people believe that there were 2.5 million men in Jerusalem for Passover in the Herodian era. The governor might have over counted lambs, and people may have bought lambs for less than ten men or for purposes other than Passover sacrifice. But putting aside the difficulties of counting people 2,000 years ago, Jerusalem and the surrounding lands were undoubtedly packed to the gills. This explains the crowd Jesus will encounter entering the city from a minor side road. The countryside was littered with campers. Bethphage must have been a tiny village, for its location is lost to time. (It has been recreated, and a church built, where people believe it stood, but at the time it could not have been much.) Bethany was about a mile from the wall of Jerusalem, so Bethphage is assumed to be about halfway down the road. But this is not even the main road, the Jericho Highway, but a secondary road running over the Mount of Olives. Matthew's account naturally emphasizes the events as fulfillment of Hebrew prophecy, and he has a good one, for Zechariah 9:9 predicts that the Messiah will come riding the colt of a donkey. This is undoubtedly a prophecy of Christ, for Zechariah 9:10 continues, And the bow of war will be cut off. And He will speak peace to the nations; And His dominion will be from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth. Technical Note: Differences among the Gospels on the animal(s) Jesus rode This note is not really about the meaning of the Scripture. Skip it unless you are just interested in more technical details about the Gospels and how they are translated. John 12:14-15 says Jesus rode a “young donkey”; Mark 11:7 and Luke 19:35 say a “colt”. Matthew appears to speak of both a colt and a donkey, that is, two animals, but this is likely a bit of confusion in the translation. The Greeks used the word “and” copiously; its function is often different from its use in English. Also, as we have seen in the Psalms, it is common in Hebrew to say one thing twice in two different ways, and that is certainly how we should read the prophecy from Zechariah. Some Greek manuscripts use plural endings and others, singular endings, to apply to the beast(s). And as to translation, although our English reads, “Untie them and bring them to me,” the word “them” is supplied by the translator; the Greek says only, “Untie and bring to me.” So, even if there are two animals, it seems likely to me that the donkey has a colt and Christ is saying “bring it (the colt)” to me; and this is bolstered, not contradicted, by the other Gospels. Mark and Luke do not say anything about the colt being a donkey colt, but the detail would not have had the meaning for their intended audiences that it had to Matthew’s. Mark’s gospel was primarily intended to prove the resurrection and divinity of Jesus to the Gentiles of Rome, and Luke intended a more thorough general account of Christ’s life for the evangelism of Greek Gentiles. Matthew, however, intends to demonstrate to Jewish audiences that Jesus was the Messiah of the Hebrew prophets. So he includes the prophecy of Zechariah, and thus (like John) includes the detail of “a donkey” to show that Zechariah’s prophecy was fulfilled by Christ.