Luke 19:28-40

Ministry in Jerusalem

What Sort of King? (1)

Jesus had proclaimed the Kingdom in Galilee. Then he and his disciples had made their way to Jerusalem. He had tried to make clear what awaited him there - but the disciples were not able to come to terms with his message. 

Luke followed closely Mark’s account of Jesus’ final days in Jerusalem, adapting his narrative to suit his own purposes.

Luke 19:28-40  -  Jesus Enters Jerusalem

28 After saying that, he led the way,
going up to Jerusalem. 

The description of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem is full of images and allusions drawn from Israel’s history and from the Hebrew Scriptures. It is impossible to work out how much of the drama was orchestrated by Jesus and how much was owed to later Christian reflection on the meaning of the event. It became, however, a piece of “street theatre”, through which Jesus expressed in symbolic action the meaning and purpose of his mission.

In some ways it was a defiant parody of power and violence. Somewhere around the same time, the Roman governor Pilate would have entered Jerusalem from his fortress stronghold down by the coast. His entry would have been a display of power and splendour, designed to reinforce the message that Rome was master: he had come to maintain law and order during the time of the festival with whatever use of violent force that was needed. He would have been mounted on a horse, and surrounded by Roman legionaries, arrogant, cruel and confident.

The Christian community for whom Luke wrote claimed Jesus, not Caesar, as Lord. Their answer to Roman military power and efficiency was love and non-violence. For the Christian reader today in a world facing terrorism and threats of war, to speak of love, openness to forgiveness and non-violence, requires a degree of audacity. Pilate’s (and Herod’s) later mockery of Jesus’ kind of kingship has re-echoed consistently across the centuries. Yet, as with Jesus, non-violent love need not take the form of compliant submission. Jesus’ response was still one of active resistance. 

29 As he drew near Bethphage and Bethany,
near the Mount of Olives, as it is called,
he sent off two disciples,
30 saying, “Go into the village facing us,
and as you enter it, you will find a colt tethered there
on which no person has yet sat.  
Untie it and bring it here.
31 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’
you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of it’.”
32 The ones he sent went off,
and found things as he had told them.
33 As they were untethering the colt,
its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?”
34 They said that the Lord needed it.

What significance did Luke attribute to Jesus’ foreknowledge of the location of the colt? Whatever the historical origin, Luke seems to have emphasised an almost scripted unfolding of events, a sense of inexorable and foreseen destiny. What was about to happen was not fortuitous. It was nothing less than the cosmic conflict between good and evil about to take place in the humble details of human history.

Unlike Mark, Luke did not mention that the colt was a donkey. By playing down that detail he chose not to highlight Mark’s further symbolism of the triumphant entry of a messianic king of peace into Jerusalem, as prophesied also by Zechariah.

Jesus entry from the Mount of Olives echoed lines from the prophet Zechariah referring to the definitive intervention of God in history:

On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives, 
which lies before Jerusalem on the east...
Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with him...
And the LORD will become king over all the earth... (14:4,5,9)

Many other elements in the narrative also carried references to kings, clearly making the point that Jesus’ entry was nothing less than his entering into his kingdom. 

The tied colt recalled the dying Jacob’s blessing on his son Judah:

The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until tribute comes to him;
and the obedience of the peoples is his.
Binding his foal to the vine
and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine,
he washes his garments in wine
and his robe in the blood of grapes... (Genesis 49:10-11)

Jacob saw Judah’s descendants wielding the scepter of kingship, established some centuries later with the monarchy of David, a descendant of the tribe of Judah. Jacob saw Judah’s kingship extending beyond Israel to include also the peoples. It would eventuate through much shedding of blood, presumably the blood of others. Into this vision Jacob had puzzlingly inserted his image of the foal/donkey’s colt, connecting it with the shedding of blood and of a vineyard. 

In reference to his own death, Jesus would soon tell (20:9-19) the parable of the vineyard tenants (the scribes and priests of Israel), who would kill the son of the owner (Jesus). By having Jesus enter the heartland of Israel (Jerusalem and its temple), God’s vineyard, mounted on a colt, Luke would clarify the meaning of Jesus’ kingship and the point of his death.

In his account of Mary’s annunciation, Luke had the angel Gabriel declare of her son, Jesus: the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. 

Jesus would inaugurate a kingdom

  • embracing the peoples
  • acquired through the shedding of his own blood.
35 They led the colt to Jesus,
threw their cloaks over it,
and helped Jesus to get on to it. 
36 As he went along,
they spread their cloaks underneath him on the road.

The people’s spreading their cloaks on the road recalled an event from Israel’s history when Elisha anointed Jehu as king over Israel:

‘Thus says the LORD, I anoint you king over Israel.’
Then hurriedly they all took their cloaks
and spread them for him on the bare steps;
and they blew the trumpet, and proclaimed, “Jehu is king.”
(2 Kings 9:12-13) 
 
37 As he drew nearer,
on the downward slope of the Mount of Olives,
the whole company of disciples began to rejoice
and to praise God with loud voices
for all the acts of power that they had seen.
38 They were saying,
“Blessed in the name of the Lord
is the one who is coming, the king... 

The opening words of the disciples’ acclamation of Jesus were taken from one of a group of psalms usually sung before and after the Passover meal (to celebrate which the pilgrims had come to Jerusalem). The actual wording of the psalm, however, did not mention explicitly the word king (Psalm 118:26).  Luke added the word himself. 

... Peace in heaven
and glory in the highest!”

The second part of the disciples’ acclamation took up elements of the acclamation of the choir of angels at the birth of Jesus, though this time Luke emphasised peace in heaven rather than the angelic chorus’s peace on earth.

39 And some of the Pharisees spoke to him in regard to the crowd,
“Teacher, restrain your disciples.” 
40 In reply he said to them,
“I tell you, if these keep silent, the stones will cry out.”

The image of stones shouting out was drawn from a prophecy of Habakkuk denouncing the enemies of Israel:

You have devised shame for your house
by cutting off many peoples;
you have forfeited your life.
The very stones will cry out from the wall,
and the plaster will respond from the woodwork. (2:10-11) 

This was the last time that Pharisees were to be mentioned in the Gospel. They had refused to open to the cosmic opportunity presented to them.

Jesus seemed content to accept the role of king. Yet the whole episode had something of the air of farce. Whatever about the scriptural precedents, Jesus did in fact enter simply on an insignificant colt, and his supporters were an unorganised group of non-descript pilgrims, little more than a rabble. If he was king, it was in a totally unconventional way that made mockery of political power.

Yet the event was significant enough to become basis for Jesus’ alleged crime before Pilate.

Next >> Luke 19:41-44