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Day 236

Luke 19 : 28-49 "THE JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM"

Day 236 – Luke 19

Text: Luke 19 : 28-49

THE JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM

Jesus had already spoken to His Disciples about His suffering and death at Jerusalem. The earliest intimation of His suffering in Jerusalem was at the time when He was transfigured in the presence of His three closest Disciples.

“And behold, two men talked with Him,
who were Moses and Elijah,
who appeared in glory and spoke
of His decease which He was about to accomplish
at Jerusalem.”
Luke 9:30,31

Jesus knew only too well what lay ahead of Him. He taught His Disciples to steel themselves to accept suffering as a part of their faith and life. Inasmuch as He taught them about suffering, He spoke of His own suffering at Jerusalem.

“The Son of Man must suffer many things,
and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes,
and be killed, and be raised the third day.”
Luke 9:22

Despite His deep knowledge of the intense suffering that He would have to endure, we also read that

“He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem…”
Luke 9:51

Jesus was now near Jerusalem. He was at a little town called Bethphage, which in turn was quite near Bethany. He had passed through Jericho and was going to begin the ascent to Jerusalem.

At the thought of His entering Jerusalem, the Disciples had been quite excited. Would the Kingdom of God now appear? Jesus had to teach His Disciples that they should not be focusing on such thoughts. The Kingdom will appear in due time. Their concern should be on how they must make sure that they remain faithful and fruitful while they tarried for the appearance of the Kingdom of God. The appearance of the Kingdom of God was yet future!

Jesus walked on ahead as He left His Disciples to ponder the latest lesson He had taught them. Hopefully, His words would sink deep into their hearts.

FULFILLING YET ANOTHER PROPHECY

Jesus knew that soon He would suffer and be killed by His enemies. They had rejected His teaching. They had rejected Him as their Messiah.

How should He enter Jerusalem in the light of all that He knew would happen to Him? The path that Jesus chose was already prophesied in Scripture. He would choose the way the Scriptures had described.

He would enter Jerusalem as Zechariah the prophet had prophesied. Perhaps some would remember this ancient prophecy and believe that Jesus was the Messiah. But if no one believed Him, He would still fulfil what was written in the Scriptures concerning Him.

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your King is coming to you;
He is just and having salvation.
Lowly and riding on a donkey,
A colt, the foal of a donkey.”
Zechariah 9:9

There were many prophecies concerning the Messiah. If the multitudes and the Pharisees, Scribes and Chief Priests had bothered at all, they could have ascertained for themselves, from the Scriptures, the identity of Jesus. This was just one more prophecy that Jesus fulfilled.

Zechariah preached a heart-warming message to Israel concerning their Messiah. Zechariah was careful to balance his words carefully, so that on the one hand there is the Kingship of the Messiah, on the other hand, there was the spiritual aspect where He offered salvation.

1. He was going to come as their King.

2. The character of the King was that He was “just”.

3. He would also be humble or “lowly”.

4. He could be recognized by the fact that He proclaimed salvation (“The Kingdom of God”)

5. The final defining mark would be that He would ride into Jerusalem on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

CAREFUL PREPARATION ALL THE WAY

Two Disciples were dispatched to make preparation for Jesus to enter in Jerusalem. They were to go to a village, and there they would find that preparation had already been made. Obviously, this was made by prior arrangement, for Jesus to borrow a colt, the foal of a donkey, for the purpose of riding upon it into Jerusalem. This was special, for Jesus would normally walk from one place to another. At times, He would travel by boat. But this journey into Jerusalem was going to be quite different. Jesus was actually going to ride into Jerusalem!

We do not know who the owners were or to what extent they understood the significance of Jesus riding into Jerusalem to fulfil the prophecy of Zechariah. However, we do know that they released the donkey-colt to the Disciples of Jesus without any fuss (Luke 19:32-34). How wonderful it was to be able to do something for Jesus. If the Master needed a colt, or anything else, He could have it. Do we have this same spirit?