By Benjamin Stubblefield, Ph.D.
Visiting Assistant Professor of Christian Studies, University of Mobile
Worshipped
Luke 19:28–48
“No thanks,” was a common response to my grandmother’s offer of whatever “food” she’d just cooked in the kitchen. My grandmother would always reply: “You just don’t know what you’re missing.”
To this day, I still don’t know how she swallowed canned asparagus or cottage cheese and tomato sandwiches on white bread that was toasted to charcoal black. She ate it like she’d stumbled upon the secret to happiness. And I was glad too — glad she survived the meal.
While I know Luke doesn’t have in mind my grandmother’s overcooked toast, I do think he is aiming at the same principle in our passage.
What is to some worthy of celebration is to others worth revulsion. Jesus arrives in Jerusalem catalyzing His disciples to praise Him and His opponents to plot against Him. As He makes His way to Jerusalem, He makes imminent the great question of discipleship: “Who do you say that I am?”
Obey (28–34)
We don’t know if Jesus prearranged the pickup of the colt with the owners or if Jesus’ popularity was enough incentive for them to let Jesus borrow it. But what we do know is that Jesus knew where it was, that it was tied, that it had never been ridden and exactly how to procure it.
However Jesus came to have the donkey, what is obvious is that Jesus is in control of these moments with total authority.
And this is a lordship that those involved in these verses recognize. The disciples follow His instructions in detail. The owners let go of their animal without hesitation, for “the Lord has need of it.”
They are marvelous examples of Christian obedience, aren’t they? Similarly, Christ may have need of us to give whatever and go wherever. Will we, like these brethren, go and give the same?
Praise (35–38)
The scene unfolds, and Jesus begins His descent to Jerusalem. It is a fanfare event, as the “whole crowd” of His disciples, praising God loudly and joyfully, are laying down their coats like a red carpet.
Luke helps us recognize the gravity of this moment by framing it in the context of at least three OT connections. Consider that like King David in 2 Samuel 19, Jesus, Son of David, reenters Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives. Jesus, like David, also comes weeping, with one difference: David, remembering his sin, wept over his own ruin. Jesus comes weeping over ours.
Consider also the allusion to Zechariah 9:9, that God’s Messiah would come upon a colt to silence all that threatens His people. And consider that Psalm 118:26, quoted in verse 38, was written to occasion Israel’s anointed king leading pilgrims to the temple.
Jesus’ followers rightly understand this as enthronement — the anticipated moment when their Rabbi fulfills God’s promises. They are right, and so are we, to praise Him.
Worthy (39–40)
Stunningly, instead of praise, the Pharisees offer rebuke (see also v. 14). Jesus’ response — that the rocks will erupt in praise — is ironic. Darrell Bock, senior research professor of New Testament studies at Dallas Theological Seminary, writes, “That which is lifeless knows life when it sees it, even though that which is living does not.”
Creation can recognize Christ, even if His own people won’t.
This is a tragic indictment, and it should serve as a sobering warning to us: We can love all the things of religion but miss the God of it.
I really don’t think my grandmother’s choice in cuisine was good, no matter how much she liked it. But she believed it was and that I didn’t know what I was missing. Likewise, Luke’s Gospel here calls us to choose Christ, who is worthy, and to learn from the grave mistake of the Pharisees, who had yet to know what they were missing.
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