It’s Holy Week. I’m not one who typically rushes to celebrate the traditional Christian holidays, like Easter. Don’t get me wrong, I love to remember and celebrate what God accomplished through his Son, Jesus. His death and resurrection is something I remember daily and it means more to me than life itself because this event HAS GIVEN ME LIFE. Yet, when Easter comes, it serves only as a reminder of an event I’ve already been holding dear all year long.
During this Holy Week, I’m reading through Matthew in my daily quiet times and I come to the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, the beginning of the week when Jesus was crucified. My reading just lined up this way without any planning on my part – pretty cool. Here, Matthew describes the instruction of Jesus to get a donkey and her colt. Jesus would then ride into the city on the colt, which was done to fulfill what Zechariah prophesied (as quoted by Matthew):
Tell the daughter of Zion,
‘Behold, your King is coming to you,
Lowly, and sitting on a donkey,
A colt, the foal of a donkey.’
Matthew 21:5
I turned to Zechariah to read for myself what the original text had to say. Although similar to Matthew’s quote of it, it’s worth pulling out the richness of the original prophesy and a few specific details.
“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
I noticed three things we are instructed to do in reflection of this event that ushered in the very first Holy Week:
The first is to REJOICE (and rejoice greatly at that!). What glorious and purposeful instruction. Jesus is about to die. It will cause mourning and sorrow in the hearts of those who know He is the Messiah. But it will turn into the single most important moment in all of history because His death will result in LIFE when He rises from the dead, conquering death, sin and giving life to all who believe. This is “mourning turned to joy” at it’s best!
The second instruction is to SHOUT; Hosanna! “He is just and having salvation.” Go ahead, shout in your rejoicing! This truth has the power to change a heart, a life, and the world. If you’re not shouting, perhaps you’re not truly rejoicing in how marvelous Jesus’ death and resurrection really is. Perhaps you haven’t made it as personal as He longs for it to be to you. Making it personal simply comes by faith and salvation.
The third is the most wonderful of all, to me. BEHOLD, YOUR KING is coming to you…
When I consider what it is to BEHOLD the King Jesus, the lowly, the servant, the Word become flesh, MY KING, the Lamb, the sinless Son of God who died upon a wooden, Roman cross to take away my sin, to give me a right relationship with God, I’m moved deeply. I’m changed. To behold Him is to see Him, to look upon Him and to take notice. This is my very reason to rejoice and to shout when I behold the King who came and is coming again. Hosanna!!
