Lanse Evangelical Free Church
Palm Sunday :: March 29, 2026
Matthew 21:1-11 & Zechariah 9:9
King Jesus has a plan to go public in a big way.
For three years, Jesus has been in the public eye, but He has been somewhat secretive about His full royal identity.
He has taught up and down the Judean and Galilean hillsides, with unmatched authority. He has done many miracles which were sign-posts of His divinity. He has clashed with the Jewish religious authorities.
But He has also been, at times, somewhat “cagey” about Who He truly is. Not because He’s lying about Who He is, but because He wants people to figure it out for themselves, to not get or spread the wrong idea, and to wait for just the right moment to go public in the biggest way.
And that moment is right now.
Jesus has set His face like flint and led His disciples right up to Jerusalem as so many other Jews were gathering in that capitol city (often called “Zion” for the little mountain it’s seated on) for the coming feast of Passover–that yearly festival commemorating Israel’s rescue from Egypt. When God saved them from Pharaoh. Fifteen hundred years before, when the LORD killed all the firstborn of all their enemies but passed over all the firstborn of Israel whose doorways were marked by the blood of the lamb.
Jesus has a plan to go public this day in a big way.
This is clear by this little mission He sends these two disciples on. Look at verse 1.
“As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, ‘Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away’” (vv.1-3).
Interesting, huh?! I don’t know if this is His supernatural foreknowledge at work or if He has secretly prearranged this in a more natural way, but Jesus clearly has a plan that He is putting into action. These two guys are to go to the next village on their way up to Jerusalem, and there will be two donkeys. One will be female, a mother. And the other will be her male child, a colt.
Mark and Luke tell us that the younger donkey had never been sat upon. Good thing his momma’s with him to calm him down. We don’t need a bucking bronco donkey for this event!
But the Lord does “need” these two donkeys. He’s got to have them. He’s requisitioning them. He’s “the Lord,” and He needs them for what He is about to do.
The two disciples are to untie the two donkeys and bring them to Jesus because He’s going to ride them into town.
This is the big reveal! This is the moment when Jesus goes public in the biggest way. And He has carefully chosen His ride.
And it’s not a mighty warhorse.
And it’s not a chariot.
And it’s not a tank or fighter jet or an aircraft carrier.
It’s a little donkey.
Why?
Well, it’s important to understand that kings did ride donkeys. Donkeys can be regal. They can be royal.
Sometimes we get the idea that no king in his right mind would ever ride a donkey. But many kings did ride donkeys in those days, and there are several examples of donkey-riding kings in the Old Testament.
King David rode a mule (the offspring of a donkey), and he specifically put his son Solomon on his own mule to ride into town when Solomon assumed his position as the successor to the king (see 1 Kings 3:33, 38, 44).
But you did not ride a donkey into town if you were coming in war. You rode a donkey into town if you were coming in peace. You rode a donkey into town to mark–not your pretension and power and battle-readiness but–your gentleness and humility and peace.
And Jesus did it because He wanted to set off all of their alarm bells that He was the Messiah that they were waiting for. Jesus did this on purpose, and Matthew understood that. Matthew understood why Jesus was doing it this way. Look at verse 4.
“This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: ‘Say to the Daughter of Zion, 'See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.'”
There’s our sermon title for today, “Your King Comes to You.”
Jesus was clearly claiming to be their king.
And He arranged for this donkey ride to ring that prophetic bell.
“See Who I am? I’m the king that was predicted in Zechariah chapter 9!”
Now, Matthew doesn’t quote the whole verse. Mark and Luke don’t quote Zechariah at all. Matthew and John both point out the obvious connections with Zechariah chapter 9.
If you have your finger there, let’s turn back and look at it real quick. Zechariah 9:9.
You understand that the whole Bible is hypertexted, right? Your whole Bible is tied together in an intricate web of interconnections. We’ve seen that in the Book of Hebrews as the author has made so many of his points from the Old Testament.
Matthew, the gospel-writer, loves the word “fulfill.” It’s almost His favorite word (after “Jesus”) because he loves to show how Jesus fulfills the promises and predictions and patterns of the Old Testament.
Here, it’s the prophecy of Zechariah. I’ve never yet preached from Zechariah in three decades of preaching God’s Word. One of these days, we’ll study the whole thing together.
And when we do, hold onto your hats, it’s a wild ride! You thought Daniel was wild and crazy? So is Zechariah! It’s like the Book of Revelation for the Old Testament.
And it’s full of Jesus! Zechariah was written about 500 years after King David and 500 years before King Jesus. Also somewhere between the timing of Daniel and the timing of Esther that we studied last year.
I did a little dive into Zechariah this week, and it is wild. Interestingly, after the Psalms it’s probably the Old Testament book most referenced in the Passion Week narratives. Up there with Isaiah 53.
I won’t try to explain all of Zechariah, but there are many prophecies in Zechariah that had not yet come to pass. And one of them is this prophecy in chapter 9 to the people of Jerusalem that their king would come to them, and this king appears to be the Jewish Messiah. The king of all kings. The king who is going to solve everything and fix everything. The king whose rule will “extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth” (Zechariah 9:10).
Look at Zechariah 9:9.
“Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
For five hundred years, the Jewish people have read that prophecy and waited for its fulfillment. For five hundred years–years when the Jews were under the thumb of Persia and Greece and now Rome–they have read and re-read Zechariah and longed for it to come true.
And now Jesus is pulling this little stunt with the donkeys, and Matthew knows what is going down.
Now, notice that Matthew doesn’t quote the whole verse. If you toggle between the two passages, you’ll notice that Matthew leaves out some of the words from Zechariah 9:9.
That’s not because he doesn’t believe the whole thing. He just doesn’t think he needs to quote the whole thing to get across his point. Matthew is counting on his readers to “double-click” (so to speak) on his quotation and go back and study the whole thing in context.
“Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
One thing we immediately notice is the call to rejoice and shout. Matthew just includes that the Daughter of Zion should see her king coming. But the fuller passage in Zechariah says how Jerusalem should feel about it and react to it.
“Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem!”
Get loud!
Raise your voice!
Make some noise!
This is worth celebrating. Your king is here. Your king has come to you. That’s not something to yawn at. This is what you’ve been waiting for.
Was that part of the prophecy fulfilled on Palm Sunday?
Oh yes, it was. Turn back to Matthew 21. Look verse 6.
“The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the colt, placed their cloaks on them, and Jesus sat on them.
A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David!’ ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ‘Hosanna in the highest!’” (vv.6-9).
They got loud. They could see what was happening. As Jesus sat on that little donkey with the makeshift saddle of his disciples’ cloaks, the people pretty quickly figured out what was going on and they rolled out the red carpet. Actually the green carpet!
They put their cloaks down to symbolize their submission and their honor to the coming king and then cut palm branches (hence Palm Sunday) to spread them on the road as a natural royal green carpet.
It says “a very large crowd.” Can you guess how many people? Conservative estimates are that Jerusalem had about 70,000 people living in it at that time. But this is Passover. And you know what happens to State College on game day? You know how it balloons? Scholars estimate that Jerusalem would balloon to at least 250,000 people during Passover. We don’t know how many saw Jesus coming, but it wasn’t just little crowd. It was huge.
“Hey! Look that’s Jesus, and look what He’s riding. He’s riding a little donkey. And there’s it’s momma. Hey! You know what this means? That’s Zechariah 9:9 right there. You know Who He’s saying He is? He’s saying that He’s the rightful king. He’s Great David’s Greatest Son. And here He comes!"
And the crowd grows. It becomes a parade. Some ahead of him. Some behind him. Nobody worried about the Romans and what they think.
And everybody shouting!
“Hosanna!” That word literally means “Save!” or “Save us! or “He will save us!”
And it seems to have become a word that just is an exclamation of praise. Praise to the Son of David.
Praise “in the highest.” Meaning, the most praise? Or maybe, “Let the angels praise Him!”
“Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” That’s a quote from Psalm 118 which we double-clicked on a few years ago on another Palm Sunday.
Hosanna! Hosanna in the highest!
They shouted. They rejoiced.
And Jesus...took it.
One of the most amazing things about this, to me, is how Jesus doesn’t stop them. He doesn’t shut them down or try to re-direct them. He doesn’t point them to someone else. He just sits there on the little donkey, swaying back and forth, riding forth into Jerusalem while these people shout praises at Him!
Because He knows that they are right.
They are not over the top.
They are not inappropriate.
They are appropriate!
Jesus is the King!
And He’s okay with everyone knowing it.
This is King Jesus’ plan to go public in a big way!
And it shook the city. I don’t know how many people were there for the triumphal entry, but soon everybody heard what had happened. Look at verse 10.
“When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, ‘Who is this?’ The crowds answered, ‘This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee’” (vv.10-11).
“Who is this?” That’s the question! What do you think of their answer?
It’s not bad, but it’s not enough is it? Yes, Jesus is a prophet, but He is so much more. The crowds shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David” is much better. Because He wasn’t just a prophet. He was the coming king.
“See, your king comes to you.”
What kind of a king is He?
Jesus is obviously a different kind of king than we are used to, and He was a different kind of king than they were used, too.
Let’s turn back to Zechariah 9 to see what it says this king would be like.
I see three adjectives. Two of which Matthew skipped over when he copied verse 9 into his book.
The first one is:
#1. RIGHTEOUS.
“See, your king comes to you, righteous...”
What does that mean?
That means that He is right. “Righteous” means that this king does what is right and what is good. It means that he is just. He loves justice. He loves what is right. And He is characterized by this. He doesn’t just do the right thing sometimes, when it benefits Him. He does the right thing all the time and never anything but the right thing!
He never does the wrong thing. Can you imagine?
This is very different from the rulers that Israel had known. Even the greatest of them, kings like David and Solomon had massive failings in righteousness. They did not always do what is right. They did not always do what was good. They did not always do what was just.
And we see it today with those who rule over us. And in us when we have dominion over others. We fail to exercise righteousness.
But not this King! He is righteous.
King Solomon wrote a song about Him. Psalm 72. You might want to read it this afternoon.
I’m sure that on some level he wanted it to be true of himself, but he clearly failed to live up to it. Psalm 72 begins:
“Endow the king with your justice, O God, the royal son with your righteousness. He will judge your people in righteousness, your afflicted ones with justice. The mountains will bring prosperity to the people, the hills the fruit of righteousness. He will defend the afflicted among the people and save the children of the needy; he will crush the oppressor. He will endure as long as the sun, as long as the moon, through all generations. He will be like rain falling on a mown field, like showers watering the earth. In his days the righteous will flourish; prosperity will abound till the moon is no more. He will rule from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth” (Psalm 72:1-8).
Wow! And if you look down at verse 10, you’ll see some very similar words to describe the King Zechariah expects to come.
He is righteous!
And that gives us a model to follow. We should be righteous, too, and as far as it depends upon us to work towards righteousness in our society. Do the right thing!
But it also gives us hope because we will so often fail to do the right thing. But there is One who will not fail to be righteous. And He has come...and He is coming again.
Now, that He is righteous is very important for the next adjective.
#2. SAVING.
“See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation...”
That’s how the old NIV puts it. Along with the ESV and the KJV. The NASB say, “endowed with salvation.”
But some translations like the CSB and the updated NIV have “victorious.” “Your king comes to you, righteous and victorious...”
The idea is that this king has won a great battle to save His people. Or even perhaps has been saved in battle Himself. Perhaps the battle was not going His way, and then He won after all.
This might be one of the reasons why Matthew doesn’t include that line in his quotation because, on Palm Sunday, Jesus still had His greatest battle in front of Him. Not sure.
Either way, it’s true of Him. Jesus brings salvation! This king is a saving king. Saving His people from their greatest enemies.
Now, one of the reasons why the people got excited was because a bunch of them thought that the Messiah when He came was going to overthrow their Roman oppressors.
He was going to storm in and kick out Pontius Pilate and all of Caesar’s other cronies and send them packing back to Italy where they belonged. But that’s not the kind of king that came that day. He didn’t come in on a military mount. He came in on donkey.
But He still came to save. He came to save His people from their greatest enemies. From sin, and self, and Satan. And to do that, He had to be righteous, and He had to be this next word:
#3. HUMBLE.
The old NIV has “gentle.”
The new NIV has “lowly” like the old KJV.
The ESV and CSB have “humble.”
Your king comes to you...humble.
The Hebrew word in Zechariah is “ani” which can mean “poor” or even “afflicted.”
It’s not the kind of word you might expect to describe a king!
Especially a king whose coming is good news.
Who gets excited about their “poor king” coming?
“Oh, our poor king.”
“Oh, here comes our ‘afflicted’ king.”
“Here comes our lowly king.”
“Here comes our gentle king.”
Who gets excited about gentle kings?!
Christians, that’s who. Because we know that down is the way up in God’s world. We know that suffering is the path to glory. We know that the one who wants to be first must be last and take the place of servant. We know that gentleness is true strength. That’s why we get excited about a king riding a little donkey.
Zechariah says, “See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
He’s the long-expected king, but He’s probably not like the king you expect. (Even though you should.)
This king is humble.
Have you ever read the book Gentle and Lowly by Dane Ortlund? It came out about 6 years ago, and we gave a copy to everybody who was in the church at that time. I highly recommend it as a study of the heart of Jesus.
He that’s who said He is at heart. When He invited us to Himself, He said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matthew 11:28-29).
That’s the kind of king we really need.
And, praise God, that’s kind of king He really is.
So how do we apply this to our lives? Let me suggest three quick ways from these scriptures.
– RECEIVE YOUR KING!
Remember, the whole city was abuzz with the question, “Who is this?” And a bunch of them got it wrong. Some of them got partial credit with, “the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee” (Matthew 21:11). But a bunch of them decided, in the end, that Jesus wasn’t even worth listening to.
By the end of the week, the crowds weren’t shouting “Hosanna!” They were shouting “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” And they did.
This same week that they put down the branches, Jesus was betrayed, mocked, flogged, and crucified. They put a crown of thorns on His head and whipped Him red.
“Hail, King of the Jews!”
They didn’t receive their king. We must or else. Who do you think Jesus is? Is He righteous, and saving, and humble?
Is He your king? Do you act like it? Do you lay down the Green Carpet for Him and do what your king says? I’m amazed at how often I see people claim Jesus is their king but act the exact opposite of Him. And the exact opposite of how our king tells us how to live. And I’m ashamed of how often that has been true of me.
Is He your king or isn’t He? Make up your mind.
It says, “See, your king.” See Him! Recognize Him. Receive your king and rejoice that He has come.
– RAISE HIS PRAISE!
That’s the second application. The very thing that Zechariah told Jerusalem to do, we should, too.
Rejoice greatly! Shout!
What do you shout for? We shout all the time when we are happy about things. Go to a sporting event. And you’ll hear people shouting all the time. One of these softball girls hits a dinger. Haley W. hits a dinger over the fence, whoo! We shout for joy.
We need to do that about our king!
Let’s shout “Hosanna” together. We’ve sung it already. But we should shout it, too. Let’s do it this way. I want you to pick two numbers between 1 and 10. Okay? Like 2 and 7 and or 4 and 9. Can you do that? Got them? Now, I’m going to count to 11, and when I hit your numbers, I want you to shout “Hosanna!” which means, “He will save us!” “Praise the Savior!” And when we get to 11, we’re all going to show “Hosanna in the Highest!”
And I don’t want any mumbling, okay? You don’t have to shout as loud as you can, because we are inside. You don’t have to scream.
But this is our king. Righteous, saving, humble. Amen? Here we go:
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10! “Hosanna in the Highest!”
Raise His praise. And not just here on Sunday mornings in this room. Every single day be grateful this is your king. That He has come and is coming again.
“We will feast in the house of Zion.
We will sing with our hearts restored.
He has done great things, we will say together.
We will feast and weep no more.”
And last, but not least:
– REMEMBER HIS SACRIFICE.
Our righteous king brought us salvation by being humble.
That donkey ride was not just to get attention.
That donkey ride was not just ringing a bell of fulfillment.
That donkey ride was showing us how He was going to save His people.
He was going to be humble, gentle, lowly, poor, afflicted.
He was going to take the last place.
He was going to take the nails.
He was going to be pierced for our transgressions (see Isaiah 53:6).
He was going to be crushed for our iniquities.
He was going to take our punishment.
And die.
And we are called to remember that every single day.
And especially this week.
In Zechariah chapter 12, there is another prophecy that the Apostle John recognized as all about Jesus (see John 19:37 and Revelation 1:7).
Through the prophet, the LORD says, “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son” (Zechariah 12:10).
This same king who came so gently on Sunday, would be pierced for us on Friday.
Our righteous king brought us salvation by being humble.
Remember His sacrifice for you and me.
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Previous Messages on Palm Sunday
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