Sunday Dive

Episode 026: The King Comes to Jerusalem (Mass Readings for Apr. 5, 2020)

Episode Summary

Jesus rides triumphantly into Jerusalem in our Gospel account today. What is the significance of this grand display? Combing the Old Testament for mentions of donkeys, palm branches, and cloaks spread on the road we find that Jesus’ actions would have conjured an image of battle, royalty, and the glorious return of the Son of David to the throne. As spiritual bystanders we have to ask ourselves, are we among the welcoming crowd or the skeptics of Judea?

Episode Notes

Bibliography/Resources

• The  Gospel of Matthew (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture)
• Verbum Bible Software - www.verbum.com

References

• 1 Kings 1:32-40 - Solomon rides triumphantly into Jerusalem after his royal anointing
• Zechariah 14: 3-4, 9 - "Then the LORD will go forth and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle. On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives which lies before Jerusalem on the east. [...] And the LORD will become king over all the earth; on that day the LORD will be one and his name one."
• 2 Samuel 15: 30 - "David went up the ascent of the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went, barefoot and with his head covered; and all the people who were with him covered their heads, and they went up, weeping as they went."
• 2 Samuel 16:1 - "When David had passed a little beyond the summit, Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth met him, with a couple of asses saddled"
• Zechariah 9:9 - "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on an ass, on a colt the foal of an ass."
• Genesis 49:10 - "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. Binding his foal to the vine and his ass’s colt to the choice vine."
• Mark 11:2 - "'Go into the village opposite you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat; untie it and bring it.'"
• 2 Kings 9:13 - "Then in haste every man of them took his garment, and put it under him on the bare steps, and they blew the trumpet, and proclaimed, 'Jehu is king.'"
• Psalm 118:27 - "Bind the festal procession with branches"
• 1 Maccabees 13:51 - "On the twenty-third day of the second month, in the one hundred and seventy-first year, the Jews entered it [the city] with praise and palm branches"
• 2 Maccabees 10:7 - "Bearing ivy-wreathed wands and beautiful branches and also fronds of palm, they offered hymns of thanksgiving to him who had given success to the purifying of his own holy place."