The Anti-Triumphal Entry

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.
I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the war-horses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth.

Zechariah 9:9-10

When Jesus entered Jerusalem on the eve of Passover, he rode into the City of David on the back of a small, borrowed donkey. The irony was that the Passover feast celebrated the deliverance of God's people from bondage. The people were looking for a new King to come and throw out the Romans and re-establish Israel as a world power. While the Romans watched, the people picked up palm branches (the sign of resistance to Imperial power) and welcomed their "king". Kings do not ride donkeys. They ride mighty war horses surrounded by an entourage of soldiers. It would be like Barack Obama riding a unicycle down Pennsylvania avenue on inauguration day. Jesus made a spectacle of power. His kingdom is not based on the trappings of political or military power. In fact, he told his disciples in Luke 22:24-27:

"The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors. But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves. You are those who have stood by me in my trials. And I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. "

The prophet Zechariah foretold hundreds of years ago what would happen when the Messiah arrived. Jesus fulfilled this Messianic prophecy. And, yet to this day, the world looks to the trappings of authority and power to "lead" us to a better life. In the kingdom of God, we find authority is turned on its head. If one wants to be really great in the kingdom, you become a servant to all. This tension between "how do we live in the world" and not be "in it" is the walk of the Christian life.