Blessed is He Who Comes in the Name of the Lord

Matthew 20:29-21:11

Immanuel – 1/12/25

          Today we come to the end of a thematic section, as I have arranged them, in our sermon series. This is the last passage in a section I entitled, “A Face of Flint.”

You may recall that Matthew has not arranged his gospel in chronological order – like, the events recorded are in the same order that Jesus did them. Of course, there are times when things move chronologically. But for the most part, Matthew has arranged the book as a travel narrative, beginning with Jesus’ ministry in Galilee, His journey to Judea, and ending with the climactic events within Jerusalem.

Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem does not happen at some random point in the year. It coincides with Passover. Passover was one of the three annual festivals where God commanded all Jewish men to travel to Jerusalem. Of course, if these men were married, their families usually traveled with them. Of the three pilgrimage festivals (Booths, Pentecost, and Passover), Passover had become the bigger celebration. More Jews would make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem for Passover than for any other Jewish observance.

They would come from all over the Roman world. Historians estimate that Jerusalem’s population would swell by 500%, from 30,000 to 180,000.¹ The city would overwhelm its capacity. Its inns would be full. People would stay in surrounding towns (like Jesus does in Bethany). Some would camp in the city streets or outside of the city walls.

As I have said before, the road Jesus walks is absolutely teeming with Jewish pilgrims, making their way to Jerusalem. Though Jews would come from all over the Roman world for Passover, the majority of Jews on the road with Jesus would have also been coming from Galilee.

For three and a half years Jesus’ ministry has been in Galilee. Though He faced plenty of opposition, especially from the religious establishment, enormous Galilean crowds followed Him everywhere. Many of them thought Jesus might be the Messiah, though their conception of the Messiah was of a militaristic king who would overthrow Rome. So to avoid these dangerous misconceptions, Jesus repeatedly told people to be silent about Him and His miracles. But people couldn’t keep silent about Jesus of Nazareth, this potential Messiah.

So when Jesus was seen traveling to Jerusalem, the Galilean pilgrims swarmed Him. Chapter 19 begins with large crowds gathering to Jesus along the road, and He miraculously healed their sick. It appears that these crowds have continued following Him all the way to Jericho, likely growing as they went.

          Our passage today begins with Jesus and the disciples leaving Jericho.

Read 20:29-30

Jesus and the disciples have made their way to Jericho, on the western edge of the Jordan Valley. It’s a rigorous day’s walk from Jerusalem: about 15 miles and 3,400 feet of elevation gain.

They have just left Jericho, the crowds have already formed, and they barely make any progress before two blind men begin calling out for Jesus; and they are calling Him the Son of David.

Here is another case of Matthew’s double vision. Mark and Luke only talk about one blind man, Matthew has two. It was the same with the two demoniacs in chapter 8, or the two blind men in chapter 9. Mark and Luke have one, Matthew has two.

Like I said in past sermons, Mark and Luke give a more personal account of the healed. Mark even names one of the blind men in our passage: Bartimaeus. But Matthew glosses over the personhood of the healed to highlight the power and authority of Jesus. And indeed, restoring sight to two men is greater than healing one.

There is so much to see in what these blind men shout. Son of David is unequivocally a title for the Messiah. It’s highly likely that these two men have rarely traveled far from Jericho. Jesus is famous in Galilee. He’s more of a rumor in Judea.

How is it that these two blind men can see that Jesus is the Messiah when so many others have been blind to this truth? Their lack of sight has given them an advantage. They are listening. They have learned to live not by what they see.

Faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

                                                                   -Romans 10:17

The rumor of Jesus has made its way to Jericho. The swell of crowds following Jesus cannot help but speak of the man from Nazareth. The blind men hear of what Jesus has been doing, what He has been proclaiming, and they begin to see – to see that Jesus is truly the Son of David. They see that Jesus is the only one who can save them. “Lord,” they cry, have mercy on us, Son of David!”

Notice how they do not ask for healing. They ask for mercy. After a lifetime of streetside begging, do they feel too unworthy to ask for what they really want? They are confident that the Messiah is merciful, but would He really count them worthy of a miracle?

Jesus’ mercy exceeds that of human expectations. In His kingdom, the last shall be first. And this King has come not to be served, but to serve. Jesus calls the bling beggars to Himself.

Read 20:32-34

Jesus hears the cries of the blind men, sees their faith, and is willing to serve them in whatever capacity. He hears their request for their eyes to be opened; and then Matthew writes that Jesus has pity on them. Pity doesn’t really capture the Greek word being translated. The Greek word (spanchnizomai) indicates that Jesus was deeply moved by these men, He felt profound affection for them, and compassion swelled from His heart.

Perhaps Jesus was so touched that these two men saw with their hearts more clearly than most, and yet they lived in darkness. It would have been a joy for Jesus to give an outward reflection of an inward reality: He gave them eyes that could see as well as their hearts.

These two men became committed followers of Jesus. Evidently, one of them became well known in the early church, for Mark names him: Bartimaeus…son of Timaeus (Mark 10:46).

Notice something peculiar about this miracle – a change. There is no attempt at concealment. It evidently happens for everyone in the crowd to see. Jesus tells no one to be silent. This is a conspicuous and very public miracle. And remember from sermons past, giving sight to the blind was something the Old Testament attributed to a future time when God would visit His people. Also, apart from the resurrection, this is the last recorded miraculous healing in the Gospel of Matthew.

God has come to Israel, the Messiah, the man from Nazareth. Who will have the eyes to see it?

Read 21:1-3

Since Matthew arranges his gospel as a travel narrative, it sounds like the Triumphal Entry happens on the same day that Jesus leaves Jericho. But that isn’t exactly true. According to the Gospel of John, it appears that Jesus goes straight to Bethany to raise Lazarus from the dead. A crowd, perhaps the one that accompanied Him from Jericho, saw Jesus raise Lazarus. With so many witnesses, word rapidly spread that Jesus had raised Lazarus. Threatened, the religious leaders began to plot to kill Jesus. Knowing this, Jesus withdrew from the area for a number of days.

All those Galilean Jews who had followed Jesus, and everyone who had heard about Lazarus, they all began wondering where Jesus was. John writes,

They were looking for Jesus and saying to one another as they stood in the temple, “What do you think? That He will not come to the feast at all?” Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where [Jesus] was, he should let them know, so that they might arrest Him.                                -John 11:56-57

Jerusalem, overflowing with people, is absolutely buzzing about Jesus.

Six days before the feast of Passover, Jesus and the disciples return to Bethany and eat dinner with Lazarus, Mary, and Martha. It is impossible to imagine that they were able to remain concealed. People certainly heard. Like always with Jesus, crowds formed outside of Lazarus’ house, waiting for Jesus to emerge. The next day, as Jesus prepared to make the two-mile walk into Jerusalem, everything indicates that a sizable crowd was already waiting for Him.

Though it is historically unclear where Bethphage was, it was somewhere between Bethany and Jerusalem, perhaps like this map shows. Jesus stops in Bethphage, just before the crest of the Mount of Olives, and sends two disciples ahead to get two donkeys. This is an unbroken colt and its mother. Jesus would ride the colt, and the mother’s presence would help keep the colt calm in the midst of everything about to happen.

You couldn’t just walk into a village and take two donkeys. That would be stealing. So Jesus gives the disciples something like a password, “The Lord needs them.” In this particular sense, Jesus is effectively saying, “God needs them.” Was Jesus calling Himself God, or was He indicating that the donkeys fit into the plans of His Father? Either way, God needed the donkeys.

See in this that Jesus perfectly understood the unfolding events. He was in complete control, even orchestrating them. Jesus knew what He was doing, He knew what it meant for Jerusalem, He knew what it meant for His sufferings, and He knew that all of this was in fulfillment of prophecy.

Read vs 4-5

This quotation is a blend of Isaiah 62:11 and Zechariah 9:9, though it is mostly from Zechariah. The most important thing to understand is that Zechariah prophesied Israel’s king would come in humility, in meekness. The young donkey was a symbol of that humility, rather than a large white horse or a golden chariot – the usual transport for regal, victorious kings.

In every way, riding a colt subverted the militaristic expectations of the Jews. Jesus was not riding a war horse. This was not a battle chariot. The donkey was humble. Jesus was not coming to Jerusalem to ignite war against Rome. He was coming in peace. The king Zechariah prophesied about was coming to bring an end to war.

This is the very next verse of that prophecy:

“I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and He shall speak peace to the nations; His rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.”      -Zechariah 9:10

The Prince of Peace was coming to Jerusalem, and His reign would not advance through threat. Jesus is not militaristic. He is not looking to become a war hero. Back in Matthew 11, we saw Jesus expose His inner heart, and the attributes He is driven by.

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” 

-Matthew 11:28-30

Jesus is gentle and lowly of heart. His kingdom expands by invitation. It is received rather than coerced, with welcome rather than with war. And without forceful domination, Jesus’ reign of peace will extend to the ends of the earth. Are we not examples, on the other side of the earth!? Are we not called to extend His invitation of peace?

That young donkey symbolized so much. There is even more.

Read vs 6-8

Just as Jesus had directed the disciples, so it happened. A point of clarity: In verse 7 when it says that Jesus “sat on them,” it does not mean that He sat on both donkeys simultaneously. It means He sat on the cloaks the disciples placed on the colt’s back.

Verse 8 informs us that the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, even cutting palm branches and laying them before Jesus and the donkey. Let’s pause here for a moment, there is much to see. For some reason I am unaware of, the ESV translation is missing a key word in verse 8. Listen to the first part of verse 8 in the King James Version.

And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way.

Matthew often talks about crowds in the plural, or the large size of a crowd, but this is the only time Matthew uses another word to speak of the crowds: pleistos. It means most, at the very most. Matthew is saying that this crowd is unparalleled in its enormity, larger than anything seen before. Matthew could be speaking hyperbolically, but considering there were more than 10,000 present in Galilee when Jesus fed the multitude with loaves and fish, it is possible that there are many more than 10,000 Jews welcoming Jerusalem’s King.

There were crowds waiting for Jesus when He set out from Bethany, but not this large. Where did they come from? Remember again how Jerusalem was abuzz with news of Jesus. Multitudes saw Him give sight to the blind men in Jericho. All of Jerusalem had heard about Lazarus. Everyone wanted to see Him.

While Jesus waited for the donkey in Bethphage, what do you think the people were doing? Spreading the news, telling everyone that Jesus was just about to enter Jerusalem, and the temple, coming from the Mount of Olives. Thousands would have streamed out of the city to watch.

Sure, the rumor of Jesus was very great. But there was something else happening that would have overwhelmed every hopeful Jew with prophetic excitement. Yes, there is meaning behind the cloaks and the branches, but there was something even more powerful Jesus intentionally imaged.

Before the sermon series on Matthew, I did a sermon series on the life of King David. In 2 Samuel 15 and 16, David’s own son, Absalom, launched a coup against the king. As Absalom approached Jerusalem with superior force, David fled the city. He escaped through the temple by way of the Eastern Gate, over the Mount of Olives. In a great mournful procession, he left weeping. At the top of the Mount of Olives he was given donkeys to ride away. That day David abandoned Jerusalem in disgrace.

Though things later turned around for David, Zechariah’s prophesy, the very one quoted from in Matthew 21, imagines the Messiah retracing David’s forlorn route, retracing and recreating, turning mourning into rejoicing. In Jesus’ day, the allusions were unmistakable. Jews poured from of the Eastern Gate, ecstatic to behold the prophetic events unfolding before their very eyes.

Fully aware, in total command, Jesus rode that humble donkey to image these things. The time of secrets was over, all concealment cast aside. Just as the two blind men have been given sight, Jesus is giving Jerusalem sight beyond their seeing. The shame of David was being undone! The messianic Son of David had come! After centuries of waiting, the King had returned to Jerusalem, making all things new!

Read vs 9

          Crowds go before Jesus; likely they have come out from Jerusalem. Crowds go behind Jesus; likely they followed Him from Bethany. Crowds line the road; they have come from everywhere. As Matthew records, with one thundering voice, they rejoice with words from the Great Hallel, the greatest Psalm of praise, Psalm 118.

          Save us, we pray, O Lord! O Lord, we pray, give us success! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We bless you from the house of the Lord.

                                                                             -Psalm 118:25-26

          The Hebrew word for “Save us, we pray,” transliterated into Greek, and then English, is Hosanna. In worshipful ecstasy they cry, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”

          The crowds were unequivocally pronouncing Jesus as the Messiah. They pronounced Jesus as the Blessed, who comes in the name of the Lord, who sets forward the divine purpose. And the line between their worship of God and their praise to the Messiah was getting blurry – appropriate for what later understandings of Jesus would bring, but very problematic for the ruling religious establishment, and even more problematic for their Roman overlords.

          Read vs 10-11

          Matthew tells us that the whole city is stirred up. Stirred comes from a Greek work that more literally means shaken. It’s a word commonly used to describe earthquakes. This scene, this Triumphal Entry, is like an earthquake that has just hit Jerusalem.

          Countless thousands believe the Messiah has come. Some even believe Jesus is the Son of God. The religious leaders know of Jesus, and they want Him dead. For them His very presence is a threat, unraveling everything they stand for, dismantling all they have built. For the Romans, someone claiming to be king, able to muster gigantic crowds, is as troublesome as it gets.

          The earth shifts beneath Jerusalem. There isn’t a single soul in the city that would not have heard about these events. If 10,000, or even 20,000, have come out to welcome their King, there are still well over 100,000 that remain in the city, so many of them have come from distant places. As verse 11 says, they want to know who in the world is this donkey riding, messianic candidate.

          It appears that the Galilean contingent of Jews is more than happy to answer: “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.” This response seems to be dripping in pride, pride for the hometown hero. Though Nazareth is a bit of a backwater, the Galilean Jews are happy to claim Him as their own.

          They call Jesus the prophet from Nazareth, but they have not welcomed Him as a mere prophet. That triumphal entry was so much more. It thus becomes clear that they are calling Jesus “The Prophet”: The Prophet God spoke of though Moses:

“I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. And whoever will not listen to my words that He shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.”                                                                  -Deuteronomy 18:18-19

          They were right, Jesus was The Prophet with the words of God in His mouth. Indeed, He is living Word, who in the beginning was with God and was God, and through Him were all things were made, and in Him is the light of men, and that light has shone in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome Him (John 1:1-5).

          Finally, after 20 chapters in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus had come to Jerusalem. He entered the city in peaceful triumph. Just as the blind men were given sight, Jesus gave sight to the crowds of Jews. They saw Him for who He was, though they were short-sighted. Even if Jesus aggressively wrapped Himself in images of humility and peace, the people couldn’t shake their desire for a messianic warlord, come to overthrow Rome. Even those closest to Jesus didn’t understand.

          His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about Him and had been done to Him.                                                                                    -John 12:16

          But we are on the other side of the cross, the empty tomb and ascension. In all of this there is a single, monumental application for our day. Who do we say Jesus is? A healer? A good teacher? A great man? Israel’s Messiah? The Son of God? You King and your Savior?

          As A.W. Tozer writes, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” Modifying this, but with the same forceful power, I say, “What comes into our minds when we think about Jesus of Nazareth is the single most important thing about us.”

          Who is He? And not, who is He just to you? No! Who is Jesus to all of us, to our world, to all of history? Who is this Jesus of Nazareth?

          If He is more than a man, more than a prophet, more than an earthly king, then how should you – O man – respond? What is required of your life? As the crowds eagerly spread news of the Messiah throughout Jerusalem, what are you to do with the news of Jesus? He has come, humble and mounted on a donkey, and His rule shall be to the ends of the earth!

          In Luke we read that Pharisees, too, came out to see the spectacle of Jesus. They fumed and told Jesus to rebuke the frenzied crowd. Jesus responded with, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” (Luke 19:40).

          Brothers and sisters, if Jesus is your King, do not heed the voice of the Pharisees! Do not stay silent! Do not give your job to the stones! Like the blind men, like the multitudes, proclaim that the King of Kings has come, Jesus of Nazareth, gentle and lowly.

          Spread praise of Him throughout the Mohawk Valley, throughout New York State, to the end of the earth.

          Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who has come in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest!

          Our silence is our shame.

¹France, R.T. (2007). The Gospel of Matthew. Pg 771. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.