My Messianic King and My Sovereign Lord

Read: Luke 19:28-40

Record: Jesus has just finished teaching the Parable of the Ten Minas and is on his way to Jerusalem. Before he gets there, he stops at Bethpage and Bethany at Mount Olivet.

Jesus sends two disciples to the village ahead of them to find and untie an unused colt. If anyone asks them about it, they are to respond, “The Lord has need of it.” (v. 31) Exactly this happens as the disciples get the colt. They throw their cloaks both on the colt and on the road. Jesus is then set on the colt and they make their way down the Mount.

The multitude of disciples rejoice and praise God. They say, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” (v. 38)

This, once again, bothers the Pharisees but Jesus responds to their attempted rebuke by saying, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” (v. 40)

Reflect: I am intrigued by a couple of things in this passage:

• The Old Testament imagery presented and
• Jesus’ command of the situation and sovereign knowledge evidenced in this scene.

These are the main Old Testament references:

Numbers 19:2… “This is the statute of the law that the Lord has commanded: Tell the people of Israel to bring you a red heifer without defect, in which there is no blemish, and on which a yoke has never come.

Zechariah 9:9… Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Psalm 118:26… Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We bless you from the house of the Lord.

I love what Luke is setting up here. What is begged of in the Old Testament is presented here in the New. Zechariah wants to know who the coming king is? Luke’s answer is Jesus.

Yet Luke is merely offering his readers what he witnessed. More than Luke presenting Jesus as King, Jesus is claiming his rightful throne as King. He is the one who is in control of the situation. He knows exactly how all the details will play out because He has ordained every single one of them. When Jesus preps the disciples about the colt, He tells them exactly what they need to know, because He knows exactly what will happen. Luke rightly presents Jesus as the Messianic King, as well as the Sovereign King.

Respond: Ever since I was introduced to the Three Offices of Christ, I’ve marveled all the more at scripture. This is one of those passages that highlights Christ’s three-office work, specifically the office of King. The Old Testament calls for a king, a messianic king, to ride into Jerusalem in praise and glory. Jesus does exactly this and while the multitude may not have fully understood the nature of his kingship, Jesus fully knows what type of king he will be. He will be the King of God’s heavenly kingdom and not a mere political king coming to restore the nation of Israel. He is the humble king who like his colt is perfect and undefiled. He will usher in a perfect, spiritual reign, which (at this point) only he fully understands.

He is also the Sovereign Lord who knows his journey to Jerusalem means a death of substitutionary atonement. Soon he will be publicly portrayed as the King of the Jews in mocking fashion. But there is no better king to whom I want to pledge allegiance. My prayer is that the kingship of Christ would be evident in my life and that I would willingly submit to his sovereign reign. It’s a battle of wills: His will or mine. It must be His.

Christ is the blessed One who comes in the name of the Lord. He has fully merited this honor because of what He has done. He has also merited this blessing because of who He is. If I bear Christ’s name by virtue of my union to Him, I pray that my life would honor His royal name.