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SearchA Son of Peace
A warrior king always entered a city riding upon a horse; a king on a mission of peace and
friendship always entered riding upon an ass. Jesus would not enter Jerusalem as a man on
horseback, but he was willing to enter peacefully and with good will as the Son of Man on a
donkey.
Jesus had long tried by direct teaching to impress upon his apostles and his disciples that his
kingdom was not of this world, that it was a purely spiritual matter; but he had not succeeded in
this effort. Now, what he had failed to do by plain and personal teaching, he would attempt to
accomplish by a symbolic appeal.
By this time several hundred pilgrims had gathered around Jesus and his apostles. Since
midforenoon the visitors passing by on their way to the Passover had tarried. Meanwhile, David
Zebedee and some of his former messenger associates took it upon themselves to hasten on down
to Jerusalem, where they effectively spread the report among the throngs of visiting pilgrims
about the temple that Jesus of Nazareth was making a triumphal entry into the city. Accordingly,
several thousand of these visitors flocked forth to greet this much-talked-of prophet and wonderworker, whom some believed to be the Messiah. This multitude, coming out from Jerusalem, met
Jesus and the crowd going into the city just after they had passed over the brow of Olivet and had
begun the descent into the city.
As the procession started out from Bethany, there was great enthusiasm among the festive crowd
of disciples, believers, and visiting pilgrims, many hailing from Galilee and Perea. Just before
they started, the twelve women of the original women's corps, accompanied by some of their
associates, arrived on the scene and joined this unique procession as it moved on joyously toward
the city.
Before they started, the Alpheus twins put their cloaks on the donkey and held him while the
Master got on. As the procession moved toward the summit of Olivet, the festive crowd threw
their garments on the ground and brought branches from the near-by trees in order to make a
carpet of honor for the donkey bearing the royal Son, the promised Messiah. As the merry crowd
moved on toward Jerusalem, they began to sing, or rather to shout in unison, the Psalm,
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"Hosanna to the son of David; blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the
highest. Blessed be the kingdom that comes down from heaven."
Jesus was lighthearted and cheerful as they moved along until he came to the brow of Olivet,
where the city and the temple towers came into full view; there the Master stopped the
procession, and a great silence came upon all as they beheld him weeping. Looking down upon
the vast multitude coming forth from the city to greet him, the Master, with much emotion and
with tearful voice, said: "O Jerusalem, if you had only known, even you, at least in this your day,
the things which belong to your peace, and which you could so freely have had! But now are
these glories about to be hid from your eyes. You are about to reject the Son of Peace and turn
your backs upon the gospel of salvation. The days will soon come upon you wherein your
enemies will cast a trench around about you and lay siege to you on every side; they shall utterly
destroy you, insomuch that not one stone shall be left upon another. And all this shall befall you
because you knew not the time of your divine visitation. You are about to reject the gift of God,
and all men will reject you."
When he had finished speaking, they began the descent of Olivet and presently were joined by
the multitude of visitors who had come from Jerusalem waving palm branches, shouting
hosannas, and otherwise expressing gleefulness and good fellowship. The Master had not
planned that these crowds should come out from Jerusalem to meet them; that was the work of
others. He never premeditated anything which was dramatic.
Along with the multitude which poured out to welcome the Master, there came also many of the
Pharisees and his other enemies. They were so much perturbed by this sudden and unexpected
outburst of popular acclaim that they feared to arrest him lest such action precipitate an open
revolt of the populace. They greatly feared the attitude of the large numbers of visitors, who had
heard much of Jesus, and who, many of them, believed in him.
As they neared Jerusalem, the crowd became more demonstrative, so much so that some of the
Pharisees made their way up alongside Jesus and said: "Teacher, you should rebuke your
disciples and exhort them to behave more seemly." Jesus answered: "It is only fitting that these
children should welcome the Son of Peace, whom the chief priests have rejected. It would be
useless to stop them lest in their stead these stones by the roadside cry out."
The Pharisees hastened on ahead of the procession to rejoin the Sanhedrin, which was then in
session at the temple, and they reported to their associates: "Behold, all that we do is of no avail;
we are confounded by this Galilean. The people have gone mad over him; if we do not stop these
ignorant ones, all the world will go after him."