Last week, King Charles and Queen Camilla visited Italy. They met the president of Italy. They met the prime minister of Italy. They met the pope. Then King Charles was invited to give a speech to the Italian parliament. Then King Charles and Queen Camilla were invited to a state banquet hosted by the Italian president. And that was just a taste of what they did in their four-day visit! Italy received King Charles and Queen Camilla as a king and a queen should be received.
Let’s go back in history and think about a king who had a very different experience.
The place was Jerusalem. The date was probably around March of 33 A.D. One of the great celebrations of the year for Jewish people was about to start. It was the start of Passover. At the start of this day, this king found a donkey, got on it, and rode into Jerusalem. Some of the people who were with him knew he was the king. They took palm branches and shouted, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, EVEN THE KING OF ISRAEL!’ It might have seemed like a very happy occasion. But in reality, a tragedy was about to take place.
Many years ago, I read this book. It’s called ‘Defining Moments.’ It’s a book about moments in life when we stand at a crossroads and must make a choice. The choices we make at these defining moments reveal our character. The people of Jerusalem were at a defining moment. They had to make a choice. Someone had arrived at their city. How would they respond to him?
The people of Italy made a big fuss of King Charles and Queen Camilla because they knew who King Charles and Queen Camilla were. But what about this man on a donkey? Who was he?!
Let me give you an example. Suppose that one day, someone arrives in Boscombe. He goes to one of the funeral directors and asks to go to the morgue – the place where they store dead people. [I explain because there will be children in the service.] He finds someone who has been dead for four days, says a prayer to God, and brings the person back to life! What would you think? Would you think to yourself, ‘So what? Anyone can do that!’ Or would you think, ‘That’s amazing! I DON’T KNOW WHO THIS PERSON IS, BUT HE IS CERTAINLY SOMEONE VERY SPECIAL!’ This was the situation the people of Jerusalem were in. The person who had arrived in Jerusalem on a donkey that day had done just that. About three days earlier, he had arrived at a little village just a few miles from Jerusalem. There, he worked an amazing miracle. A man called Lazarus had been dead for four days. But this man on the donkey raised him from the dead! There was no question that he had done it. News reached people in Jerusalem very quickly. Perhaps the people of Jerusalem didn’t know who the man on the donkey was. But clearly, he was someone very special. Someone to take seriously.
The man on the donkey continued to ride into Jerusalem. People were shouting and waving palm branches. But now, he stops. He weeps. He weeps because he knows that a tragedy is about to happen. The people of Jerusalem are at defining moment. They’re about to make a choice. It will be the wrong one. And it will have a terrible consequence. The man on the donkey tells the people around him that a day would come when an enemy would surround Jerusalem, capture it, and destroy it. It would happen because the people of Jerusalem did not recognize who it was on the donkey.
So, who was it on the donkey? Of course, it was Jesus, Jesus the king.
The people of Jesus’ day had Bibles. The Bibles they had weren’t exactly the same as the Bibles we have today, but they had three quarters of the Bibles we have. They had the part of the Bible we call the Old Testament. All through the Old Testament, God had said he would send a king. Before Jesus was born, the angel Gabriel told Mary that her son would be king. Wise men came from the east and said they had come looking for the king. And now, Jesus was saying, ‘I am the king.’
How did he say that? He did it by getting onto a donkey and riding into Jerusalem. By doing that, Jesus fulfilled a famous prophecy. About 500 years before Jesus, the prophet Zechariah wrote this:
‘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’ [Zechariah 9:9].
Zechariah prophesied that the king of Jews would come to Jerusalem, ‘humble and mounted on a donkey.’ We have never read of Jesus getting onto a donkey before this. So, by getting on to a donkey and riding into Jerusalem, Jesus was saying, ‘I am this king whom God promised, whom Zechariah prophesied about.’
When the people of Italy knew that the king and queen of England were going to visit, they rolled out the red carpet. Jesus entered Jerusalem, riding a donkey, in peace. He was the rightful king and he would have brought only blessing. All that was needed was for the people to recognize him as king. The people of Jerusalem SHOULD have been able to put two and two together and work out who Jesus was. They should have received him as king. But the people of Jerusalem didn’t recognize him as king. They didn’t roll out the red carpet for him. Not at all. They put him to death on a cross. And then, what Jesus knew would happen did happen. In 70 A.D. the Roman army besieged Jerusalem, captured it and razed it to the ground.
What is the message for us? When Jesus entered Jerusalem 2000 years ago, he came on a donkey. He didn’t push his way in. He didn’t use force. It’s the same today. Jesus is not dead. God raised him to life. Jesus is present in the world through his Holy Spirit, and he asks us to let him into OUR LIVES. He doesn’t force his way in. He knocks politely. There is a verse in Revelation in which Jesus says, ‘Here I am! I stand at the door AND KNOCK. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me’ [Revelation 3:20].
Jesus is the best possible person to have live with you. There isn’t a better invitation out there. If you haven’t done so already, open the door and invite him in! Roll out the red carpet!
But today’s story reminds us that we need to be careful. When we hear Jesus knocking at the door, we are at a crossroads. We’re at a defining moment. A lot depends on our decision. Remember: this is the king who is knocking on the door. You really can’t ignore a king.
TALK GIVEN AT ROSEBERY PARK BAPTIST CHURCH, BOURNEMOUTH, UK, 13TH APRIL 2025, 10.30 A.M. SERVICE
