Broadcast
The Journey Begins - Part 3
Zechariah 9:9
03/27/2024
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. (ESV)
Five hundred and twenty years before the birth of Jesus, the
prophet Zechariah wrote:
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.
Kings and priests were anointed with oil to show that they
were chosen for their exalted positions. Jesus was anointed with
the water of baptism to be both our eternal King and our eternal
high priest. As the anointed one, the Messiah, the Christ, He
was indeed holy and righteous. He, and only He, can bring
salvation from sin, death, and the power of the devil.
Martin Luther commented:
Here there is no violence, no armor, no power, no
anger, no wrath. All these, you see, are proper for
kings of this world. Here there are only kindness,
justice, salvation, mercy, and every good thing.[2]
To call the king righteous is to say that He rules on behalf
of the righteous God, Himself. Not only does this King rule
according to God's holy will, He brings salvation from the
bondage of sin. This is unlike human rulers, even good rulers,
who are tainted in all things with the sin of Adam.
The Holy Week journey to the cross continued. As the shouts
of the crowds faded, Jesus taught His disciples about the end of
the world, about the last days of both Jerusalem and His return
to judge the living and the dead. The King of Righteousness
continued to prepare His people for their salvation.
May our Lord grant that we recognize this king. Amen.
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2. Luther's Works, American Edition, vol 20, p. 94