Page 104 - Demo

100“Tell the daughter of Sion,Behold, thy King is coming unto thee; Meek, and mounted on a female ass, And on a colt, the son of a female ass.”Whether or not the person who wrote the above verse did really believe that Jesus (pbuh) , when making his triumphal entry into Jerusalem by mounting or sitting at the same time both upon the mother ass and her young colt, worked a miracle is not the question; neverthelessit is true to say that the majority of the Christian Fathersso believed; and it never occurred to them that such a show would look rather a comedy than a royal and pompous procession. Luke, however, is careful, and has not fallen into Matthew’s mistake. Were these authors both inspired by the same Spirit?Zachariah (pbuh) foretells in Jerusalem, after the return of the Jews from captivity, the coming of a king.Though meek and humble, mounted upon a colt of an ass, still he is coming with salvation and would rebuild the house of God. He prophesies this at a time when the Jews are endeavouring to rebuild the Temple and the ruined town; their neighbouring peoples are against them; the work of building is stopped until Darius, King of Persia, issues a fireman for the construction. Although no Jewish king had ever appeared since the sixth century before Christ, neverthelessthey had had autonomous governments under foreignsovereigns.Thesalvationherepromised,beitnoted, is material and immediate, and not a salvation to come five hundred and twenty years afterwards, when Jesus (pbuh) of Nazareth would ride upon two asses simultaneously and enter into Jerusalem, already a large and wealthy city with a magnificent temple, simply to be captured and crucified by the Jewsthemselves and by their Roman masters, asthe present Gospels tell us! This would be no solace at all for the poor Jews surrounded with enemies in a ruined city.