Palm Sunday: Old Testament: Zechariah 9:9-12                                  

Zechariah 9:9-12

Tough word, humility. Not to spell or say. But to live. To live genuinely. Anyone can feign humility and we all have. But to walk, day after day, looking at others as being more important than yourself (Paul, the apostle will call us to that centuries after Zechariah’s pen is stilled) and being willing to spend yourself for those others. That is challenging.

Our familiar text this week points to the entry centuries in the future of a mounted Savior. He rides in on a donkey which in itself doesn’t point to humility. That was the normal mount of a Hebrew king. But the humility spoken of is humility of heart and character. Martin Luther commented on this passage and the Savior to which it points:

“Here there is no violence, no armor, no power, no anger, no wrath…. Here there are only kindness, justice, salvation, mercy, and every good thing” (AE 20:94).

Our Savior. Our King. The King of the Universe who deserves all worship and who holds all authority. He comes to us in humility. He lives in it and dies brimming with it. And even in His glorious resurrection, He has chosen that the very marks of His humility would always remain on hands, feet and in His side. As dear old Dr. Mitchell used to say at the sem: “My, what a Savior!”

“Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD.”