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)
As I write this here in Perth, celebrities have come to town. The State of Origin is the biggest sporting event in Australia’s calendar. Two teams from two different states, Queensland (the Maroons) and New South Wales (the Blues) play three games to determine who the champion state is. This isn’t soccer or chess, this is Rugby League. These men are freaks of nature: pure muscle, massive giants, immensely strong, tough, smart… er… no, not really smart. Game 2 of State of Origin is being played in Perth and as these human beasts come to town and mingle with crowds of fans, you can’t help compare them to normal human beings and think: how big must their mothers be? Muscle and power have come to town. Exciting. Through the prophet Zechariah God promised that His King was going to come to town. The crowds better get ready to line the streets. There will be rejoicing and shouting because at last the Powerful Conqueror has come. This is God’s promised and immensely powerful King who will crush the enemies of God’s people. He is righteous and bringing salvation with Him. Oh yeah! Heads are going to roll, there will be blood, it’s going to be a spectacle for sure. Exciting. But then God says something altogether weird. This coming Conqueror is going to be humble! And He will be paraded in humility! He will be mounted on a donkey, not even a grown-up donkey, but the foal of a donkey. A donkey! Not even a stallion or charger or chariot. A juvenile donkey! How can someone be both a powerful Conqueror and at the same time, come in such humility? Meet Jesus in the Old Testament. As the New Testament tells us, Jesus fulfilled this perfectly. Who is more powerful than He is? He came to Jerusalem filled with the Holy Spirit, having beating every sickness and disease, trampled on water, calmed storms, raised the dead. No such power has ever come to town. Like everyone said, here is a prophet ‘might in word and deed’. But at the same time He came in humility and meekness. When He was violently assaulted, He turned the other cheek. When He was led away to be crucified He didn’t resist. And when He was crucified He didn’t even put up a fight. But – it was through His apparent weakness that He won the greatest contest in the Universe. Jesus conquered the origin of all evil: Satan himself. PRAY and ask the Spirit to help you see that through Jesus’ weakness and humility, He became the most powerful Conqueror imaginable. Our Champion, through weakness, has won our victory over sin, Satan and all the world. Then, rejoice greatly! Cheer loudly for Him today!