This time is rich in mysteries ; the Scriptures are now to be fulfilled by the Lord Jesus; the time is at hand, and He bums to bring a remedy to this sinful world through the suffering of His own Body. Therefore the day following, very early in the morning, which was the Lord’s day, He prepared Himself in a new and unusual manner to enter Jerusalem, but as it had been prophesied of Him. When He was about to start, we can imagine His mother with pious tenderness wanting to retain Him. “My Son, wilt Thou go ! You know how they will conspire against Thee, when you are among them. I pray that You may not go.” Likewise to His disciples, it seemed intolerable that He should go, and they, too, would do anything to deter Him. We can imagine, too, Magdalen saying, “Lord, do not go; they seek to kill Thee. If You get into their hands, to-day they will take Thee, and be able to carry out their designs.” O God ! how they loved Him, and how bitter to them was everything that would hurt Him. But He had disposed it otherwise, and was athirst for the salvation of the world, and answered them, “It is the will of My Father that I should go. Come, fear not, for He is our defence, and in the evening we shall return safe and sound.” Then the Lord began to go, and His few and faithful friends accompanied Him.
But when He had arrived at Bethphage, a small village on the way, He sent two of His disciples to Jerusalem, to bring to Him an ass and her foal, which were bound in a certain place, set apart for the use of the poor. Which having been done, the Lord Jesus mounted, first upon the ass, and then upon the colt, humbly, and the disciples placed their garments upon them. And thus rode the Lord of the world. And though most just was it that He should be honoured, yet at the time of honour, such were His attendants, such His adornments. Behold him, then, attentively, and see how, in the midst of receiving honour, He reproved the vain pomp of the world. The animals were adorned with no bridles of gold, no ornamented harness with trappings of silk, after the manner of the folly of the world, but with poor clothes, and with two small cords ; though He was the King of kings and Lord of lords. Yet the crowds, when they knew that He was approaching, went out to meet Him, and received Him as a king with acclamations and songs of joy, with the strewing of garments and of branches from the trees, and with great gladness. But with their joy He mingled weeping. For when He beheld Jerusalem, He wept over it, saying, “If thou hadst known,” etc., thou, also, wouldst weep.
You must know that we read that the Lord Jesus wept three times. Once at the death of Lazarus, in witnessing human misery ; once on this occasion, at human blindness and ignorance. For here He wept, “because they knew not the time of their visitation.” On a third time He wept, at human sin and malice, because He foresaw, that though His Passion sufficed for all, yet all would not profit from it, for some would be reprobate, hard-hearted, and impenitent. Of this weeping the Apostle speaks, when writing to the Hebrews. He says, “Who, .with strong crying and tears, was heard in that He feared ;”1 for the text includes these three occasions. But the Church holds that He wept at another time, namely, as an Infant, and therefore she sings, “The Infant weeps,” etc. And this might have taken place, to hide from the devil the mystery of the Incarnation. Contemplate Him, then, now weeping, and you ought, indeed, to weep with Him ; for He weeps abundantly and strongly, for it was no feigned sorrow, but a true grief with Him. Wherefore with bitter heart He wept over their eternal loss. He predicted also their temporal ruin.
Behold, then, His disciples, who faithfully kept near Him, with fear and reverence ; these are His barons and counts, His attendants and guards. Think, also, of His mother, with Magdalen and the other women, as following after Him. And suppose not, that when He wept, His mother and His disciples refrained from tears.
The Lord Jesus, then, entered into the city, with such triumph, and amid such honour from the crowds, that the whole city was moved. Whereupon He went into the Temple, and cast out the buyers and sellers. This was the second time He did this. After that, the Lord Jesus stood and publicly taught the people in the Temple, and answered the chief priests and Pharisees even till evening. And though He had received such honours, there was no one found to offer Him hospitality. The whole day, then, He and His disciples remained fasting, and then late in the evening returned to Bethany. Behold Him, as now He leaves the city in a very humble condition ; but few went forth with Him, Who was in the morning conducted into the city attended with such honours. From which occurrence you may gather the lesson, how little should we care for the honours of the world, which are so short-lived. You may imagine how Magdalen rejoiced, and the others, when they saw their Lord honoured by the crowds, and how much more, when He and His disciples returned safe and sound to Bethany.
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Footnotes
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Heb. v. 7. ↩