m Sunday, from the incident here
related. It was also the day, four days before the Passover, on which
the Jews were enjoined by the law to choose their paschal lamb. Some
consciousness of this may have guided our Lord's action. Certainly He
means finally to offer Himself to the people as the Messiah. Often as He
had evaded them before, and often as He had forbidden His disciples to
proclaim Him, He is now conscious that His hour has come, and by
entering Jerusalem as King of peace He definitely proclaims Himself the
promised Messiah. As plainly as the crowning of a new monarch and the
flourish of trumpets and the kissing of his hand by the great officers
of state proclaim him king, so unmistakably does our Lord by riding into
Jerusalem on an ass and by accepting the hosannas of the people proclaim
Himself the King promised to men through the Jews, as the King of peace
who was to win men to His rule by love and sway them by a Divine Spirit.

The scene must have been one not easily forgotten. The Mount of Olives
runs north and south parallel to the east wall of Jerusalem, and
separated from it by a gully, through which flows the brook Kidron. The
Mount is crossed by three paths. One of these is a steep footpath, which
runs direct over the crest of the hill; the second runs round its
northern shoulder; while the third crosses the southern slope. It was by
this last route the pilgrim caravans were accustomed to enter the city.
On the occasion of our Lord's entry the road was probably thronged with
visitors making their way to the great annual feast. No fewer than three
million persons are said to have been sometimes packed together in
Jerusalem at the Passover; and all of them being on holiday, were ready
for any kind of excitement. The idea of a festal procession was quite to
their mind. And no sooner did the disciples appear with Jesus riding in
their midst than the vast streams of people caught the infection of
loyal enthusiasm, tore down branches of the palms and olives which were
found in abundance by the roadside, and either waved them in the air or
strewed them in the line of march. Others unwrapped their loose cloaks
from their shoulders and spread them along the rough path to form a
carpet as He approached--a custom which is still, it seems, observed in
the East in royal processions, and which has indeed sometimes been
imported into our own country on great occasions. Thus with every
demonstration of loyalty, with