Why Jesus Chose an Unbroken Colt

I'm Michael Link, and welcome to The Depositum, where we explore the depths of Christian theology
 through AI. Please note the voices ahead are AI generated. We vet each episode,
 but ask that you listen with both faith and reason. Let's dive in.
 Welcome back. Today, we're doing a deep dive into something that, well, it feels familiar
 to a lot of people, Palm Sunday, but we're looking at it through a really specific lens.
 Yeah, we've got the Gospels, of course, Matthew and Luke, but we're also bringing in
 the Council of Trent and the Haddock Bible Commentary. And the mission here, really,
 is to get past the, you know, the parade imagery. Exactly. To see what's actually
 happening underneath. Because when you look at these sources together, you realize this isn't
 just a party. It's a powder keg. Okay, so let's set that scene. We're at the gates
 of Jerusalem. You can just imagine it, right? It's hot, dusty. The tension is thick.
 Oh, absolutely. You've got Roman guards sweating in their armor, you know, hands on
 their swords, just watching this huge crowd. The crowd that's desperate. They're waiting
 for a conqueror, someone to finally crush the Roman occupation. But here's the thing,
 to the Romans, this just looks like a riot about to happen. To anyone who knows the
 prophecies, though, this is something else entirely. It's choreographed. It's a lock
 and key fit. This exact moment, I mean, it was predicted 500 years earlier. You're
 talking about the prophecy from Zechariah. This wasn't spontaneous at all. Not at all.
 And the gospel writer, Matthew, he actually stops the story cold just to point this out.
 He wants to show everyone this is no accident. He hones in on the incredible specificity of the
 transport. Right. Let's listen to that. This is the prophecy, as quoted in Matthew,
 chapter 21, verse five. Tell you the daughter of Zion, behold thy king cometh to the meek
 and sitting upon an ass and occult the full of her that is used to the yoke.
 See? That specificity. That's what I want to zoom in on. He doesn't just say an animal.
 He mentions two, an ass and occult, which brings us to the event itself.
 So the disciples go and get these animals. And the scene is just it's chaos. Let's read how
 Matthew describes it in Matthew, chapter 21, verses six through eight. And the disciples going
 did as Jesus commanded them. And they brought the ass in the cult and laid their garments
 upon them and made him sit there on and a very great multitude spread their garments in
 the way. And others cut bows from the trees and strewed them in the way.
 OK, stop right there. Does anything about that jump out at you is as odd?
 Well, yeah, the logistics of it. Why two animals? Why a mother donkey and her cult?
 I mean, if you're leading a parade, don't you just pick one good ride?
 It seems inefficient, doesn't it? But we looked this up in the
 haddock commentary, which gathers insights from guys like Saint John Chrysostom.
 And it turns out this is a massive allegory. The animals are symbols.
 They're us. The ass, the tamed one, the one that's used to the yoke that represents
 the Jewish people. They were under the yoke of the law. But the cult, the foal,
 wild, unbroken, never been ridden. That's the Gentiles.
 Exactly. It represents all the other nations. And by choosing to ride the wild cult,
 the commentary says he's showing that he is one who will tame the nations
 and bring them into his church. Wow. OK, so he's riding an unbroken
 wild animal through a screaming crowd. That seems incredibly dangerous.
 It is, which just adds to the power of it. And he's in complete control.
 But speaking of that crowd, they are roaring, just screaming one word over and over.
 Hosanna! And most of us hear that and think it's like hooray or welcome.
 Not even close. Haddock points out that hosanna is actually a desperate cry from
 Psalm 117. It literally means save us, I beseech thee.
 So it's a cry for help, a political one. Let's hear it in context.
 This is Matthew chapter 21, verse 9. And the multitudes that went before
 and that followed cried, saying, Hosanna to the son of David.
 Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest.
 And that, that right there is the climax of the whole tragedy.
 It's the great misunderstanding. They're screaming save us,
 but they're asking for the wrong kind of salvation.
 Totally. They wanted a political liberator on a warhorse to crush Rome.
 But what they needed was a spiritual savior to crush sin.
 They wanted a conquering king, but what they got was a voluntary victim.
 And the irony is just crushing because he refuses to be the king they want.
 This exact same crowd is going to be screaming for his death in just five days.
 They will demand his crucifixion. And the craziest part is, he knows it.
 He knows exactly what's waiting for him inside that city.
 That's the thing that's so hard to grasp. If you know it's a trap, why walk in?
 But Luke actually records his reasoning. This is from Luke chapter 13 verses 32 and 33.
 And he said to them, go and tell that fox, behold,
 I cast out devils and do cures today and tomorrow and the third day I am consummated.
 Nevertheless, I must walk today and tomorrow and the day following
 because it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.
 I must walk. It wasn't an ambush. It was a choice.
 The council of Trent calls this his supreme freedom.
 He walked into that trap on purpose.
 So if he went willingly, who's to blame?
 I mean, historically, fingers get pointed at the Romans or the Jewish crowd.
 Well, the catechism of the council of Trent does something really uncomfortable.
 It flips the camera around. What do you mean?
 It argues that the crowd back then, they acted out of a kind of ignorance.
 They didn't fully understand who he was. But we do.
 We do. And the text makes this heavy, heavy point.
 It says that because we know better when we choose to sin,
 we seem in some sort to lay violent hands on him, just like they did.
 That is an intense way to look at it. It's saying we are the crowd.
 According to the theology, yes.
 It basically suggests that the palms we wave on Sunday
 can become the whips we use on Friday every time we choose sin over him.
 That's a lot to think about. Thanks for walking us through this deep dive.