Daily Devotional For Saturday, January 17, 2026
Good morning Southside. The Lord is good and He is good all the time. We are making our way through the Gospel of Matthew. Today we come to Matthew 21:1-11. Because this is such a packed passage on the Triumphant Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, we are going to take several days to cover it:
“When they had approached Jerusalem and had come to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, (2) saying to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied there and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to Me. (3) If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will send them.” (4) This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: (5) ‘Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold your King is coming to you, Gentle, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’ (6) The disciples went and did just as Jesus had instructed them, (7) and brought the donkey and the colt, and laid their coats on them; and He sat on the coats. (8) Most of the crowd spread their coats in the road, and others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them in the road. (9) The crowds going ahead of Him, and those who followed, were shouting, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David; Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest!’ (10) When He had entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, ‘Who is this?’ (11) And the crowds were saying, ‘This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee’” (NASB).
You may be wondering how 2 disciples could just walk up and take a donkey and a colt from someone without question or concern. Jesus was a frequent visitor to Bethany. Nearly everyone there knew Him and had seen Him do miracles. Though the text does not tell us, it is possible that whoever owned these two work animals, Jesus had done a miracle in their family. So, if the owner saw these 2 disciples walking away with them, just saying, “The Lord needs them” was enough. Yet, these work animals would know who Jesus was and not buck Him riding on either one of them into Jerusalem.
Matthew says all of this was to fulfill two Old Testament prophecies about this: Isaiah 62:11 and Zechariah 9:9. By riding on a donkey into Jerusalem, Jesus was showing He had come to bring peace. A conquering ruler would have ridden a warhorse into Jerusalem to intensify the already heightened anticipation of the coming Messiah. This had to be challenging for Jesus to do this. He knew that as He rode on the donkey while they threw down their coats and shouted words praising God that the Messiah had finally come, that their belief was based on false assumptions. They wanted Rome overthrown; Jesus had come to overthrow sin in their hearts. They wanted political salvation; Jesus came to give them spiritual salvation.
Are we any different? We praise God saying, “God is good all the time” when He heals our cancer. When He does not, is God still not good all the time? Is He only good when He is good to us only? We have false assumptions and misguided expectations of God that tend to be very self-centered. We want a God who serves us; not a God we have to serve. How many people have you known to leave the church or their relationship to Christ or both because God did not do something for them? So, how BIG is your God?
The colt could have been related to the donkey. Maybe he was comforting to the donkey not to be nervous or buck. As Jesus rode into Jerusalem, people threw their coats on the ground and waved branches. It was customary in Jesus’ day for people to wave such branches for a conquering hero. Typically, these would have been fig or olive tree branches. What happens here is reminiscent of when Israel’s kings came into Jerusalem as conquering heroes as they did with King Jehu in 2 Kings 9:13. The crowds have the wrong concept of the Messiah as Jesus and when they realize this, instead of saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord” they will be saying in 5 days, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!”
“Hosanna in the Greek Text [ὡσαννά; hōsanna] means, “God save us now.” On the surface this looks and sounds great, but by this time this meaning had been lost and it was now just reduced to forced cry of praise to Yahweh. Yet, these people, even with their misunderstandings and wrong expectations, threw out the “red carpet” for Jesus. They went all out. Their spontaneous outburst of worship puts us to shame today. When was the last time you saw or experienced a powerful stirring of the Holy Spirit in a worship service that caused people to spontaneously go all out in worshipping the Lord. This is rare today because we have “rules of worship,” etiquette about worship, that if this started, it would be frowned upon.
Worship is not something we attend – this is a wrong assumption. Worship cannot be scheduled for example at 10:15 AM on a Sunday. Worship is not a time thing; it is a mind thing. Worship is not an hour thing; it is a heart experience. Worship comes from the heart that is overflowing with gratitude and praise for Jesus Christ. Have you ever walked out of a service thinking or saying, “I didn’t like worship today”? Well, that is because you did not worship. Instead, you chose to let the church's culturally prescribed rules about worship make you worry and you did not let go.
Reflection Assignment: When was the last time in your own life you had a spontaneous over the top worship of the Lord? Worship is not something we attend – this is a wrong assumption. I know, I know – who wants to look like a fanatic or a fan of Jesus, right? You may have expectations of Jesus, but guess what? He has expectations of us as well, especially when we worship. What do you think Jesus’ expectations are of you when you worship?
Scripture To Meditate On: Psalm 47:1, “Come, everyone! Clap your hands! Shout to God with joyful praise!” (NLT).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Lord, please forgive me for letting the opinions of others and “rules of worship” dictate my attitude and action towards You when I worship. I want to be free to worship with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. I love You Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly