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SERMON XI.

MESSIAH'S ENTRANCE INTO JERUSALEM.

ZECH. ix. 9, 10.

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and apon a colt the foal of an ass.-And he shall speak peace unto the heathen.

THE narrowness and littleness of the mind of fallen man, are sufficiently conspicuous in the idea he forms of magnificence and grandeur. The pageantry and parade of a Roman triumph, or of an eastern monarch, as described in history, exhibit him to us in what he himself accounts his best estate. If you suppose him seated in an imperial carriage, arrayed in splendid apparel, wearing a crown or tiara ornamented with jewels, preceded and followed by a long train of guards and attendants, surrounded by the unmeaning acclamations of ignorant multitudes, you see the poor worm at the summit of his happiness. He has no conception of any thing greater than this. And the spectators are generally of the same mind. They admire, they envy, his lot; and there is hardly a person in the crowds around him, but would be very glad to take his place, were it practicable. Yet. this great little creature would surely be mortified, if, in the height of his self-complacence, he could consider, that he had the very same regard for a pre-eminence in finery, the same desire to be admired and envied, and

felt the same kind of satisfaction in distinction above his fellows, when he was a child of ten years old. He is, in effect, a child still, only he has changed his playthings, and now acts upon a larger scale, but with the same trifling and contracted views.

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How different was MESSIAH's entry into Jerusalem foretold in this prophecy, the accomplishment of which we read in the evangelists! And how differently was he affected by the objects around him! He poured contempt upon the phantom of human glory. This "King of kings and Lord of lords, was meek and lowly, riding upon an ass's colt*." And though a secret divine influence constrained the multitude to acknowledge his character, and, with some accommodation to the customs of the times, " to strew their garments in the way," as they proclaimed the King who came in the name of Jehovah; yet he appeared unmoved by their applause.' Had the history of Jesus, like those which we have of Socrates or Cyrus, been merely the work of a human writer, ambitious to adorn a favourite character with the most splendid qualities of a philosopher or a hero, we should never have known how his mind was engaged in this situation. The Saviour must be divine, his historian must be inspired, the fact must be true; for man could not have invented such a circumstance, that this meek and lowly Saviour took no notice of the zeal and homage of his friends, because his heart was filled with compassion for his enemies, who were thirsting for his blood. For it was then, amidst the acclamation of his disciples, that he beheld the city and wept over it, while he foretold the evils which the rejection of him would'

Luke xix. 35-38.

bring upon it. "Oh that thou hadst known, even thou, "at least in this thy day, the things belonging to thy "peace! But now they are hidden from thine eyes."

An angel proclaimed his birth to the shepherds; and wise men from the east paid such attention to the newborn Saviour, that the jealousy of Herod was excited, and attempts made to destroy him. But this wonderful infant was brought up in a state of obscurity, in a place of no repute, and known by no higher description than that of "The carpenter's son." In the course of his ministry he appeared and was treated as a poor man, he had no certain dwelling-place, he submitted to receive supplies, for his support, from the contributions of a few of his followers, for the most of them were poor like himself. And though he wrought many wonderful works for the relief of the necessitous and miserable, he admitted no alteration in his own external state, but was content to be poor and despised, for our sakes, to the end of his life. I think the only occasion on which he permitted a public acknowledgment of his person and character, was when he fulfilled this prophecy. And still he was the same meek and lowly Saviour. As his kingdom was not of this world, neither were there any marks of human grandeur in his procession. He approached Jerusalem, attended, indeed, by a concourse of people, but riding upon an ass, and weeping for his enemies.

The passage of the Messiah which follows the chorus of the heavenly host, is taken from these verses. It does not include the whole of them. In one clause there is a small alteration in the expression, but it does not affect the sense. Instead of, "He is just having salvation," it is, "He is a righteous Saviour."

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I. The prophet's address. "To the daughter of "Zion and Jerusalem."

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II. The exhortation to joy. Rejoice and shout." III. The cause assigned for this joy. "Thy King "cometh."

IV. The characters of the King. "A righteous Sa"viour."

V. His great design. "To speak peace to the Hea

"then."

I. "Zion" and "Jerusalem" are indifferently used as emblems of the church, or professing people of God. When they occur together, as here, contradistinguished from each other, Zion, the city of David, the seat of government, and of the temple-worship, may denote the principal persons of the ecclesiastical and civil state; and Jerusalem may be expressive of the people at large, the daughters of a place signifying, according to the Hebrew idiom, the inhabitants. They boasted that they were the Lord's peculiar people: they had the prophecies and promises concerning MESSIAH in their hands, and were professedly expecting and waiting for his appearance. They are therefore called upon to rejoice in it. But when he actually came, though "he came to "his own," to his own nation, city, and temple; his own people, to whose affection and allegiance he had the justest claim, "received him not*." But there were a few who truly waited for him, as the hope and consolation of Israel, at the time of his birth; and many more were afterwards convinced by his gracious words and works, that "he only had the words of eternal "life," and became his followers. By their acknowledged principles, they were all bound to acknowledge

* John i. 11.

I

that prophet whom Moses had foretold, "God would "raise up among them like unto himself*;" that is, to be, as he had been, a lawgiver, to institute a new dispensation of the true religion; and their refusal involved them, as a nation, in the punishment which Moses had like wise denounced against those who should refuse to hearken to him. Thus their peculiar advantage in possessing a divine revelation, while the rest of mankind were left ignorant of the will of God, proved an aggravation of their guilt, and rendered their obstinacy more inexcusable, and their condemnation more severe. am bound to take every opportunity of noticing the striking parallel in this respect, between the Jewish nation in our Saviour's time, and the nations, who, since that period, have admitted the New Testament as a revelation from God. By assuming the Christian name, and so far calling the Saviour Lord, while they reject the spirit and design of the Gospel, and treat the ministers of it with neglect or contempt, they tread in the steps, and share in the guilt, of those who pretended to expect MESSIAH, and yet crucified him when he appeared among them. In person he could be crucified but once; but the Scripture speaks of those who "crucify the Son "of God afresh, and put him to open shame." How far this is the case of the persons who can bear to hear of his passion and his kingdom when made the subject of a musical entertainment, but upon no other occasion, deserves their serious consideration.)

II. The exhortation can only be complied with by those who are sensible of their need of a Saviour, and his authority and ability to save. To these the prophet brings a joyful message, and they will "rejoice and

* Deut. xviii. 15-19. Acts vii. 37.

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