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Brothers & Sisters,

Yesterday, we walked through the well known narrative of the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. I quipped that I often make notes to come back to something and forget. I didn't forget the thing I made note of but did forget something else that I thought could be so helpful when thinking about the sovereignty and selflessness of Christ as He brings salvation into the world! 

Shawnee Korff and I were talking after service and she told me that a donkey can carry up to 200 times its weight! This has some serious spiritual implications. The prophet Zechariah (9:9) says, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” The prophet Isaiah (53:4-5), speaking of the same Savior King, says, “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.”

That donkey wasn't just carrying Jesus. It wasn't just carrying 200 times its weight on its back as Christ made his way into Jerusalem. It was carrying the Savior King who, "...knew no sin to be sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." The Son of God took the high road of humility riding in on the child of a donkey yoked to his mother, with the weight of the fallen world on his back revealing to us that all peoples, tribes, tongues, and nations are invited to the table of the family of God through faith in the Son! 

Rejoice, O daughter of Zion. Our King has come in righteousness and has brought salvation!

-Pastor Ricky