These verses contain a very remarkable passage in our Lord Jesus Christ’s life. They describe His public entry into Jerusalem when He came there for the last time, before He was crucified.

There is something peculiarly striking in this incident in our Lord’s history. The narrative reads like the account of some royal conqueror’s return to his own city: “A very great multitude” accompanies Him in a kind of triumphal procession. Loud cries and expressions of praise are heard around him: “All the city was moved.” The whole transaction is singularly at variance with the past tenor of our Lord’s life; it is curiously unlike the ways of Him who did not “cry nor strive” nor let His voice be heard “in the streets” — who withdrew Himself from the multitude on other occasions, and sometimes said to those He healed, “See thou say nothing to any man.” (Mark 1:44) And yet the whole transaction admits of explanation. The reasons of this public entry are not hard to find out. Let us see what they were.