21 Aug Mark 27: The King is coming

Mark 11:1-11

Now when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples ² and said to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it. ³ If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately.’” ⁴ And they went away and found a colt tied at a door outside in the street, and they untied it. ⁵ And some of those standing there said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” ⁶ And they told them what Jesus had said, and they let them go. ⁷ And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it. ⁸ And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. ⁹ And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! ¹⁰ Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!” ¹¹ And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.

Have you ever felt so convinced about something, so sure that you got it right, it was impossible for you to be wrong, and yet you were wrong? It happens to me a lot. Especially regarding people’s names. I can tell you countless stories where I got people’s names wrong. And it mostly happened on Sunday night after I preached for some reason. Let me tell you one story. Many years ago, we went out to eat at Shalom after church. And during dinner, Edrick walked up to me with a man next to him and asked, “Yos, do you remember him?” And I thought to myself, “Bro, why are you doing this to me? What did I do to you to deserve this cruel punishment?” This is a very bad question to ask me on Sunday night. Do not do what Edrick did. So, I looked at the guy and I remembered his face. He used to come to our church now and then when we were still at UTS. And I replied, “Of course, I remember. Erick, right?” Actually, I don’t remember what I called him that night. He looked at me, blinked a few times, and said, “No, I am Matt” or some other names that I can’t remember. Now you need to know something about me. When I said that his name was Erick, I did not make it up. It’s not like I just blurted out the first random name that popped into my head and hoped I got it right. No. At that time, I was fully convinced that his name was Erick. Like, a few weeks ago during dinner after RSI. We were talking about a rice dish in a Vietnamese restaurant. And I called it crazy rice. I was convinced I was right, but I was wrong. It was broken rice.

In tonight’s passage, we see people who are convinced that they get Jesus’ identity right, but they are wrong. And I believe that some of us today get Jesus wrong. We have heard of him in the church. We read his stories in the Bible. And we might even pray to him. But we miss out on who he truly is. And the reason we miss out on Jesus’ true identity is that we already have our own preconceptions of who Jesus should be. So rather than letting him tells us who he is, we try to tell him who he is. Let me give you the three most common misconceptions of Jesus. First, the grocery store Jesus. Jesus is the place where we can go to get whatever we think we need in life. Second, the law firm Jesus. We ask this Jesus to go after all those people who made our lives hard and give us the justice we want. Third, the travel agent Jesus. We want Jesus who takes us to a place where life is easy and comfortable. Oftentimes, we would rather have Jesus of our own making than who he really is. We would rather have Jesus who does our will than his own. We would rather have Jesus who build our kingdom than his kingdom. And this is not going to work. And in today’s passage, we see Jesus finally reveals himself as the true king of Israel. But he is a different kind of king from what the people expected.

Let me give you the context first. From chapter 11 to the end of the book, Mark focuses on the last seven days of Jesus’ life. So, we have three years of Jesus’ ministry in ten chapters and the last one week of Jesus’ life in six chapters. It tells us that the last week of Jesus’ life is very important for us to understand who he is. This is the week that all of creation had been waiting for ever since creation was created. And it begins with Jesus entering Jerusalem, the holy city. It is often known as the triumphal entry. And the triumphal entry is recorded in all four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, which tells us that it is a very important event. Because as soon as Jesus enters Jerusalem, everything changes. Jesus no longer tries to hide who he is. He goes public with his identity. And there is no turning back. With his arrival, the die is cast. The lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world will now be slain in space and time. The triumphal entry is a momentary triumph before the great tragedy.

So, let’s get into the text. I have three points for this sermon: The confrontational king; The counter-intuitive king; The coming king.

The confrontational king

Mark 11:1-6 – Now when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples ² and said to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it. ³ If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately.’” ⁴ And they went away and found a colt tied at a door outside in the street, and they untied it. ⁵ And some of those standing there said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” ⁶ And they told them what Jesus had said, and they let them go.

If you’ve been following our series on Mark, you would notice that up to this point whenever Jesus heals a person, casts out a demon, or does a miracle, he always says to people, “Keep it to yourself. Don’t tell anyone.” Because the more people talk about how great he is, the more pressure that puts on the religious leaders to kill him. And that would end his ministry. Jesus knows it. But something strange happened just right before Jesus enters Jerusalem. If you remember our last sermon on Mark, Bartimaeus cried out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.” When he called out “Son of David,” everybody knew who that is. Son of David is the messianic king whom the Jews have been waiting for centuries. He is the king who is going to rescue Israel from slavery and bring them to glory. So, Bartimaeus was crying out, “O ultimate king, the true king sent by God to save us.” And Jesus said, “Yes? You were calling me?” And everybody gasped. For the first time, Jesus publicly admitted that he is the Messiah. He was not trying to hide it anymore. And now, Jesus is about to enter Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the headquarter of religious leaders. He is about to enter the enemy’s den. And instead of trying to enter as quietly and secretively as possible, he chooses to enter in an extremely noticeable way. Jesus intentionally draws attention to himself. Why? Because the time has come. Everything that happened in the last three years was leading to this final week. Nothing happens in this story by accident. Jesus arranges and orchestrates his triumphal entry. Look at what he does.

Jesus starts by telling his disciples to go ahead of him and arrange his transport for him. And I was surprised when I first read it because it is almost as if Jesus is telling the disciples to go and steal a donkey for him. I mean, imagine after church today, as you walk out of the building, you see people trying to break into your car, that car you spend a lot of money on and are still on repayment for the next 5 years. What would you do? You would immediately confront the people who try to carjack your car. And because you just finished church and you are surrounded by church people, you know what not to say. You want to say many different combinations of four-letter words, but you hold back. So, you say, “Hey, what are you doing with my car?” And they reply, “The Lord has need of it.” And you say, “Okay, here is the key.” It sounds like a divine robbery. It is like Jesus is authorizing a donkey jacking. We are not told how Jesus knows about the donkey. It could be because he is God, and he knows everything. It could be that he made a pre-arranged plan with the owner. Or it could be because he saw the donkey beforehand. We do not know. But what we know is that Jesus is acting like a king. He has planned everything out to the last detail. There is nothing about his triumphal entry that is accidental. He is in complete control.

The question is, why does Jesus need to ride on a donkey? This is the only time Jesus rides an animal. Every elsewhere, Jesus is always walking. So, why now? Here is why. Jesus is fulfilling one of the messianic prophecies. Zechariah 9:9 – 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. Zechariah was prophesying to Israel after they had come back from exile to rebuild the temple and re-establish Jerusalem. Israel had experienced failed king after failed king. And Zechariah told them that a day will come when God sends his king to them. And that king will come humble and mounted on a donkey. And this promise was given 500 years before Jesus. Isn’t that amazing? 500 years before Jesus came, God already promised that the week before Passover, a donkey will be available for Jesus to ride into Jerusalem. You don’t write this script unless you are God. In other words, deeply rooted in the Jewish understanding of the Old Testament is the hope of the king who would enter Jerusalem as their coming Messiah while riding on a donkey.

Jesus knows exactly what he is doing. And he does not just ride whatever donkey he could find. Jesus is very specific. Jesus tells his disciples that they will find a donkey on which no one has ever sat – an unridden donkey. And this may seem an unimportant detail to us. But in the Old Testament, no one was allowed to ride the king’s ride. The king’s ride belonged exclusively to the king. And this becomes even clearer by the way Jesus refers to himself. Look at verse 3. Mark 11:3 – If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately.’ He does not tell them to say, “My teacher needs it” or “Jesus the miracle worker needs it.” But he tells them to say, “The Lord needs it.” Jesus refers to himself as the sovereign one. He is the king who has the right to all things. Everything was made by Jesus and for Jesus. Including this donkey. And when the owners of the donkey hear that Jesus needs their donkey, they let him have it immediately. This is a demonstration of Jesus’ divine authority as the true king. Jesus is not only acting like a king, but he is also talking like a king.

So here is what we have. After many years of hiding his identity, Jesus is suddenly publicly declaring himself to be the messianic king. Why? He is confronting the people, in particular, the religious leaders. He is saying to them, “I am the king you have been waiting for. I am coming to Jerusalem as a king sent by God, and I am exercising my authority. You only have two choices: crown me or kill me.” The only options they have is to accept that Jesus is king and give him everything, or they must destroy him. Nothing in the middle. Do you see how confrontational this is? And the same Jesus is saying the same thing to every single person. He is saying to us, “I am the sovereign king of the universe. Crown me or kill me.” Jesus does not allow anything in between. And we must make a choice. Here is the choice. Either we give Jesus everything and serve him completely, or we run from him and don’t have anything to do with him. Either we worship him, or we hate him. One thing is for sure, Jesus won’t let us like him. Do you know what I mean by that? If we come to him and say, “Yeah, I like Jesus. He is my inspiration. He is my role model. He is my advisor. He is my best friend,” Jesus would say, “Yeah, I can be your inspiration. I can be your role model. I can be your advisor. I can be your best friend. But I first must be your king. I won’t be anything unless I’m king. Either I am your king, or I am nothing. I want all of you or I want none of you. Worship me or hate me. But I won’t let you like me. Crown me or kill me.”

Let me put it this way. My name is Yosia Yusuf. If you invite me over to your house, you can’t say, “Come in Yosia. You are nice and I like you. But stay out Yusuf. You are too preachy, and you make me uncomfortable.” That’s very difficult for me because I don’t have a Yosia part and a Yusuf part. I can’t separate the two and put one outside the front door. I’m all Yosia and I’m all Yusuf. So, you either get all of me or none of me. And the same is with Jesus. We can’t say, “Come in Jesus; Stay out Christ. Come in saviour; Stay out lord. Come in helper; stay out king.” We either welcome all of him or we get nothing. And if we welcome him, we must give him everything. We must make him the centre of our lives. There can’t be any part of our lives where we don’t let him decide and have authority over us. We can’t say, “I’ll obey this but not that.”

And let me speak to Christians. Do not mistake associating with Jesus with submitting to Jesus. There is a funny story in Acts 19. Paul is planting a church in Ephesus. And there are seven men called the seven sons of Sceva. The seven sons hear that Paul is doing great miracles in the name of Jesus. They say, “The name of Jesus has power. This is awesome. Let’s try it out.” So, they go to a demon-possessed man, and they say, “In the name of Jesus, the one whom Paul preaches, I cast you out.” And they start singing, “There is power in the name of Jesus to break every chain….” The demon-possessed man looks at them and says, “Errr Jesus I know. Paul, I know. But who the heck are you?” And he attacks and beats the seven sons of Sceva, and they run away naked. By the way, if you get into a fight fully clothed and you get out of it butt naked, you lost terribly. Just saying. Listen, Christians. The name of Jesus is not magic. Jesus is a king. Unless we are submitting to him, there is no power. So, if we are simply asking Jesus for help but we are not submitting to him, it is useless. It does not work. There is no power without submission. Jesus must be the king of our lives, or he is nothing to us. He is the confrontational king.

The counterintuitive king

Mark 11:7-10 – ⁷ And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it. ⁸ And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. ⁹ And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! ¹⁰ Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!”

When Jesus enters Jerusalem, he receives royal carpet treatment. People acknowledge what Jesus is doing. They know their Old Testament. Messiah will come riding on a donkey. And they pay their homage by throwing their cloaks down on the road in front of him. This is the ancient way to welcome a victorious king. If a king wins a battle, he will enter the city in a chariot. He will bring with him the treasures he has collected. His soldiers will march with him, and he will have the people they have captured strung behind them. And the people of the city will welcome their arrival. That’s what the people are doing to Jesus. They are giving Jesus the ceremonious welcome of a king. They cry out, “Hosanna” which means, “Lord, save us.” And they quote Psalm 118, which says, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David.” The people acknowledge that Jesus is the king of the coming kingdom. They acknowledge that Jesus is the Messiah who comes to save them. The disciples are probably thinking, “This is it! This is the day we have been waiting for. Jesus is the king of Israel. And we are going to reign with him in his kingdom.” But here is the problem. In the mind of the Jews, when they shout, “Hosanna. Lord, save us!” they are not thinking of personal salvation. They are thinking of political salvation. They are thinking of national restoration. They are thinking, “Finally! Now we will overturn the Roman government. Now we will have an earthly kingdom with Jesus as our king.”

Do you see what happened? They are saying the right thing. They are quoting the Bible. But they have no idea what they are saying. They are hoping for Jesus to deliver which he never came to deliver. Which gives us a strong warning. Just because some people are passionate and quote the Bible, does not mean they are right. There are a lot of passionate, Bible-quoting people who are flat-out wrong. Because it is possible to twist the Bible and make it say what we want it to say. That is why when you listen to a sermon, your concern should not be, “What does Yosi have to say?” Who cares what Yosi has to say. Your concern must be, “What does the Bible say?” Let me tell you a secret. I could have made all my sermons 20 minutes shorter. And some of you are thinking right now, “30 minutes sermon every week. That’s great. Why didn’t you?” Because I don’t want you just to hear what I have to say. I want you to be convinced that everything I say comes from the Bible. What we need is not a human’s perspective on the word of God but the living word of God. If what is being said contradicts what is written in the Bible, it does not matter who preaches it, it does not matter how many followers they have, it does not matter how big their churches, it does not matter how many best-selling books they have written, we must reject them.

Now, pay attention to the way Jesus enters Jerusalem. There is something odd with his entrance. Jesus enters Jerusalem riding a young donkey. Kings don’t ride a donkey. Do you know who rides a donkey? Servants. So, what we have is the messianic king entering a city riding like a servant. This is very counterintuitive. Imagine the disciples. Jesus comes to the disciples and says, “I’m going to ride into Jerusalem and the crowd will welcome me as king.” And the disciples reply, “Yes! Finally, you get what we have been trying to tell you. That’s great. Let us prepare a mighty horse for you.” Jesus says, “No. I’m going to ride in on a donkey.” They say, “You are joking. People are going to laugh at you. It’s not going to go well. We need to hire an image consultant.” The thought of a king riding on a donkey is counterintuitive. Imagine Queen Elizabeth parading through Sydney CBD riding a bicycle. Something is off with that image, right? But from the very beginning, God has planned that the great king, the Messiah will come riding on a donkey. Why? Because Jesus is not only a king who comes to rule, but he is also a king who comes to save his people. And he saves his people not by taking power and killing people, but by losing power and dying for his people. In other words, Jesus says, “I am going to triumph through weakness. I am going to rule through serving. I am going to win through losing. I am going to conquer by dying.” This is why the messiah comes riding on a donkey.

What can learn from it? We learn that this is the greatest day in the life of this donkey. That’s the non-essential lesson. But here is the important lesson. Jesus does not save us through strength but weakness. We are not saved by our good works but by grace. If we are saved by our good works, then we are saved by strength. But salvation comes by Jesus giving up his life and dying on the cross. Salvation comes through weakness. And we can only receive it freely by grace. It means that if we still think that we can save ourselves, we are not saved. It is only when we acknowledge that we are weak that we can receive salvation. And this is very counterintuitive. Let me explain to you what I mean. Almost all of us, when we first come to God, we come to God because we have a need. We need something from him. There is a pastor of a church who is also a chaplain on call at the local hospital. One night, he received a call from the hospital in the middle of the night to see a man who needed to talk to a pastor. When he got to the hospital, the man apologized and said, “I’m so sorry. I don’t think I need to talk to you anymore. The hospital got the x-rays mixed up. I don’t have cancer, so I don’t need to talk to a pastor.” So, the pastor smiled and went home. If I was the pastor, I would probably say, “Brother, you might not have physical cancer. But do you know what you have? You have spiritual cancer. And you are going to rot in hell forever for making me come all the way to the hospital in the middle of the night for nothing. Unless you repent.”

In other words, our problem is we go to God, and we say, “You need to give me exactly what I think I need from you. If I don’t need you, I don’t want you.” And this is what the people do with Jesus. The people are excited about Jesus, but they do not understand what it means for Jesus to be Messiah. They are excited about Jesus fulfilling their own agenda. They think they know what they need. But what they actually need is Messiah who dies for their sins. What they need first and foremost is to be reconciled to God for their sins. And we are also prone to making the same mistake. It is very easy for us to create Jesus of our own making. I love the way Alistair Begg puts it. “Unless we keep the gospel at the centre of our thinking, our learning, and our living, we may inadvertently, unwittingly, seek to create a Jesus of our own making.” Because the story of the Bible is the story of the gospel. The gospel is the very heart of the entire Bible. Unless we see everything in the Bible through the lens of the gospel, we will create Jesus of our own making. And that Jesus is useless.

So, the people are not accepting Jesus as their king, but they are using Jesus for their agenda. And this is what sin is. Do you know what sin is? Sin is servants putting themselves in the place of the king. Let me show you. Do you know why we are so anxious? Do you know why we stay awake at night thinking about that very thing? Do you know why we are so upset when we do not get what we want? Because we believe that we know how our lives are supposed to go. We believe that we have all the wisdom. We think we know what’s best for us. Do you know what that is? We are putting ourselves in the place of the king. Every problem, every misery, every fighting is caused by sin. So, what is the solution? The solution is not, “Okay, I need to stop putting myself in the place of the king.” That is not going to work. It is like putting a band-aid on a heart wound. This is salvation by strength. But the gospel is not salvation by strength but weakness. Here is what we must understand. Whereas sin is servants putting themselves in the place of the king, the gospel is the king putting himself in the place of the servants. Salvation is Jesus coming and putting himself where we should be. He comes to receive the death penalty for our sins.

This is why Jesus comes riding on a donkey. Jesus is saying to us, “I am a king, but I am not a king like you think. I did not come to free you from the Romans, but I come to free you from sins. What if I freed you from the Romans? You would still be a slave of sins. If I liberate you from the Romans, what are you going to do with your guilt? What are you going to do with that desire to be the king of your life? Because if I don’t deal with it, you are just going to continue to make mess after mess. You are only going to ruin your life more and more. But I have come to set you free from you. I have come to give you true freedom.” One author puts it this way. “The story of the triumphal entry is an incredible parable of the lifelong mismatch between what you want from God and what God is providing.” I love it. It is a lifelong mismatch between what we think we need and what God says we need. What we think we need is almost always shallow. And God does not give us what we think we need. But he gives us what we truly need.

The coming king

Mark 11:11 – And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.

When Jesus enters Jerusalem, he goes into the temple. He looks around and notices many things that he is not happy about. He sees how the temple has become a market. He sees how the sacrifice has become an occasion for people to make money. He is angered by it. And he is going to do something about it. But for now, it is already late. He says to himself, “I’ve to go home and sleep for now. I’ll deal with this tomorrow.” So, Jesus goes out to Bethany with his disciples. Now, it sounds like a complete anticlimax ending to Jesus’ triumphant entry as the messianic king. But it is not. Here is what happens. A few centuries earlier, the prophet Ezekiel saw the glory of God leave the temple, leave Jerusalem, and ascend to Bethany on the Mount of Olives. At the triumphal entry, the glory of God in human flesh descends from Bethany, enters the east gate of Jerusalem, and goes into the temple. Do you see it? In the time of Ezekiel, the glory of God left the temple. But when Jesus comes, the glory of God comes back.

And do you know what happens when the glory of God comes back? The glory of God is going to put everything right, correct all injustice, comfort all suffering, and relieve every pain. The Jews are not wrong when they think that the coming of the Messiah is supposed to bring a new era of glory. What they do not know is that the Messiah will come twice. In his first coming, Jesus comes on a donkey. He comes in humility and meekness. Jesus comes to make us right with God. He comes to restore our broken relationship with God. The king comes to die for sins so that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. But that’s not the only time Jesus comes. Jesus will come again. And on his second coming, he will not be riding on a donkey. He will be riding on a white horse. He will end death and sin, and there will be complete peace. The way Jesus comes in the first coming and the way Jesus will come in the second coming is very different.

Revelation 19:11-16 – ¹¹ Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. ¹² His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. ¹³ He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. ¹⁴ And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. ¹⁵ From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. ¹⁶ On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.

Jesus has come, and Jesus is coming again. And there are great differences between his first and second coming.
In the first coming, Jesus came to die. In the second coming, Jesus will come to reign.
In the first coming, he came on a little donkey. In the second coming, he will come on a white horse.
In the first coming, he came as a humble servant. In the second coming, he will come as an exalted king.
In the first coming, he came in weakness. In the second coming, he will come in strength.
In the first coming, he came to save. In the second coming, he will come to judge.
In the first coming, he came in love. In the second coming, he will come in wrath.
In the first coming, his glory is veiled. In the second coming, his glory will be revealed.
In the first coming, he came with the twelve disciples. In the second coming, he will come with an army of angels.
In the first coming, he came to bring peace. In the second coming, he will come to make war.
In the first coming, he was given the crown of thorns. In the second coming, he will receive the crown of glory.
In the first coming, he came as the suffering servant. In the second coming, he will come as the King of kings and Lord of lords.

So, hear me loud and clear. For now, Jesus is meek, lowly, welcoming, seeking, forgiving, and patient. But it won’t last forever. A day is coming when Jesus will come not to be crucified as king but to be crowned as king. And until that day comes, it is the time for salvation. The time for salvation is now, not then. Then will be too late. If you have not given your allegiance to Jesus, what is waiting for you then is not eternal joy but eternal condemnation. There will be no negotiation. You will not have a choice. So, I urge you, if you have yet to put your faith in Jesus, do not delay any longer. Today you still have a choice. Put your faith in Jesus. Humbly confess your sins before him and receives his grace freely. Jesus will not reject anyone who comes to him in weakness. His grace is available for anyone who desires it. So come to him today before it is too late.

And for Christians, here is the good news. Our king has come, and he will come again. And Jesus’ second coming is not something for us to be afraid of. It is something for us to look forward to. Because our king will return not to punish us but to welcome us into his eternal kingdom. And we will reign with him forever and ever. And we can have this confidence, not because we are strong but because our king is strong, and we are covered in his blood and righteousness. That’s why we sing, “When he shall come with trumpet sound. Oh, may I then in him be found. Dressed in his righteousness alone. Faultless stand before the throne.” Let’s pray.

Discussion questions:

1. Look at the three most common misconceptions of Jesus. Which one do you think is the most prevalent in your context?
2. What do you find most striking in the story of the triumphal entry?
3. What is the difference between liking Jesus and submitting to Jesus? Give daily life examples.
4. Why is it very important for us to see everything in the Bible through the lens of the gospel?
5. Explain the meaning behind Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. 
6. Why is the fact that Jesus is coming again good news for Christians?