part of Jer usalem, and during Easter-week must have been crowded by pilgrims, who
could not find accommodation within the City walls. And the announcement, that
disciples of Jesus had just fetched the beast of burden on which Jesus was about to
enter Jerusalem, must have quickly spread among the crowds which thronged the
Temple and the City.
15. They may have awaited in Bethany the return of the two, but the succession followed
in the text seems to me by far the most probable.
16. The quotations are from the well-known and classical passage in Dean Stanley's
Sinai and Palestine, pp. 189 &c.
As the two disciples, accompanied, or immediately followed by the multitude, brought
'the colt' to Christ, 'two streams of people met' - the one coming from the City, the other
from Bethany. The impression left on our minds is, that what followed was unexpected
by those who accompanied Christ, that it took them by surprise. The disciples, who
understood not,17 till the light of the Resurrection-glory had been poured on their minds,
the significance of 'these things,' even after they had occurred, seem not even to have
guessed, that it was of set purpose Jesus was about to make His Royal Entry into
Jerusalem. Their enthusiasm seems only to have been kindled when they saw the
procession from the town come to meet Jesus with palm-branches, cut down by the
way, and greeting Him with Hosanna -shouts of welcome. Then they spread their
garments on the colt, and set Jesus thereon - 'unwrapped their loose cloaks from their
shoulders and stretc hed them along the rough path, to form a momentary carpet as He
approached.' Then also in their turn they cut down branches from the trees and gardens
through which they passed, or plaited and twisted palm-branches, and strewed them as
a rude matting in Hi s way, while they joined in, and soon raised to a much higher pitch18
the Hosanna of welcoming praise. Nor need we wonder at their ignorance at first of the
meaning of that, in which themselves were chief actors. We are too apt to judge them
from our stand point, eighteen centuries later, and after full apprehension of the
significance of the event. These men walked in the procession almost as in a dream, or
as dazzled by a brilliant light all around - as if impelled by a necessity, and carried from
event to event, which came upon them in a succession of but partially understood
surprises.
17. St. John xii. 16.
18. St. Luke xix. 37, 38.
They had now ranged themselves: the multitude which had come from the City
preceding, that which had come with Him from Bethany following the triumphant
progress of Israel's King, 'meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.'
'Gradually the long procession swept up and over the ridge where first begins "the
descent of the Mount of Olives" towards Jerus alem. At this point the first view is caught
of the south-eastern corner of the City. The Temple and the more northern portions are
hid by the slope of Olivet on the right; what is seen is only Mount Zion, now for the most
part a rough field.' But at that time it rose, terrace upon terrace, from the Palace of the
Maccabees and that of the High-Priest, a very city of palaces, till the eye rested in the
summit on that castle, city, and palace, with its frowning towers and magnificent