Palm Sunday online 2026-03-29

Palm Sunday, by Rev. Dr. Mark Caggiano, 3/29/26
Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29; Matthew 21:1-11
The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; they brought the donkey and the colt and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them.
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus rides into the city of Jerusalem. We are told that he did so while riding a donkey and a colt. For any of you that has ever ridden a horse, you might be wondering how Jesus managed to do that. Was it a miracle? No, it was not. It was a mistranslation.
Not a mistranslation of the Gospel of Matthew, but a mistranslation by Matthew of a passage from the Book of Zechariah. Here is the underlying verse being invoked by the author of Matthew:
Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
Compare this with the “Palm Sunday” passage from the Gospel of Luke: “Then they brought it to Jesus, and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it.” Now there is just the colt. Because there was always just the colt or the donkey, not both. This language is almost identical to the Gospel of Mark. There is a slight difference in the Gospel of John, the animal being referred to as a donkey, or a donkey’s colt, meaning a young donkey. Again, not both.
This imagery is intended to connect back to the Hebrew text describing the triumphal entry of a king into the city. Along the way, Zechariah was engaging in some poetic flourishes, offering a series of clauses to embellish the coming of the king. It was intended as grand language.