“Shout and cheer, Daughter Zion!
   Raise the roof, Daughter Jerusalem!
Your king is coming!
   a good king who makes all things right,
   a humble king riding a donkey,
   a mere colt of a donkey.” Zechariah 9:9 (MSG)

I think about the mental images in my mind of Kings and Generals marching victorious into their cities. I see in mind the rows upon rows of German troops with Hitler riding in his car up Paris’ Champs-Elysees’ with the Arc de Triomph in the background. I see American heroes riding through Manhattan, the sky so thick with ticker-tape that you’d think it was a blizzard. I envision massive crowds, starched dress uniforms, and and polished dress shoes reflecting the noonday sun like millions of tiny mirrors on the streets. I imagine the impressive site of row upon row of Roman legion with their bright red capes flowing in the wind as they march through the streets of Rome.

I contrast that with the fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecy. I can picture King Jesus on a small donkey with his hapless parade of simpleton followers; Fishermen and yokels from out in the sticks north of Galilee marching into Jerusalem’s gate for the Passover. No wonder the mighty Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate,  looked with incredulity when the beaten, bloody Jesus was brought to him by the religious power brokers less than a week later.

“This guy? A king?!” I can hear him say. “Seriously? You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.” John 8:36 (NIV)

One of the things I love about Jesus, one of the things that leads me to believe that he is exactly who He claimed to be, is that He is not like any of the others my history books describe. He is a King, though not of this world.

Jesus is nothing that I have come to expect, and everything that I’ve discovered I need.