June 16

And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethpage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples, saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me. And if any man say aught unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them, and straightway he will send them.—Matthew 21:1-3.

AND yet he had often entered Jerusalem before, but never with so much circumstance. What then is the cause? It was the beginning then of the dispensation, and neither was he very well known, nor the time of his Passion near; wherefore he mixed with them with less distinction, and more disguising himself. For he would not have been held in admiration, had he so appeared, and he would have excited them to greater anger. But when he had both given them sufficient proof of his power, and the cross was at the doors, he makes himself then more conspicuous, and doeth with greater circumstance all the things that were likely to inflame them. For it was indeed possible for this to have been done at the beginning also; but it was not profitable nor expedient it should be so.

But do thou observe, I pray thee, how many miracles are done, and how many prophecies are fulfilled. He said, Ye shall find an ass; he foretold that no man should hinder them, but that all, when they heard, should hold their peace.

But this is no small condemnation of the Jews, if them that were never known to him, neither had appeared before him, he persuades to give up their own property, and to say nothing against it, and that by his disciples, while these, being present with him at the working of his miracles, were not persuaded.

And do not account what was done to be a small thing. For who persuaded them, when their own property was taken from them, and that, when they were perhaps poor men and husband-men, not to forbid it? Why say I not to forbid it? not to ask, or even if they asked, to hold their peace, and give it up. For indeed both things were alike marvellous, as well, if they said nothing, when their beasts were dragged away, or if having spoken, and heard, The Lord hath need of them, they yielded and withstood not, and this when they see not him, but his disciples.

By these things he teaches them, that it was in his power to have entirely hindered the Jews also, even against their will, when they were proceeding to attack him, and to have made them speechless, but he would not.

And another thing again with these doth he teach the disciples, to give whatever he should ask; and, though he should require them to yield up their very life, to give even this, and not to gainsay. For if even strangers gave up to him, much more ought they to strip themselves of all things.

And besides what we have said, he was fulfilling also another prophecy, one which was twofold, one part in words, and another in deeds. And that in deeds was, by sitting on the ass; and that by words, the prediction of Zacharias; because he had said, that the king should sit on an ass. And he, having sat and having fulfilled it, gave to the prophecy another beginning again, by what he was doing typifying beforehand the things to come.

How and in what manner? He proclaimed beforehand the calling of the unclean Gentiles, and that he should rest upon them, and that they should yield to him and follow him, and prophecy succeeded to prophecy.

But to me he seemeth not for this object only to sit on the ass, but also as affording us a standard of self-denial. For not only did he fulfill prophecies, nor did he only plant the doctrines of the truth, but by these very things he was correcting our practice for us, everywhere setting us rules of necessary use, and by all means amending our life.

For this cause, I say, even when he was to be born he sought not a splendid house, nor a mother rich and distinguished, but a poor woman, and one that had a carpenter as her betrothed husband; and is born in a shed, and laid in a manger: and choosing his disciples, he chose not orators, and wise men, not rich and nobly born, but poor men, and of poor families, and in every way undistinguished; and providing his table, at one time he sets before himself barley loaves and at another at the very moment commands the disciples to buy at the market. And making his couch, he makes it of grass, and putting on raiment, he clothes himself in what is cheap, and in no respect different from the common sort; and a house he did not so much as possess. And if he had to go from place to place, he did this travelling on foot, and so travelling, as even to grow weary. And sitting, he requires no throne nor pillow, but sits on the ground, sometimes in the mountain, and sometimes by the well, and not merely by the well, but also alone, and talks with a Samaritan woman.

"Saviour, where'er thy steps I see, Dauntless, untired, I follow thee; O let thy hand support me still, And lead me to thy holy hill."