Originally Posted by mikepwagner

I assume that the unfortunate post was meant as you understood it - but it may be closer than you think theologically to the original intent.

As I recall, riding a donkey was associated with royalty in the time of the Gospels. It's been a long time, and I am no longer a Christian, but I am pretty sure that Jesus's entrance was suppsosed to be a triumphal royal entrance. We might think of a person riding a donkey as poor, but I am am not sure that was true in Gospel times.

I don't know what a triumphal royal procession would look like today. But I think that a reasonable theological argument could be made that were the Messiah to ride into Jerusalem today, it would be in a royal procession (at least from the point of view of the person who wrote the quoted psalms).

What does strike me as odd is that the Wikipedia article completely avoids the mention of Sukkot - the festival where Jews parade around shaking palm fronds saying (approximately) "Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna". I think any 1st or 2nd century Jew who heard the story would immediately see a reference to Sukkot. There may be a tradition about the messaih returning on Sukkot - I don't know.

I do know that the first time I celebrated Sukkot, I was surprised to find that what I thought was a unuique event (parading around shaking palm fronds and saynig 'Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna") in fact had been been happennig every year for a very long time before the times of the Gospels (and has continued for 1000s of years since the time of the Gospels).