Poor and Riding upon an Ass, Faithful and True upon a White Horse: The Two Comings of the King
Old Testament: Zacharias 9:9-10
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion, shout for joy, O daughter of Jerusalem: BEHOLD THY KING will come to thee, the just and saviour: he is poor, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. And I will destroy the chariot out of Ephraim, and the horse out of Jerusalem, and the bow for war shall be broken: and he shall speak peace to the Gentiles.
Old Testament, also: Genesis 49:10-11
The sceptre shall not be taken away from Juda, nor a ruler from his thigh, till he come that is to be sent, and he shall be the expectation of nations. Tying his foal to the vineyard, and his ass, O my son, to the vine. He shall wash his robe in wine, and his garment in the blood of the grape.
New Testament: Matthew 21:4-5; Apocalypse 19:11, 13, 15
Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: Tell ye the daughter of Sion: Behold thy king cometh to thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of her that is used to the yoke. ... And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called faithful and true, and with justice doth he judge and fight. ... And he was clothed with a garment sprinkled with blood; and his name is called, THE WORD OF GOD. ... and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of God the Almighty.
The connection
Zacharias sees a King coming to Jerusalem and describes Him in a way no king would choose: "poor, and riding upon an ass." The next verse says what comes with this King: God will "destroy the chariot out of Ephraim, and the horse out of Jerusalem," "the bow for war shall be broken," and the King "shall speak peace to the Gentiles." He comes on the animal of peace to take away the animal of war. David's own son had come to his throne that way, set upon his father's mule to be anointed (3 Kings 1:38). Matthew says plainly that it happened, and why: "all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet." Christ sends for an ass and her colt and rides into Jerusalem, "meek", to shouts of Hosanna from a crowd that wanted a king who would fight. He had come to die. The last time Scripture shows Him riding, the animal has changed. "I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called faithful and true, and with justice doth he judge and fight." The same King at His other coming: first in meekness, to be judged; then in glory, to judge. Jacob's blessing on Juda holds the whole road in two verses: the ruler who is "the expectation of nations", "Tying his foal to the vineyard, and his ass ... to the vine. He shall wash his robe in wine, and his garment in the blood of the grape." St Justin Martyr reads it as a single sequence. The foal bound at the entrance of a village is Christ sending for the colt and riding into Jerusalem, "And after this He was crucified", and the robe washed in the blood of the grape "was predictive of the passion He was to endure, cleansing by His blood those who believe on Him." And that is how the rider on the white horse is dressed. He is "clothed with a garment sprinkled with blood", and He "treadeth the winepress", the robe of Genesis washed in the blood of the grape. Between the donkey and the white horse stands the Cross. He rides in on the one and dies; He rides out on the other wearing the blood by which He won.
Moral sense
He comes first on a donkey: meek, easy to overlook, easy to refuse, forcing no one. That is the hour we live in. The white horse is not a second invitation; it is the invitation answered. So the time to meet Him with palms is now, while He still comes in a form that can be turned away. And the strength He shows is worth copying: the One who will judge the world chose first to be carried into His city on a borrowed colt.
Anagogical sense
The procession that began at Bethphage and ended at a cross is finished by one that comes out of heaven opened, with the armies of heaven following on white horses. The cry of the crowd, Hosanna to the Son of David, becomes the name written on His garment and His thigh: King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.
The Fathers
St Justin Martyr, First Apology 32: "the prophecy, 'binding His foal to the vine, and washing His robe in the blood of the grape,' was a significant symbol of the things that were to happen to Christ ... And after this He was crucified, that the rest of the prophecy might be fulfilled. For this 'washing His robe in the blood of the grape' was predictive of the passion He was to endure, cleansing by His blood those who believe on Him." Dialogue with Trypho 53: "that expression, 'binding his foal to the vine, and the ass's foal to the vine tendril,' was a declaring beforehand both of the works wrought by Him at His first advent, and also of that belief in Him which the nations would repose."
Warrant
Scriptural because Matthew 21:4-5 names the fulfilment and quotes Zacharias 9:9: "all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet." Matthew's wording, meek and a colt the foal of her that is used to the yoke, follows the Greek of Zacharias rather than the Hebrew and Latin behind the Douay's poor, and the entry quotes each as the Douay prints it. The contrast with Apocalypse 19 is the entry's own, and the badge does not rest on it. No Father in the site's corpora was found setting the ass of the entry into Jerusalem against the white horse; a search for one was made. What St Justin Martyr does supply is the hinge. In the First Apology (32) he reads Genesis 49:11 as one prophecy of the entry into Jerusalem followed by the Passion, the foal for the one and the robe washed in the blood of the grape for the other, and in the Dialogue with Trypho (53) he calls the foal a declaring beforehand of the works of Christ's first advent. The same passage of the Apology reads the expectation of nations as those who look for Him to come again. The garment sprinkled with blood and the winepress of Apocalypse 19:13 and 15 take up Isaias 63:1-3, the one who comes from Edom with dyed garments, "their blood is sprinkled upon my garments". Joining them to the robe of Genesis 49:11 is traditional rather than stated by John. Zacharias 9:10 is read in the entry as the King taking away the horse of war. That the same King returns on a horse is the tension the entry points to, and it is left as a tension: the white horse is not war restored but war ended.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 559.
The verses
Zacharias 9:9 · Zacharias 9:10 · Genesis 49:10 · Genesis 49:11 · Matthew 21:4 · Matthew 21:5 · Apocalypse 19:11 · Apocalypse 19:13 · Apocalypse 19:15
