Image Details

Photo by Bridgeman/Art Resource, NY

ON THE COVER: Crowds of people meet Jesus as he enters Jerusalem for the last time before his crucifixion, in this 17th-century icon from the Greek Ionian Islands. Matthew, Mark and Luke report that some onlookers spread their cloaks on the road, while others lay down branches cut from trees. The donkey on which Jesus rides, mentioned in all four Gospels, recalls the prophet Zechariah’s words to the Jerusalemites: “Your king comes to you…riding on a donkey” (Zechariah 9:9). In “How Jesus Saw Himself,” N.T. Wright suggests that Jesus thought of himself as an eschatological prophet—in the tradition of Israel’s earlier prophets, such as Moses and Isaiah, who had promised Israel’s freedom from bondage and the return of Yahweh to his people. But, for Wright, Jesus’ message is more radical: In Jesus himself those promises are fulfilled and “the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Luke 4:17).