Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Mark 11:7

"And they bring the colt unto Jesus, and cast on him their garments; and he sat upon him." — Mark 11:7 (ASV)

The action of the crowd was completely spontaneous. The outer garments on the back of the donkey made a kind of saddle for Jesus to ride on. When he mounted the colt, others in the crowd spread their garments on the road (an act of royal homage; cf. 2 Kings 9:13) and spread branches before him (John mentions “palm branches,” 12:13). These could easily have been cut from the fields located nearby. By sitting on a donkey and entering Jerusalem in fulfillment of Zec 9:9, Jesus was implicitly declaring himself to be the Messiah. His kingdom, however, was not a political one, but a spiritual one—one centered on peace. No one could charge Jesus with political activism by the manner in which he declared his messiahship.