Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion;
        announce, O daughter of Jerusalem.
Behold, your king comes to you,
        righteous and able to keep alive;
he is humble and mounted upon a mule,
        even a young foal of an ass.
And he will utterly destroy chariots from Ephraim,
        and a horse out of Jerusalem,
and a warlike bow will be utterly destroyed,
        even a number of them;
and there will be peace from the nations,
        and he will rule waters to seas and rivers,
        the passageway of the land.
And you, in the blood of your covenant,
        sent away your prisoners from a pit that has no water.
Drop down in the strongholds,
        O prisoners of the assembly,
and in place of one day ⌊of your exile.
        I will repay you double. (Zech 9:9–12)

Be glad, therefore, O Jerusalem, since of such a kind is a king appointed for you by God, and he has come to you, capable of saving his own on account of the divine influence accruing to him and justly inflicting total punishment on the adversaries. While he is riding a lowly animal for the reason that he has just arrived back from captivity, he assumes great power through divine grace, and so from Ephraim and from Jerusalem he will remove all the chariots of the adversaries, every war horse and every battle bow—that is to say, he will drive off all enemies so that there will be no longer any adversary against the country of Judah. He will also wipe out a great multitude of the adversaries and completely deprive them of peace, crushed and destroyed in a war waged by him.

Theodore of Mopsuestia, Commentary on Zechariah 9.8–10

The sun was darkened because of the Sun of justice. The rocks were rent because of “the spiritual rock.” Tombs were opened, and the dead arose, because of him who was “free among the dead.” He “sent forth his prisoners out of the pit, wherein there is no water.” Do not be ashamed, then, of the Crucified, but say with confidence, “He bears our sins and carries our sorrows, and by his bruises we are healed.” Let us not be ungrateful to our Benefactor. Again, “For the wickedness of my people was he led to death; and I shall give the ungodly for his burial, and the rich for his death.” And Paul says clearly “that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures.”

Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 13.34