Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying,
“Say to the daughter of Zion,
‘Behold, your king is coming to you,
humble, and mounted on a donkey,
and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’”
The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” And the crowds said, ‘This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”
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He Who is over time entered into time to be our Savior. In the fullness if time He was found not as One to be served, but One serving. For a brief moment he was found riding on the very opposite of what the world would expect - a donkey instead of a steed. A short time later, He endured on behalf of all people of all time, and for all time, that which even kings will shut their mouths on account of: sin, death, and the devil, as He uttered “It is finished” on the accursed tree of the cross.
And so it happens that those who suffer under every sin and weakness are beheld as absolved in the eyes of God. This One Christ Jesus, Who for a short time endured weakness on your behalf, is now raised from the dead. He is in every way desiring to be joined to you, and is so, inasmuch as you, dear Christian, are baptized into His Name, and partake of His very body and blood.
This is reason for great rejoicing, O Christian, for nothing in heaven or on earth will separate you from the love of God on Christ Jesus. Not even death itself.
“What does it mean that they would call Jesus a “prophet”?”
He was doing the works and saying the things prophets of the Old Covenant were doing and saying. Elijah raised a dead boy (2Kings 4) and so the people recognized Jesus as a prophet when he raised a dead child (Mark 5). Elisha fed multitudes (2Kings 4-5) and so did Jesus (Matt.14). And just as Isaiah inveighed against Jerusalem prophesying its destruction (Isa. 5:1-7), so did Jesus later on in that same chapter (Matt. 21), using Isaiah’s own words!
By all these things the people knew Him to be a prophet. So, too, did the Temple authorities and hated Him because of it, in exactly the same way the prophets of old were killed (Matt. 23).
They had learned nothing from the Babylonian destruction and captivity of Jerusalem in 586 BC (II Ch. 36:15-22), and history repeated itself in 70 AD, despite Jesus’ many prophetic warnings.