Jesus takes up a heavily prophetic role in this passage: for starters, he rides into Jerusalem on the back of a colt, almost ridiculing the practice of riding on large war horses in victory. Once he reaches the strong edifice of the city, he again works in irony, predicting that it would soon be torn down (and that is exactly what happened). All in all, if you're trying to look like a big shot, this was a major failure. Luckily, Jesus had something other than his own ego in mind: he was about bringing the Kingdom of God.