Luke 19:28-40
Luke 23:1-49
“The Donkey who Thought He was a Horse”
By: Ken Sauer, Pastor of East Ridge United Methodist Church, Chattanooga, TN
There is nothing dignified about a donkey!
We can look at him from any angle and we will fail to find what we might call a sense of “presence.”
He just doesn’t have it.
He is an awkward, stubborn, and well…not very intelligent animal to say the least.
But there is a story about a donkey who thought he was a horse.
One day, he was just hanging out in Bethany, minding his own business when two men came to him in urgent need.
“The Lord needs it,” he heard them say.
And as they brought it to Jesus, and threw their cloaks upon it and then put Jesus on it…
…well, it’s pride began to swell.
“Certainly I am not just a horse but a grand steed!”
And then, people began throwing their cloaks upon the road in honor of this donkey.
“Yes, I am grand indeed!”
People in the crowd “began joyfully to praise God in loud voices...”
Yes, donkey thought to himself, I am wonderful indeed.
And then, as soon as it had begun, the parade was over.
Jesus got down off the donkey, and the two men took him back to Bethany; tying him up again to the same old post.
No one, ever again, looked twice at donkey.
This got donkey thinking, and thinking and thinking.
And as donkey was thinking, God spoke to donkey, “You are not a horse but a donkey. The hosannas were not for you, but for Jesus. The palm branches were not for you, they were for the King of Kings.
You were used as an instrument in God’s great plan.
You did a great job!
Well, done!
You will be talked about for eternity.
Thank you for your service, but you are not a horse…
…you are a donkey…
…and there is nothing wrong with being a donkey!
Friends, as disciples of Jesus Christ, we are called to be God’s donkey!!!
We are called to be humble, to bring Christ the King into the cities, towns and communities…
…we are to be used for the grand purposes of God.
And there is no higher privilege.
There is no greater calling!!!
If Jesus can use an ordinary, funny looking donkey for an extraordinary purpose…
…what can God do with you and me?
Palm Sunday has a lot of irony in it.
There is a huge parade as we wave palm branches…
…cheering and celebrating the dramatic entry of Jesus on the donkey.
Yet, in reality, there is very little to cheer about.
For those of us who truly know what the day is about know where Jesus is headed.
The “hosannas” and the cries of “blessed be” ring hollow, when we understand how fickle the crowd really is…
…how easily their praises turn into curses!
Are we ready not only to spread our cloaks on the road in front of Jesus, but also to follow Him into trouble, controversy, trial and death?
Just five days after the triumphant entry on Palm Sunday, we find Jesus standing in front of Pilate.
And in the background we hear, not loud “hosannas” but an angry, blood thirsty mob yelling, “Crucify Him!”
Our Gospel story is, indeed filled with paradox.
We are used to seeing Jesus hanging out with tax collectors and sinners.
We have been told over and over again, that this is what Jesus’ ministry was about…
…embodying the outstretched love of God to all in need, going to search for the lost sheep wherever they might be found.
We are not, perhaps, quite as prepared for it to end like this.
It is one thing for Jesus to go in and eat with a person who is a sinner.
It is another thing altogether for Him to go off and die the death of a violent rebel!!!
But this is the focus of the whole Gospel so far!
So, having interrogated Jesus, Pilate called the “chief priests, the rulers and the people, and said to them, ‘You brought me this man as one who was inciting the people to rebellion. I have examined him in your presence and have found no basis for your charges against him.
Neither has Herod, for he sent him back to us; as you can see, he has done nothing to deserve death…”
Jesus made no threats, put up no resistance and said hardly anything!
Yet these people wanted to get rid of Him.
It is very interesting and important to note that Herod and Pilate had never gotten along.
Herod was a Jewish King and Pilate was a Gentile ruler.
But the Gospel of Jesus Christ is about God breaking down barriers of hatred, reaching out beyond the racial and geographical boundaries of Israel, beyond the prejudice and blindness, bringing together Jews and Gentiles, young and old, the hated Samaritan, the tax-collector.
Now, without even believing in Jesus, Herod and Pilate are finally friends.
With Jesus on His Way to the Cross, reconciliation is breaking out all over the place!!!
The world is already becoming a new place through Jesus and His crucifixion.
If even Herod and Pilate can become friends through this, think how we too can be reconciled with anyone as we come under the shadow of the Cross!!!
Moving on, Pilate informs the crowd, “I will punish him and then release him.”
But this is not going to work.
“With one voice they cried out, ‘Away with this man! Release Barabbas to us!’ (Barabbus had been thrown into prison for an insurrection, and for murder.)
Wanting to release Jesus, Pilate appealed to them again.
But the kept shouting, ‘Crucify him! Crucify him!...’
…So Pilate decided to grant their demand.”
And Jesus ends up dying the death of a violent rebel!
All sinners, all rebels, all the human race…
…including you and me are called to see ourselves in Barabbas’ shoes…
…for Jesus came to take our place!!!
Like us, Barabbas deserves to die; Jesus dies instead, and Barabbas goes free!!!
Perhaps there is great reason to celebrate after-all!!!
The story of Jesus is the story of God doing for us what we could not do for ourselves—how can we not be astonished into the most humble gratitude?
How can we not fall on our knees and sing with the hymn writer, “Yes, I was there when they crucified the Lord!!!”?
And there are some other characters who figure importantly in this story.
Each of us are called to take up our cross and follow Christ.
And this is, of course, where Simon comes in.
He had come to Jerusalem from one of the Jewish communities in North Africa, and found himself in a very strange situation, indeed!
Normally, criminals on their way to be executed carried their own cross, as a part of the shame and torture of the whole awful thing.
We aren’t told why Jesus can’t carry it for Himself, but it takes very little imagination to fill in the blank.
Over and over again, Jesus has urged His followers to take up their cross and follow Him.
And here at last someone is doing this, and even more—Simon is carrying Jesus’ own Cross!!!
He is a model for us all who would dare walk in the footsteps of Christ on the road of humility, pain and even death!
Like the donkey, neither Barabbas nor Simon would have dreamed that their names would be known, and their stories told around the world, two thousand years later!
How much more, when we follow Jesus and carry His Cross, can we be sure that God will use us in His work to save the world?
We are told that “darkness came over the whole land…” as Jesus hung on the Cross, “for the sun had stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two.”
From now on the Temple is as good as finished!
Its purpose is over.
From now on, access to the Living God is open to all only through the death of Jesus Christ, the Son of God!!!
Jesus’ work was complete, and with a few more words, the King of the Universe died.
And now, at last, not the high priest, not a leading rabbi, not even a loyal disciple, but a battle-hardened thug in a Roman uniform…
…a guy who is used to killing people the way we might kill flies, stands before Jesus and becomes the first sane human being to praise God for Who Jesus is, and mean it!
A donkey who thought he was a horse has been humbled to the dust…
…the crowds cheer Jesus—though they have no idea what the next few days will bring.
Jesus has come to this earth to pay a ransom for human’s held captive by sin and the devil.
Saints of East Ridge United Methodist Church, let us sing our upbeat hymns!
Let’s cheer Jesus’ triumphant entry.
Yet, let’s also be keenly aware that between Palm Sunday and Easter Day there is an arrest, and a flogging, and a trial and a Cross!
In awe and wonder, let us fall down and worship Him!
Amen.
