Isaiah 50:4-9a Page 714
Mark 11:1-11 Page 61
When I was at school I could see neither point nor purpose in learning poetry. To me, at that stage, poetry hardly made sense. If you had something to say, why not say it. If you did not have anything to say, why fill up pages and pages of nonsense that took hours and hours of dull, dry English lessons to sort out what was being said. But to pass the English exam I had to learn a poem; to be able to analyse it, recognise metre and rhythm and talk about its meaning. So I learned one - and used that one poem year after year in every exam. That poem was “The Donkey” by G.K.Chesterton.
When Fishes flew and forests walk’d
And figs grew upon thorn
Some moment when the moon was blood
Then surely I was born.
With monstrous head and sickening cry
And ears like errant wings
The Devil’s walking parody
On all four-footed things
The tatter’d outlaw of the earth
Of ancient crooked will
Starve, scourge, deride me, I am dumb
I keep my secret still.
Fools! For I also had my hour
One far fierce hour and sweet
There was a shout about my ears
And palms beneath my feet.
On Palm Sunday there is a lesson for us in G.K. Chesterton’s poem, for it picks up the theme of the Old Testament lesson for today. Let’s look first at the donkey and then at the lesson Jesus tried so hard to teach.
Chesterton’s poem gives us a picture as the donkey just might have seen himself. A misfit, born when all other things were out of order. Hopelessly ugly - worse than the ugly duckling. Monstrous head and sickening cry, and ears like errant wings. It is the cry of every person who has ever said "My nose is too long" "My eyes are the wrong shape" " My legs are too fat". For every person, old or young, who looks in the mirror and says “Yuk!” For every teenager that has ever looked at themselves with loathing wishing they were something else - and that is almost every person at some time or another - here is the donkey’s cry. The devil’s walking parody on all four-footed things The teenager cries "everybody sees that my ears stick out", and they feel like the donkey. The Donkey’s cry is the cry of everyone who ever felt they were unimportant, unwanted, no good; that when God was handing out beauty and gifts and abilities they were out of the room.
It is the cry too of those who have been used, abused and misused through life. Has life been unfair? Have you had to do all the work while others seemed to skip through life with fun and laughter? Have you had the sticky end of the wicket all the time? Have you carried hurts and burdens far more than you feel you should? Do others have all the money, able to do all sorts of exciting things while you scrimp and save to just get by? That is the donkey’s cry. He too has been seen as nothing but a beast of burden. Whenever he tries to resist he is beaten into submission. No one ever saw him as beautiful. Never is he chosen for the glamour tasks. When the group are chosing someone to be president no one would think he could do it. They just laugh if his name is suggested. The tattered outlaw of the earth, of ancient crooked will, Starve scourge, deride me, I am dumb.
Then the first hint of surprise. I keep my secret still. What secret could there possibly be for this little ugly animal with a huge head and flappy ears and a voice like a chain saw? What could a donkey have as a secret? Fools! For I also had my hour, One far fierce hour and sweet, There was a shout about my ears, and palms beneath my feet. What gives the donkey a sense of his own value - his own self worth? What over-rides all the mistakes of creation (in his eyes) all the derision of others and the abuses of this life? It is that the Living God, in Jesus Christ, chose, in his hour of glory; for the one time that Jesus declared his intention and purpose for all to see; when the praise and adoration of the crowd echoed around; in that one time Jesus chose a donkey. For ever after - no matter what happens to him - the donkey knows, with an unshakable certainty he knows - that he is loved by God; that he is precious in the eyes of the Father. He knows there is meaning and purpose in his creation. That secret sustains him no matter what else happens. No matter how great the disaster, how prolonged the hurt, the donkey holds up his head, for he was chosen by God.
Do you look at the way your life has turned out and wish that it was all different? Do you long for something to change that would make it all bearable? James Dobson points out that 95% of all teenagers look at their body and wish some part of it could be changed. It is too fat, too thin, too tall, too short, there is hair where there should not be and none where there should. Always something is wrong. I suspect that that feeling of wrongness stays with many many adults. That is why there are so many diet and slimming courses, why running and aerobics are so popular.
But more important that the physical shape we are in is the way we see ourselves - our personalities and characters. Some would echo the donkey. They have a personality With monstrous head and sickening cry and ears like errant wings. An American psychologist visiting New Zealand commented that as a nation we are a people with a massive inferiority complex. We have the second highest rate of teenage suicide in the world. That carries over into adult life. Most of us don’t like ourselves, we are quick to criticize and slow to praise. Most of us think we should have done better with our lives. Many see the sands of time running out and realise that their dreams will never be reached.
How incredibly sad that so few have discovered the donkey’s secret. How sad because it was what Jesus was trying so hard to teach. Jesus said that he came that the blind might see, the deaf hear and the lame walk, while the poor have good news preached to them. His words were about physical healing sure - but far more importantly he was talking about each one of us who has been crippled in our spirits. So many who are spiritually blind. Blind to the real Jesus. Blind to the great secret. Blind to the overwhelming truth that will set you free. Free forever from carrying the burdens of guilt and hurt. Free to walk as you have never walked before. As Isaiah promises (Isaiah 40:31) but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
What is the donkey’s secret? Simple. He was chosen by God. Do you not know that each one of you is chosen by God. It is an amazing truth that is so very very hard for people to grasp. Yet it is so simple. You and I have meaning because we are chosen by God. You would not be here if you have not already, in some way, felt his hand on your life. But it is far more than that. Like all the great promises of the Bible this one is repeated over and over again. God chose you. Do you know that your parents did not want you? No matter whether you were conceived as the result of a chance encounter or a much yearned for, waited for baby, your parents did not want you. At the most they wanted a boy or a girl. But you, with all your strengths and weaknesses, your idiosyncrasies and foibles. No they did not want you. But God did. Listen.
Psalm 139 You created every part of me
You put me together in my mother’s womb
When my bones were being formed
carefully put together in my mother’s womb
When I was growing there in secret
You knew I was there
You saw me before I was born
The days allotted to me had all been recorded in your book
Before any of them ever began.
God created you. He chose you. He decided before you were born whether you would be male or female, have brown eyes or blue, be tall or short, whether you had skill in mathematics or could fashion things with your hands. You were chosen before you were born, and a role for your life has been given.. If you can’t sing like Kiri Te Kanawa - or even Maurice Taylor - then probably he is not calling you to be an opera singer. His gifting for you is in another direction. Do not break your heart over what he, in his wisdom, has not given you. For God made crows as well as canaries. Look at the things you can do and thank him for that.
Listen to Ephesians 2:10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Hear that. You and I were created by God, in Jesus, to do good words which God prepared in advance for us to do. Think about that. If you were making a cake mixer you would design it with a bowl to hold the ingredients and a beater to mix them. In your mind you have a picture of the task you want that mixer to do. Therefore the things that mixer had would equip it to mix dough. It would be futile for the cake mixer to cry out "I can’t chop up carrots, or I am hopeless at making milk shakes". It was not designed - prepared - to do that. Ephesians 2:10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. God designed us to do the tasks he prepared for us. Each one of us has been given gifts to fit the tasks God has for us. No one, not anyone, is outside the plan of God. No one is useless. No matter what others may be able to do you were created by God for a purpose. In this life it is possible that you may never know what that purpose is. But it is real just the same. For you are loved by the Living God.
Are we a long way from the donkey? No! For Chesterton’s donkey had discovered what Jesus was talking about when he said (John 14:27) Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
When you discover the amazing truth that you are special to God, that he not only knows about you, but that he knows you and loves you. When you discover the wonderful fact that Jesus loves me this I know Then a peace will come into your life that nothing can shake. Like the donkey you will still have troubles. He was still Starved, scourged, derided but his secret gave him a total confidence and peace to face the worst this world can bring knowing the joy and peace given only by the Living God.
This is what the Old Testament lesson is trying to show. Read Isaiah 50:6-8 Page 714 Why did this suffering servant not become bitter and resentful? It was because he had an inner peace that nothing, not even physical abuse, nothing could take that peace from him.
That inner peace comes only when we allow the grace of God into our lives placing total trust in Jesus Christ. His peace gives strength to face the world.
If you have believed the lie of Satan, believed that you are unattractive, that you are useless and have few skills or talents with which to serve God and bless others; if you have lived in satanic deception hear now the truth of God. He created you, and nothing that God makes is rubbish.
Jesus came to set you free from the deception and lie. Jesus can make you whole. Come to him and discover the full life he came to give.
This, I am confident, is one truth Jesus tried so hard to show, in those last hours of his life, for he knew how much we need his love.
