Colts and Stones (Mark 11: 1-11) 4/1/12

In 587 BC, after a host of mediocre and bad rulers, Jerusalem and the Southern Kingdom of Israel fell to the Babylonian empire. All of the best and brightest of the nation were transported away from their homes to live out their years in exile. Over sixty years would pass while Jerusalem continued to decay from ruin and neglect. In 538 BC, the famous Edict of Cyrus was released, which allowed the Jews to begin the slow return to their homeland. About 20 years later, the prophet Zechariah began his work for God in the nation of Israel. His name means “God has remembered” and he prophesied to the post-exilic nation of Israel. Some 500 years later, his prophesies would come true in a rebuilt Jerusalem through Jesus Christ, the Messiah.

Those from the nation of Israel who so desired had been allowed to return to their homeland. They were even allowed to rebuild the temple. But twenty years after their return found them in a partially rebuilt city, paying high taxes to the Persian king, dispirited, demoralized and disorganized, sitting on the sidelines when it came to world significance. It was to this state of affairs that God called Zechariah. Zechariah spoke to rally their hope and to make them believe in their future. He spoke of a time when God would act to reorder the universe.  In the ninth chapter of Zechariah, the prophet of old says to God’s people:

          Behold, your king is coming to you,

righteous and having salvation is he,

humble and mounted on a donkey,

on a colt, the foal of a donkey. (Zech. 9:9)

          Half a millennium later, Jesus comes to town on a colt, the foal of a donkey. The people throw their cloaks on the donkey to create a makeshift saddle and Jesus sits on it. John’s gospel says that the people set him on it.  He rides into Jerusalem on Passover week and crowds gather and spread leafy branches cut from the fields. They shout “Hosanna.” Their king has come. They could not have been more right. If only they knew Jesus’ definition of “king.”

          Passover week was and still is the great Jewish celebration. It commemorates the liberation of the Jewish people from slavery. This is the week that Jesus picked to announce his messiahship, the chosen one from the house of David, the one for whom the people had been waiting; the one about whom Zechariah had prophesied so many years ago. Little wonder that the crowds looked upon Jesus as their Messianic liberator from Rome’s oppression.  The parallels were striking; the prophecies practically promised it. Or did they?

          You know, this is just a little scrap of Scripture. It normally gets a heading in the Bible like “the triumphal entry.” In many ways, it is just a little segway to get Jesus into Jerusalem for Holy Week…for what we now identify as the Passion. Not far from Jerusalem, Jesus sends two disciples to town, probably Bethpage, which lies only a couple miles outside the capital city. He sends them to get a colt, a young, unridden foal of a donkey, for him to ride into Jerusalem. Though these verses are just a setup for the more important passages to come, there is still some significance here. Everywhere else, Jesus walks. It is only here that we see him riding. It is reminiscent of the triumphal entries of past military conquerors. The choice of the colt of a donkey over a horse also has significance. Kings rode horses when they went off to war. When they returned in peace, they rode on donkeys.  While Jesus is acknowledging his kingship, he is also emphasizing that he comes in peace. So Jesus fulfills prophecy.  

We now call this day Palm Sunday, although it is only in the gospel of John that palm branches are mentioned. The other gospels do not, although they do talk about branches with green leaves.  Both may have been used. While palm trees are not native to that area, the branches could have come from Jericho and could have been used with other green branches, all to honor the hero coming into town.

          So we have this little travelogue moving Jesus and his disciples from out of town to the grand entrance. We have the parallel of Passover to what will become Holy Week for Christians. We have the fulfillment of Old Testament Scripture. That’s enough for a segway. But I am curious about one other thing. I’m really curious about this poor young colt, the foal of a donkey. He plays his part so well that except for the visual image that is created, we hardly take further note of this little fella. The donkey’s behavior is highly unusual. What occurred that day is of no small significance, for it opens a window for us to see in yet another way the amazing effect that our Lord Jesus can have on nature, on his surroundings, on creatures of every kind and on us, his people.

          If you have ever spent much time around horses, you know that they spook easily. I have a client who raises and trains horses. She is a kind and gentle soul and her horses trust her. A couple years ago, she was out in her own meadow with a young horse. She was just getting him used to walking with a bit in his mouth. On that day, although she remembered to lock up her very excitable sheepdog, he tripped the latch to his pen and bounded into the meadow at full speed. The horse was spooked. He bolted from my friend, turned and before she could react, he had kicked her in the head. She almost died from the blow. It took her months to get over the concussion and related injuries. Before she passed out, she told her husband to leave the horse alone, that he had just reacted in his normal way to a commotion.  Of course, she was right. Horses don’t like surprises. They don’t like a lot of people or a lot of noise or a lot of commotion. Donkeys are part of the breed and can be expected to act in much the same way.

Think of that in terms of what we know about Palm Sunday. Remember, this was the beginning of the biggest celebration of the year. The city population had swelled completely out of control. People were everywhere. It was in this loud and boisterous environment that Jesus mounted not only a donkey, but a young donkey, and not only a young donkey, but a donkey that had never been ridden.  This was an unbroken colt. Then add to that the piling of garments and a grown man on this creature’s back, the scattering of leaves and branches right in front of him, and a literal gauntlet of people to walk through. Finally, all the people were excited. They were clamoring to get to where they could see Jesus. They were singing and dancing and yelling and screaming. This was that young colt’s introduction to being a beast of burden.

And yet, we hear nothing in any gospel account about any trouble whatsoever from this young donkey. It is as though he was born to have a grown man mount him and be led through a narrow passage lined by tens of thousands of people on both sides. His fifteen minutes of fame were passed quietly without incident. How is that? That is simply not the nature of such an animal.

The first explanation is that there was a commotion and that it is not reported. I really doubt that. I don’t think anything negative happened that day or one of the gospel writers would have mentioned it. So why did this colt behave so admirably? The answer is right before us. The colt was being ridden by the Son of God. I don’t for a minute doubt that while this colt may not have been able to discuss theology with us, he knew exactly who was on his back. It was his Creator.

Let me emphasize this in another way. What if Jesus had not been there? What if you or I had tried to mount that unbroken colt and ride through that crowd? What do you think the chances are that we would have made it fifty yards without incident? And yet, Jesus apparently rode all the way to the temple. That colt was calm. He was calm because he was walking with his Lord. It was easy to be obedient, says theologian Manfred Gutzke, because he was in the presence of his Lord. 

In Luke’s gospel, the same story is told, but Luke also tells us that some of the Pharisees called upon Jesus to rebuke the crowd from giving him kingly praise. His answer to them was that if he called upon the people to be silent, “the very stones would cry out.”  Think about it. God’s creatures, both animate and inanimate, know they are his creation. They act in reverence and obedience in the presence of their Lord. Is it not the same with us? When we walk in our own independence, it is the flesh that rules us.  But when we are walking with our Savior, when he is present in our hearts and pre-eminent in our actions through the work of the Holy Spirit, are we not calm? We cannot walk the road of this life independent of our Lord without bolting and stumbling and bucking at that which faces us. But with God at our side…those stones need not cry out. It is we instead who call out joyfully: "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” Like the foal of a donkey who instinctively knew his master that Sunday morning, we can walk with our Savior. Like the prophet whose very name declares it, we can acknowledge along with Zechariah that God has remembered, that he has sent us the righteous one…and in him is salvation, not just from Persian emperors or Roman rule or human oppression… but from Satan himself.