Untie the Donkey (Lent 34-2019)

The disciples were understandably nervous. It was both a nervous fear and a nervous excitement. They could see Jerusalem in the distance. This was really happening!

Luke 19:28 After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. 29 As he approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, 30 “Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here.

Jesus was about to do something remarkable. He would harken the minds of the observers back to the writings in 1 Kings 1:32-34 and King David’s commissioning of Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet to get a mule for his son Solomon to be anointed as king over Israel. Jesus was about to do that very thing. Two were commissioned–in this case disciples–and a donkey no one had ever ridden would bear the King of the Jews.

The disciples, excited to be part of this Messianic fervor, rushed to do their task. The remaining disciples looked at Jesus, wondering if He knew what He was doing, whether this plan was truly thought out, or how this could be an actual battle strategy. Was overthrow going to come with a man entering peacefully on a gentle donkey? Aren’t we supposed to be crowning Him king and getting battle-ready? Their hearts were pounding as they awaited the arrival of the donkey and return of the two who had been sent. All the while their minds were a muddle.

Think about it:

In 1 Kings 1:32 King David said, “Call in Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet and Benaiah son of Jehoiada.” When they came before the king, 33 he said to them: “Take your lord’s servants with you and have Solomon my son mount my own mule and take him down to Gihon. 34 There have Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him king over Israel. Blow the trumpet and shout, ‘Long live King Solomon!’”
How did a prophet, a priest, and a king-to-be enter Gihon in 1 Kings?
How would Jesus fulfill prophet, priest, and king in His entry to the Holy City of Jerusalem?

Lord Jesus, we crown You as King of our hearts and our lives! Reign in us today, we pray! Amen.

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Lent 2013 looked at The Letter to the Romans: Paul’s Masterpiece to reclaim foundations of our Christian heritage and began February 13, 2013.
A very special and ever popular offering was Lent 2014’s Be Still and Know that I AM God which can be obtained through the archives beginning in March 2014.
Lent 2015 began on February 18, 2015 with a series entitled With Christ in the Upper Room: Final Preparations. We explored what is often called “The Upper Room Discourse” found in John chapters 13-17.
ReKindle, the Lent 2016 series, began on February 10, 2016 and encouraged us to rekindle our spiritual lives.
Light: There’s Nothing Like It was the 2017 Lent series and explored this metaphor often used to portray Christ. It is archived beginning March 1, 2017.
Lent 2018, we explored the questions of Pi and Chi (the Greek letter beginning the word Christos, which means Christ, Messiah, the Anointed One). We asked and answered the questions “Why?” from the movie Life of Pi as we discovered the uniqueness of Jesus Christ in a world of many faiths.