I have a question…
To be specific, I have a question about today’s reading.
Because there is something quite strange about it.
Did you notice it?
I had to read the passage again, to see if I was confused, but when I read it again… there it was! I read it a third time. And again… the very odd thing was still there each time.
How come I have never noticed it before?
I went to last year’s bulletin, to see if it was there.
And it wasn’t!
But there is a simple answer to this mystery… last year’s reading was from the Gospel of Luke, and this year’s reading is from the Gospel of Matthew.
I looked at the Gospels of Mark and John…
As it turns out… this story – the story of Christ’s return to Jerusalem (that we celebrate each year on Palm Sunday) – this is one of the few stories that appears in all four of the Gospels.
So… you ask… was the strange thing in the gospels of Mark and John?
No! It wasn’t!
That’s why I’ve never noticed it before! It only appears in the gospel of Matthew…
At this point you might be wondering what I’m talking about.
You might be thinking… is he ever going tell us?
Maybe I will… and maybe I won’t…
No.
I’m just playing with you.
So here it is… Here is my burning question…
How?…
Now I’m no cowboy, but I can’t quite get my brain around this…
How?… how did Jesus ride on both a donkey and a colt at the same time?
In his instructions to the disciples, Jesus said:
you will find a donkey tied and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me
the disciples do as they are told. The text says that the disciples:
brought the donkey and the colt and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them.
he sat on them.
What?
I’m trying to imagine this.
Does Jesus have one leg over the donkey and one leg over the colt? How does that work?
If there were two colts or two donkeys it might be possible, because they might be the same height and have similar temperaments.
But a donkey and a colt? These are two different animals. They are shaped differently, both physically, and temperamentally.
If Jesus rode both animals, he would have been doing some kind of strange, comical dance.
Wouldn’t he?
How peculiar.
How awkward!
But… that’s what Matthew has given us, so let’s go with it, and see where it takes us…
The Colt and the Donkey are not just peculiar. They are also a crucial theological detail of the story…
Let me explain…
Now Palm Sunday, as you all know, marks the beginning of Holy Week.
On this day, Jesus enters the gates of Jerusalem.
Since we have heard this story before, we know that even though Christ’s entry into Jerusalem sounds triumphant and seems joyful – we know the tragic truth – that the crowds who are singing Hosanna to Jesus today, will be calling for his crucifixion tomorrow.
Holy Week starts out triumphant, but goes downhill fast.
The Last Supper. Gethsemane. Betrayal. Arrest. Trial. Flogging. Crucifixion and death.
We know about it, because we have been hearing this story all our lives.
Did the people waving palms know?
Did the disciples have no clue?
No.
But the Donkey and the Colt…
Well, no they didn’t know either… but they show us something.
They show us that Jesus knew.
Jesus knew .
Jesus was seeing all these events from above, as it were. Not physically, from above, but in terms of time. He had some kind of knowledge of what was ahead of him.
This detail – the peculiar detail of the donkey and the colt – he knew it exactly as it would happen, and he instructed the disciples in exact detail what they would encounter in the future.
From this we know that Jesus saw all the events of Holy Week laid out before him – he saw all the hurt, loss, pain, and immense suffering that he would have to endure, as if with the eyes of a bird, circling above it all.
So if Jesus knew…
Or rather… since Jesus knew (as the donkey and the colt show us)…
Since Jesus knew, Jesus knew that once he passed through the gates of Jerusalem there would be no turning back.
From the moment he stepped over that threshold, his entire life (what little there was left of it) would be completely and utterly transformed.
He knew it.
And he went forward.
He knew it,
and without hesitating, he went forward.
Now, let us imagine this same thing happening to us.
It is not all that hard to imagine.
It’s true that none of us are likely to be betrayed, arrested, tried and crucified.
But we do know what it is like to approach thresholds – gates that, once we step over them, nothing, not a single thing, will ever be the same.
Most of us know what it is like to become a parent.
From the moment your child takes his or her first breath, your life is completely and utterly transformed.
Most of us know what it is like to sit beside a loved one as he or she departs this world…
From the moment your beloved takes his or her last breath, your life is completely and utterly transformed.
There are smaller thresholds that transform our lives – you know them: graduation, marriage, divorce, relocation…
Sometimes we know they are coming.
Sometimes we don’t.
But what about the donkey and the colt?
Perhaps this idea that Jesus knew, gives us something more to consider about the strange detail of the donkey and the colt…
Jesus knew that he was approaching a threshold that was going to change everything.
And he knew that he was going to do it awkwardly.
On the back of two beasts who were different heights and different temperaments.
Maybe the donkey would decide to walk one way and the colt decide to walk another…
Maybe Jesus would be jostled and strained.
Maybe he would fall to the ground
Maybe he would be laughed at.
The text doesn’t report any of these things.
But it would be awkward, wouldn’t it?
Perhaps we too must find ways to move forward, into irreversible transformation – even if we know it’s going to be awkward.
That takes guts.
Jesus definitely had plenty of guts.
He was brave.
Especially when it came to transformation.
Are there donkeys and colts in your life?
Awkward realities that you know you must move through?
If so, you must, like Jesus, know why.
You must know why you are faced that transformation, even if it is an awkward donkey and colt transformation.
Jesus knew why.
He did it for the same reason he did everything.
For love.
Love of God
And love of neighbor.
Love of you and me.
Amen.