Be a Good Donkey

Luke 19:28-40

Have you ever felt small and insignificant, as if you have nothing to offer, no reason for being and unable to make a difference of any lasting value? Perhaps you can look back over a life lived and lost, now you’re retired, or at least old enough to know you haven’t already made the best of it, or made the most of it, or enjoyed the kind of success you dreamed about when younger. Maybe you never did have high aspirations or ambitions and you are content to be what other people would call “a nobody.” You’ve lived a quiet, happy life, focused on family and community. But, even you, as happy as you are, do you ever wonder if maybe something passed you by, or you missed an opportunity to make a difference?

Jesus sure made a difference didn’t he? But He is God right? And what are we compared to that? We are his servants. And we never know what or where or how God might choose to use us one day, but one day, even in the future that is yet to be, when and if the Lord needs you, will you be available? Do you even believe it’s possible?

Most often on Palm Sunday we focus on the triumphal entry itself, its meaning for the people of Israel and how they got it all wrong or misunderstood the nature of Jesus’ kingship. We might also talk about the symbolism of the donkey as a fulfillment of the prophecy and indicative that Jesus is the King of peace, the Pharisees’ angry reaction to the crowds singing praises and announcing that Jesus is Messiah, Jesus’ words about how right they are to praise Him and how necessary so that even the stones would cry out if the people were quiet.

But today I want to focus on the donkey itself and that it brought Jesus before the people and into Jerusalem. We hardly notice this willing servant of the Lord. But, by analogy, he is able to teach us several lessons about how we can also be willing servants of the Lord, in pretty much the same ways.

The first thing we can notice is the person who owned the donkey. We don’t know who it is. But we can see that he was a willing servant, ready to release whatever the Lord asked for. We all ought to see all our worldly goods as held loosely in our hands, always at the ready for the Lord’s use, just like this willing servant let the disciples untie the donkey because the Lord had need of it.

It is significant that the donkey was tied up until Jesus’ disciples untied it for the Lord’s use. We use that phrase, “I am all tied up,” to indicate when we are too busy to get away from what holds our attention in order to do something unique or different. Perhaps being all tied up in worldly affairs would keep us from doing what the Lord needs us to do. So let’s try to be sensitive to the Lord’s needs and, as it says in Hebrews 12:1, “throw off everything that hinders, and the sin that so easily entangles.”

Of course, the donkey didn’t untie himself. The Lord’s servants untied him. There is a lesson there too. Sometimes we need help to get free from things that get us all tied up. We ought to be able to rely on the church community, other servants of God who will come to get us, know what we need to do, and get us untied so that we are set free to do it.

One of the reasons I am a pastor today is because other members of the church where I was worshipping in Menominee, MI, saw that I might have the gifts needed for the ministry. I was also encouraged and supported by members of the Thornapple Covenant Church in Grand Rapids, MI. So I say those servants untied me from my own fears and doubts about God’s call, and set me loose to serve the Lord. So if there are people around you encouraging you to try new ways of serving the Lord, listen, they may just set you free.

Notice now that the donkey itself is not a horse. In other words, when Jesus chose to ride into Jerusalem he didn’t choose the Cadillac of transportation for that day and culture. He didn’t choose to ride what most kings and even Roman soldiers wanted to ride. Jesus chose a humble donkey. That is a good thing because it is indicative of the kinds of servants Jesus always chooses to do his work. He chooses to exalt the humble.

There is hope for any of us humble people to be found useful if God chooses to use us. Paul the apostle said the same thing. He said it this way in 2 Cor. 4:7, “we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” The treasure he spoke of is the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ that shines from our hearts if we hold Christ near and dear and carry him around with us in our daily lives.

The donkey is also a kind of miracle. We know that normally that kind of animal can be stubborn as a mule. But the disciples untied this young, untrained donkey colt, and apparently led him away easily enough. This would be all the more surprising if his mother was nearby. That detail is not added in the story but it is worth thinking about because of the prophesy in Zechariah 9:9 that says, the animal was “a colt, the foal of a donkey.” So it must have been pretty young and maybe the disciples did lead it away from its mother. But it went without complaint, without crying for its mother. And so should we, without complaint that is, though we can be as stubborn as a mule about things, when the Lord calls us, may it be true of us that we will allow Him to lead us to wherever he may put us to good use.

The donkey becomes even more miraculous when we remember that it has never been ridden before. It had not been trained or broken in. That process had not even been started. No one had ever ridden on it before. Nevertheless, the gentle beast humbly submitted and obediently bore the Lord and Savior without a hint of the stubbornness that is supposed to be characteristic of donkeys. No bucking, just a nice smooth obedience in response to the Lord’s call.

Similarly, we all need the miraculous power of God’s transforming gospel at work in our hearts so that we become willing to do the work of sharing the gospel, bearing the cross of Christ into the world in which we live. Just as the donkey would not have naturally and normally been able to walk quietly where the Lord needed him to go, so we also in our natural selves, however much our character has been trained by Christian culture cannot naturally and normally do what Jesus asks us to do until we are born again through faith in Jesus and open to the work of the Holy Spirit’s miraculously transformative power.

And we first have to admit our need of that. We have to be willing to acknowledge that before we come to Christ we are really not very good people at all. We are normally selfish. Only God can really make us otherish. Until we are born again in Jesus, we really have a lot more in common with Hitler than with Jesus. Without the power of the gospel at work in our hearts we cannot truly appreciate how great and important is God’s love, mercy and forgiveness with its power to change us into willing servants.

But there is no need to despair. If suddenly you realize you have been calling yourself a Christian, but do not really have a life transforming relationship with God in the power of Christ in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, today is the day of your salvation! Open your heart to him now in repentance from pride and self-determination. Ask him to lead you, then do your best to follow and you will be his good servant, amply rewarded with eternal life, no matter how much it may cost you in suffering during your days on earth.

This was a good donkey. All he had to do was carry Jesus in the midst of the crowd. The donkey was beneath, and Jesus was above, being born on the back and shoulders of the humble beast. All he had to do was bring Jesus into Jerusalem, and keep on going no matter how many pharisaical angry men might have wished he would stop. He endured the distractions of the blankets, cloaks and palm branches being thrown down in from, all the other palm branches waving all around him with people close by in the parade into the city. He kept on walking in spite of the noisy crowds around him and the angry voices not too far away. He faithfully carried out his duty and was never heard from again.

Similarly, all we have to do is carry the Lord Jesus in our hearts and his message of the gracious gospel into our world. Let nothing distract us, not even angry voices that would try to stop us. There are many examples of seemingly unknown people who nevertheless played an important role in history. There’s Billy Graham’s Sunday School teacher, whoever discipled D.L. Moody, and countless other faithful servants whose names we do not know but on whose shoulders we stand because they faithfully bore the gospel message down through the ages. Even in our own congregation, out of hundreds of members and people who supported this ministry and saved souls for three or four generations in the last 135 years, how many names are actually remembered in the history book? But the Lord knows all. The Lord remembers everything and he loves every servant who willingly answers his call and does what he or she can to bring Jesus into the world in which we live.

Today is the day that our bulletins have invitations in them for you to bring to your friends and other loved ones for whom you have been praying during this Lenten season. You get to be the humble servant who brings Jesus into the life or maybe the home of the person for whom you have been praying, simply by sharing this invitation with them. You could send it in the mail, but a personal invitation that only uses the card as a physical reminder of the invitation you extended is even better. You will go home. But the card will remain to remind them of the date and time.

Have you ever felt small and insignificant? You are not. God is gently calling you to carry him into your world. You never know who might spring forth in new faith and life from your quiet ministry. Have you ever felt as if you have nothing to offer? You have the gospel of Jesus Christ, God’s ministry of reconciliation and blessing that can give the gift of eternal life to any and all who believe! Have you ever as if you have no reason for being? God has a purpose for your life! If you accept his plan for you and do the work he has called you to do, you will hear him say one day, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Have you ever felt as if you have no way to make a difference of any lasting value? If you do your work that the Lord calls you to do for him, you will play a role in saving souls and that will last for eternity!

So if you’re looking back over a life long lived however quiet and peaceful, if you have any regrets or doubts about whether or not you have ever served the Lord or answered his call, it’s also not too late! As long as you are alive, God must have something for you to do, some person for whom you are praying may yet believe if you keep praying, or if you go and tell them about Jesus, bring Jesus to them, or bring them to Jesus. God can still use you to do that. Listen, do you hear him calling, “The Lord has need of you.”