Jesus
Come and Ride Me
Let Me Be Your Donkey
Sermon for Sunday March 16, 2008
1.
Good Morning. Let’s pray.
O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the mediations of our hearts be
pleasing to you O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
2.
Opening comments:
It’s Palm Sunday and the wonder of Holy Week begins! Today we remember Christ’s triumphal entry
into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey.
On Maundy Thursday we remember His last Supper and His washing of His disciples feet. On
Good Friday we solemnly reflect upon our Lord’s crucifixion and venerate the
Cross.
On
Saturday we stand for life at the Latimer Medical Center and celebrate the
Litany of the Pre-Born at 2pm and at 9pm that night we begin the Easter Vigil
and members of this Church have signed up to stand vigil throughout the night
until our Resurrection Easter Service on Sunday at 10am.
So
this is a wonderfully busy week full of the rich feast of Holy memories. May we not be so busy that we miss
out on receiving all that our Lord would give us!
Each
of the forthcoming events has a unique place in the collage of impressions that
will fill up your overall impression of this week.
I
wonder what you and I will remember when we reflect back upon this week.
So
what is it that our Lord wants to give us this morning?
Let me suggest two distinctly
different images to hold in your mind as I read the Palm Sunday passage: These two images are: A humble Donkey and our “steamroller” and now
fallen Governor Elliot Spitzer.
Please
listen as I read the verses that apply in particular to this day:
We begin with the Gospel of Matthew chapter 21 verse
1. Try to envision this scene as I read
it will you please?
Matt. 21:1
As they approached
Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of
Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go to the
village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her
colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs
them, and he will send them right away.”
Matt. 21:4
This took place to fulfill what was spoken
through the prophet:
Matt. 21:5
“Say to the Daughter of Zion,
‘See, your king
comes to you,
gentle
and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”
Matt. 21:6
The disciples went and did as Jesus had
instructed them. 7 They brought the donkey and the
colt, placed their cloaks on them, and Jesus sat on them. 8 A very large crowd spread their cloaks
on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the
road. 9 The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed
shouted,
“Hosanna to the Son
of David!”
“Blessed is he who comes
in the name of the Lord!”
“Hosanna in the highest!”
No what’s going on in this scene?
It’s a procession isn’t it – an
entry procession for a King. The prophet
Zechariah actually wrote:
Zech. 9:9
Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion!
Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you,
righteous
and having salvation,
gentle
and riding on a donkey,
on a
colt, the foal of a donkey.
Zechariah added the lines: Rejoice greatly! And the crowd was told to “shout!” Why? Because their righteous king was coming to
them with “salvation” – with “Life!” . . . and this majestic king was
described as “gentle and riding on a donkey.”
Riding
on a donkey! This image seems to clash
with the first image of a triumphant king riding into Jerusalem to the
acclamation of his adoring citizens.
Riding
on a donkey??
What
did the Prophet Zechariah know then about the coming King? - Who rides on a donkey!
What is a donkey anyway? What does a donkey signify?
It’s a universal symbol of
humility. Jesus didn’t ride into Jerusalem on the back
of a white charger but on the back of what G.K. Chesterton so eloquently dubbed
“the devil’s walking parody.”
Listen
to His now famous poem entitled “The Donkey:”
When forests walked and fishes
flew
And figs grew upon thorn,
Some moment when the moon was
blood,
Then, surely, I was born.
With monstrous head and sickening
bray
And ears like errant wings—
The devil's walking parody
Of all four-footed things:
The battered outlaw of the earth
Of ancient crooked will;
Scourge, beat, 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 around my head
And palms about my feet.
Ha! The Donkey – the dumb battered outlaw of the
earth, with ears like errant wings – this dumb humble animal had its hour in
the sun! For it was the donkey who
carried Jesus – the King of King and the Lord of Lords - into Jerusalem that
first Palm Sunday!
Now there’s a truly majestic
irony! Don’t you think?
This clash of
images – Triumphant King and humble
Donkey is echoed on Holy Thursday when the King washes His followers’
feet. And on Good Friday when the
triumphant king welcomed into Jerusalem just five days before with cries of:
“Hosanna
to the Son of David!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the
name of the Lord!” “Hosanna in the
highest!”
is now crucified to cries of
“Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” but the same
people!
This is high irony! A cruel joke surely!
This should leave a sour taste
in our mouths.
A taste which if we live long enough will be tasted sooner or later by
us all!
This world in which we live
is replete with this sort of cruel irony!
This is not a kind and gentle world – it’s tarnished by sin and the
truth is that it’s OUR sin! My sin!
Make no mistake –
the chances are that you and I – well let me speak for myself – that I just
might have been one of that crowd crying “Crucify
Him! Crucify Him!”
Oh we would want to
believe that we are above this sort of twisted betrayal but are we – are we
really?
Are good people capable of
this sort of terrible behavior? The
answer is “Yes.”
No one but Jesus is without
sin! No not one us is without sin. All of us are scarred by sin. All of us scar those around us with our sins
– our sins of commission and our sins of omission.
I don’t want to
linger here – it’s not a fun place to stay but if you honestly don’t see your
sins, I fear you are destined to do Palm Sunday again and again!
Look back over this
last week and allow yourself to remember those errant thoughts perhaps of lust,
of anger, even of quiet hatred. Perhaps
of cowardice, of envy, of spite, of jealousy, of betrayal, of disdain, of sick
joy over a fallen Governor perhaps?
If you and I think for a
moment that we are beyond this sort of sad betrayal we miss one of the deepest
messages of that first Palm Sunday but the ultimate message of that first Palm
Sunday doesn’t end there does it?
He, the King of
Kings and Lord of Lords, brought eternal life to the world on the back of a
donkey!
Ah! The whisper of the most sublime of all Palm
Sunday truths – humility – the donkey whispers . . .
Fools! For I also had my hour—
One far fierce hour and sweet:
There was a shout around my head
And palms about my feet!
“Humility – Become like me –
no pretensions – I’m a donkey but Jesus chose to ride ME!”
Ah! Jesus come and ride
me! Let me be your donkey!
Ah! Jesus – let me be your donkey. Wipe away any pretensions that I might have
about me and “MY” abilities! - about me and my goodness – about me and my innocence!
O Lord, take from me any
arrogance that would see others as my donkeys!
Governor Elliot
Spitzer has fallen! He now has a truly
magnificent opportunity to learn one of life’s greatest lessons and it’s simply
this “God IS GOD – and I am not!”
Listen once again
to those words from St. Paul in his sublime letter to the Christians in
Philippi:
Phil. 2:5
Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of
himself. 6 He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of
himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter
what. 7 Not at all. When
the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a
slave, became human! 8 Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly
humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a
selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst
kind of death at that: a crucifixion.
Phil. 2:9
Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond
anyone or anything, ever,
10
so that all created beings in heaven and on earth—even those long ago dead and
buried—will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, 11
and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of
God the Father.
The Donkey speaks to us again
and tells us that there is a place of humble honor and that is to be the
carrier of our Lord.
Will you join me on
my knees this Palm Sunday and invite our Lord to come upon us and ride upon us
for the rest of eternity.
He comes with life
– He comes to you gently and invites you to bow down and allow him to come upon
you.
Matt. 11:28
“Come to me,” He says, “all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle
and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
There’s the ultimate paradox
– as we become His best of burden we become His beloved friend!
Application: What does this mean to you
and me? Jesus is reminding us to choose
“humility” in all of our ways. Arrogance
and pomposity have no place in the Christian person or in the Christian
community.
Let go of any pretensions you
might still hold about yourself. Be
happy to be the donkey for you will have your hour!
Let go of the
pretension that you’re “basically a good person.” Let go of the pretension that compared to
most of the rest of the world you’re “not too bad.”
Reject – slough off
the burden – the pretension - that you’re OK?
And come to your knees as God’s donkey – with nothing to offer but your
back and your heart and invite Him to ride you for ever and ever and ever Amen!
Let us pray . . .