Palm Sunday - from an unusual perspective!

Many years ago, while I was serving as the youth worker for a church in Cookstown, I was given the task of organising a Palm Sunday Family Service at which I would deliver the talk.  

You'd think that writing a talk for Palm Sunday would be pretty straight forward wouldn't you? After all, it's a well-known part of the life story of Jesus, important enough for all four gospel writers to include it in their account (Matthew 21:1-11, Mark 11:1-11, Luke 19:28-44, and John 12:12-19), whereas not even the birth narrative makes it into all four gospels! Don't believe me? Go read Mark and see if you can find it! 

Well, it wasn't! 

Everything else about the service came together pretty quickly but for the longest time, I couldn't settle on what I was to say. At the Sunday service the week before I stood at the front of the church inviting everyone in the congregation along and challenging them to bring their friend and in the back of my mind, I was thinking "I really hope by this time next week I have something to say!'

For the first part of the next week, every waking hour was spent searching for what I should say - but I got nothing! 

Then one night, late in the week, in the wee small hours, I woke with a clear sense of the points I was to make. The contrast between the fog I'd been in for weeks and the clarity I had at stupid o'clock was palpable!

A lot of time has passed since I wrote the talk and we're living in different times plus back then I preached it whereas now should you choose to stick with it you are reading it (thank you for taking the time to do so!), all of which means that I've updated and adapted it slightly to hopefully better fit both the time and the medium. 

***

First of all, a reminder of the scene. 

Jesus and his disciples, in common with Jews from all over the place, are making their way to Jerusalem for the Passover Festival which is only a matter of days way.

In stark contrast to the majority of highways and byways today which are stripped of all but key workers and members of the public getting their one session of exercise or their weekly shopping, the roads connecting the surrounding villages to Jerusalem would have been absolutely rammed with people making their way to the city. For them there was no such thing as social distancing. In fact, at this time of year there was probably not much in the way of personal space! 

The whole experience would have been a full on assault on the senses: 

The incessant thuding of sandals and hoofs on the road,

The excited, expectant chatter between family groups, friends and strangers,

and, if that weren't enough add to that everything that happen once the crowd realise Jesus is a travelling companion:  

The colourful coats being thrown down on the road. 

The vigorous waving of palm branches.  

And the shouting - oh so much shouting!;  

"Hosanna to the Son of David!" 

"Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD!" 

"Hosanna in the highest!" 

"Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!" 

"Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!" 

"Blessed is the king of Israel!" 

And now, into all this comes a seemingly insignificant character but one we can learn so much from...

 ...THE DONKEY!

The gospels each record Jesus sending two of his disciples to the town just ahead of them where he tells them they will find a donkey tied up by the roadside. Actually, according to Matthew they bring back a colt ( a young donkey) and it's mother - we'll get to that shortly! 

There are three things I'd like us to consider. (What can I say?! I'm Presbyterian!)

1.

Have you ever played buckaroo?

You have to be very gentle when placing all the items on the donkey's back otherwise…'BAM!!!' Stuff flies everywhere. 

The game works because it is true to life. 

It is the nature of wild animals, and domesticated ones which haven't been broken in yet, to react badly to being sat upon and controlled by something or someone other than itself!  

In the accounts of Mark & Luke we read that Jesus gets on this hitherto unridden donkey and simply sets off for the city! If any other person had tried it they would have been lying in the ditch within a matter of seconds. 

Not Jesus! Only the Word made flesh, God the incarnate Son, the one through whom all things were made and have their being - including the very donkey he is now sat upon - could have tamed in an instant a colt which had never been ridden before.  

Likewise, only the creator God can subdue our wild, fallen and sinful nature - if we but let him. 

2.  

Not only was the young donkey out on the road that day but as we've already noted Matthew tells us it's mother was there too.   

Having been subdued by the master and pointed toward Jerusalm the colt has also got mummy there to look too!  With the crowd pressing in, the volume of shouting increasing and coats and palm branches going all over the place what a comfort that must have been to the 'little donkey' to have another one of it's kind walking alongside!

She may not have experienced absolutely everything that could possibly happen on any given road at any given time (like, say, a global pandemic!) but in the eyes of 'juniour' mum had seen enough for it to know that if she was ok with things then things would be alright! 

So it is for us. 

Submitting to the authority of the master is primary and vital but we do well to look to the wisdom, example and support of other Christians near and dear to us - people who can say from experience  "it's ok kid we can get through this, we're in good hands." 

3. 

Mark adds a detail that the other gospel writers omit. In verse 3 he notes that the disciples are to tell the donkey's owners that he will "send it back" once he has reached Jerusalem. Which is exactly what happened. 

Unlike Donkey in Shrek 2 there was no magical transformation into a noble steed but there was an even more dramatic change of character affected by the encounter with Jesus. 

Our donkey went right back to where the disciples had found it to be tied up to the same post, by the same road, to serve its earthly master by doing the donkey-like things it was supposed to. 

On the outside, nothing had changed but at the core of its innermost being the donkey would have had a new understanding of its purpose. 

Likewise, when we encounter the living God, acknowledge our sinful condition and submit to Christ's Lordship, we are changed in an instant from death to life. Our eternal destiny is dramatically altered but our temporal situation may remain exactly the same. 

Work, bills, family, the to-do list will be just as they were before but over time, as we go about the tasks set before we do so with a sense of purpose, one that demonstrates that the fulfillment of function to the best of our ability is an act not of service to an earthly master but of worship to the heavenly King.

So, in these uncertain times when people are feeling scared and confused we have an amazing opportunity to be like the donkey that Jesus rode into Jerusalem that day. 

Simply be the people we were created to be; get alongside others (obviously, in the current days keeping the required social distance or wearing the correct PPE or by utilising social media!) and show them a life transformed by Christ. 

And eat plenty of oats!