Luke 19:28-40
As Jesus and his disciples are getting ready to enter Jerusalem, they are taking care of some of the details – as anyone would do before a parade. They pause some distance before reaching Jerusalem, near Bethany and Bethphage. Here, Jesus turns to two of his disciples to give them instructions. “Go ahead into the village. You will find a colt tied up. Untie it and bring it here.”
And here you might be asking yourself: Is this really okay? That they should just go in and take a colt that clearly belongs to someone else? Might someone object to this?
Jesus seems to think so, for he also tells them, “If anyone asks you what you are doing just tell them this: ‘the Lord needs it.’”
So they went in and they found the colt. They untied it and someone asked them what they were doing. And they followed his instructions to the letter, saying, “The Lord needs it.”
They whole scene has an air of mystery to it. It is an intrigue where there are code words that need to be spoken. And I don’t know but that it had all been arranged ahead of time. In any case, they come back with the donkey and the procession into Jerusalem begins.
Entering Jerusalem at this time is particularly dangerous for Jesus. Remember last week we talked about the fact that there was now a warrant out for his arrest. People were looking for him, and in Jerusalem they would surely find him.
It was dangerous for another reason, too. It was the time of the Passover – a time when Jews from all over the diaspora were making their pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The city would be packed and tensions would be high.
The Roman authorities would put in a special showing, too. As much as the Jews loved Passover, the Romans hated it. With so many people milling about, there was a high risk for some disturbance of the peace. The Romans prized peace above all things. But for Rome, peace meant something different than what it means to me and you. For Rome, peace was their unquestioned, unchallenged authority. For Rome, peace meant that there was no dissent, that there was total obedience and loyalty to the empire. Rome prized their peace and was more than willing to use violence to keep this peace. The irony of this should be self-evident.
The Romans dreaded the Passover. But this was not only because of the large crowds; it was also because of its meaning. The Passover was, and is, Israel’s remembrance and celebration of their liberation story. Many centuries ago, Israel remembers, God freed them from the bond of slavery in Egypt. Many centuries ago, God chose Moses to lead them out of Egypt, through the wilderness, and to the promised land. They remembered that God had given them freedom. But how could they celebrate this freedom, while suffering under the oppressive foot of the Roman Empire, and not be inspired to resistance? Rome dreaded the Passover, because they knew there was a heightened risk of uprising.
Everyone knew that this was a dangerous time in Jerusalem. Jesus, too, knew that this was a dangerous time in Jerusalem. Yet they enter the city gates, boldly, singing their praises to God and songs for peace.
Not the peace of Rome, either. These are the voices of resistance rising up.
The Pharisees lose their cool; this tension is becoming too much for them. Jesus shouldn’t be making such a big entrance. There are already reasons enough for the Roman authorities to be tightening the screws on the Jews, they don’t need another reason. The Pharisees order Jesus to shut his disciples up. But he says to them, it would make no difference.
It would make no difference, because the stones would shout out, all of God’s creation would shout praises to God, shout prayers for peace. This, too, is what the Lord needs.
This is a moment for what the Lord needs. And what we are seeing in this scene is a challenge to the oppressive powers of the world, in the name of the Lord – because the Lord needs it.
This text says to us the Lord does not need people to furtively creep about trying to keep a low profile. The Lord does not need people to practice appeasing the brutes of the world whose view of peace is having no one challenge their authority. The Lord does not need to have his people suffer deprivation. The Lord needs something very different.
But Jesus knows that getting to what the Lord needs is not a simple and easy thing. It is not as simple as saying the right words to get permission to take a colt. Getting what the Lord needs means standing against the powers of the world like Rome and any other authoritarian powers that would oppress people and ravage God’s good creation.
What the Lord needs is for us to ask for it in the Lord’s name.
It is what the disciples did when they fetched the colt. “The Lord needs it,” they said. What if we did too? When we ask people to donate to One Great Hour of Sharing, because the Lord needs it. When we protest the inhumane treatment of those who are weak – the immigrants, the poor – because the Lord needs it, because they are beloved children of God – as are you and I. When we fight to preserve a shrinking social safety net, for preserving human dignity should be our high priority because the Lord needs it.
What if we boldly asked for what the Lord needs?
What does the Lord need from you and me? I will tell you the answer that is written in the prophet Micah: The Lord needs us to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God.
On this day as we remember the sacred and loud and demanding procession into Jerusalem, let us each ask ourselves, what does the Lord need from me. As we stand on the threshold of Holy Week, knowing that as the week goes on the days get darker, let us meditate on the question: what does the Lord need from me?
