Like his many parables, there are some curious and surprising elements in this story.
They have been traveling toward Jerusalem. Now they are, finally, almost there. But they pause, unexpectedly, near Bethany and Bethphage, because there are a few final details to take care of. Jesus turns to two of his disciples: “Go ahead into the village. You will find a colt tied up. Untie it and bring it here.”
And here we might wonder a few things, including: Is this really okay? That they should just go in and take a colt that belongs to someone else? Might someone object to this?
Yes, actually, Jesus anticipates this, 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, sure enough, someone asked them what they were doing. They followed his instructions to the letter, saying, “The Lord needs it,” and apparently that was good enough.
The whole scene has an air of mystery to it, where somehow Jesus knew just where to find a young donkey. It is an intrigue where there are code words that need to be spoken: The Lord needs it. Well, if the Lord needs it, so it shall be. They come back with the donkey and the procession into Jerusalem begins – Something that is particularly dangerous for Jesus. Remember that there was now a warrant out for his arrest. People were looking for him.
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 be there, too. As much as the Jews loved Passover, the Romans hated it. Too many people milling about, too high a risk for a 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. Because of the large crowds, of course, but 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 boot of the Roman Empire, and not be inspired to resistance? Rome dreaded the Passover for very good reason; they knew there was a heightened risk of uprising.
Everyone knew that this was a dangerous time in Jerusalem. Jesus knew that this was a dangerous time in Jerusalem. Yet he and his entourage entered the city gates, boldly, singing their praises to God and songs for peace.
Not the peace of Rome they were singing about. These are the voices of resistance rising up.
The Pharisees lose their cool; the tension is rising too high. Jesus shouldn’t be making an entrance like this. 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 quiet his disciples. But he says to them, it would make no difference.
It would make not one bit of difference, because the stones would shout out, all of God’s creation would shout praises to God, shout prayers for peace. This is what the Lord needs: the crowds, the shouts, the palms, the parade, the song of all creation rising up –
This, too, is what the Lord needs. And so it shall be.
This, today, is a moment for what the Lord needs. And as we see in this scene, what the Lord needs is a challenge to the oppressive powers of the world.
The Lord needs a colt – the antithesis of Herod’s war stallion. The Lord needs this procession of the common people with their poor cloaks and palms, a striking contrast to Herod’s soldiers in armor. The Lord needs all of creation to stand up and shout: God’s reign shall come.
Getting there means earth-shifting, norm-shattering change. It 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. It means standing for peace – not the peace of Rome, but the peace of Christ.
The Hebrew word for peace is shalom, but we should know that it’s meaning is deep and powerful. Shalom could never be mistaken for the peace of Rome, because the state of shalom is to be well, to be whole, to be at peace. Shalom starts in the heart and grows outward and then into every other heart and all of creation. Shalom does not require that some parts of creation be crushed so others can prosper; shalom is all of creation at peace.
It is what the Lord needs. It is what we all need and the way to it is through Christ.
We need Christ, this God in the flesh who came as one of us to show us God’s dream for this world. The love and the care that he constantly demonstrated, without boundaries; that he taught his disciples and they continued to teach others. To care, to love, to give. To stand up for one another, with one another, in a time of need. These small things.
No one of us is responsible for the peace of the world, but each of us is responsible for doing what we can, to bring peace a bit closer. To do what we would want others to do for us.
This is Palm Sunday. We know that later in the week these disciples of his will fail. They will run and hide, they will deny having any relationship with him. Tragically, they will not do what the Lord needs. Not the things any one of them would have wanted or needed were they in his place.
On this day as they approached Jerusalem, the Lord needed the colt, and he needed his disciples to go and get it for him. He needed the people lining the road with their cloaks and shouting their hosannas – making a loud noise for him. He needed this loud and insistent act of bearing witness to the world.
And if that failed, he needed the rocks and stones to take up the shouting on his behalf. The Lord needed all of creation to be proclaiming his name. Hosanna! Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!
The Lord needed everything that has breath – and even those things that do not – to praise God. That is what he was here for. Jesus needed God and all of creation to have his back in this. So he could do for us what we need.
What we all need is just what Jesus needed that day. To be surrounded, to be held up, by community – community knit together by faith, by love. This is what we all need.
The Lord needed that colt for his final entrance into Jerusalem. The Lord needed the people and the stones and all of creation to shout for him. The Lord needed it because the world needs it. To know that Jesus is Lord, Savior of all, and that through him, by grace, we are all bound together as one. What a glorious truth it is.
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Photo by Mika Korhonen on Unsplash.
