"The Lord Needs It"

Matthew 21:1–11

When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, just say this, ‘The Lord needs them.’ And he will send them immediately.” This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet:  “Tell the daughter of Zion, Look, your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; they brought the donkey and the colt and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David!Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, “Who is this?” The crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”

__________

Introduction

Palms are waving, chants are filling the air, and the people are taking off their cloaks and laying them on the ground as Jesus comes riding into Jerusalem on a colt. There's an energy in the air that draws a crowd together. I don't know about you, but not much gets me so excited that I would get as frenzied (as enthusiastic) as the people in the crowd (I don't ascribe to the cult of personality). However, something spoke to those who gathered, and what was it that drew them together? It had to be something, right? It's something that spoke to me and to you because why else would we be here? What draws us to this time and place? 

The Revolutionary

Perhaps like today's culture, people were drawn to the political message Jesus preached. Let's not pretend that Jesus was solely a spiritual figure (at least as those in the crowd and us sometimes perceive him). Jesus was very much a political and civic leader. There were people who believed that Jesus would be the Messiah who would liberate them from the bondage of an oppressive empire. And by no means did Jesus shy away from the image of being a leader who carried moral, spiritual, and civic authority. 

Jesus knows what he's doing in Matthew when he calls upon his disciples to bring a colt. Not only does it echo how individuals of high social standing would enter a city, but Jesus also tells his disciples to acquire the colt in a manner reserved for those in place of authority. This Palm Sunday, we should be mindful that Jesus' claim on our lives is not only spiritual but physical (in a civic sense). Faith is not limited to an internal driving force; it should fill our inner spirit to the point where our lives are visible signs of our faith. 

The Prophet

We see the role of Jesus as a revolutionary bleed into his identity as a prophet. Jesus rides into the city of Jerusalem on the back of a colt, or a donkey, I should say, as it does in Matthew's Gospel. Jesus didn't ride on the back of an adorned horse or carried by an ornate chariot, but on the back of a donkey, the "peoples" animal. We should note who came to greet Jesus as well. Our reading tells us that ordinary people came to welcome Jesus (and lay their cloaks and palms down on the road). It wasn't the social or political elite but the common people. 

Unlike the Romans, who paraded in outlandish ways to laud their power and dominance, Jesus entered simply with no fanfare except for the crowd's cheers. Jesus the prophet didn't come to help the people already well off. Jesus came to sit amongst people like you and me who have marks of wounds on our hearts, people who are worried or fearful, people who are looking for answers that cannot be satisfied by the modern conventions of this world. As a prophet, Jesus showed up for the disenfranchised (the people no one paid attention to or shunned), and a prophet expects us to do the same. With our eyes on the upcoming crucifixion, Jesus says, "I'm here for you, and this is what radical love costs. And I expect you to carry on this radical act of love."

“The Lord Needs It”

So we see Jesus as a revolutionary (a political and civic icon), and we see Jesus as a prophet (a spiritual icon). And as we hold these two realities and identities together, I'm drawn back to the words Jesus instructed his disciples to say to the donkey's owner, "The Lord needs it." Friends, the Lord needs it! The "it" is your hope, your courage, your bravery, your dedication, your love, your empathy, your compassion, and your spiritual gifts; the Lord needs them! These are things that were never truly ours, to begin with; they've always belonged to God. So let us give them to the Lord, who rides into the city, towards his death, for the love of creation, for love of us. 

This Palm Sunday isn't just about celebrating Jesus' triumphant entrance into Jerusalem. Instead, it sets the stage for a series of events that ends with Jesus hanging on the cross. There was no victory over the Romans; there was no re-establishment of the Kingdom of Israel; there was only death. But a death that would lead to resurrection, a death that would radically change the world as we know it and continues to ask the hard questions and pushes us into a direction where we are called to be the hands and feet of Christ in the world. For those of us who are feeling the tension transition or whatever else is going on in our lives, this means that when we decide to follow Jesus, it isn't just our souls we're opening to change; we are opening up the entirety of our lives to the evolving call of Christ. 

Conclusion

As we head into Holy Week, let us continue to join the crowd in raising songs of praise and loud hosannas. As we head into Holy Week, may we also ask the questions that the people in Jerusalem asked, "Who is this Jesus that has come into our midst, and what new thing are we called to do?? Let us pick up the palm branches that we set on the ground and pick them up from the ground as we continue on our pilgrimage to the place where Jesus is calling us. A place that will draw us out from the haze of figuring out what comes next and into the light of God's kin-dom. We might not be quick to embrace the revolutionary vision Christ lays out for us, and that's okay, as it takes work supported by those around us. May we continue to follow, continue to persevere, grow, and embody the upcoming Easter hope.