As adults we can easily become cynical, inured to life’s vicissitudes and bereft of optimism and positive expectation. We call it being ‘world weary’, beaten down by disappointment until pessimism and a lack of positive expectation become our defence against dashed hopes.

Part of the reason for this is connected to the repetition and monotony of everyday life. We no longer marvel at sunrises or sunsets because we’ve seen it all before. Familiarity has bred contempt in us; we’ve lost the child’s sense of wonder and awe. There is a sense of ‘same old, same old’ about everything we see. We’ve forgotten how to be grateful and thankful for the little things.

As we are told things will change and find they don’t, as we live through political hype and find it sadly lacking in substance, we lose the ability to hope. This is dangerous for our souls, for hopelessness, despair, are tools of the enemy designed to destroy faith, which by definition involves holding on to the invisible until it becomes visible (see Romans 4).

God wants us to be hopeful (and hope-full) people, for the truth does not change just because of a refusal to believe it! In Luke 17:26-37, Jesus spoke to His disciples about the return of the Son of Man in glory and judgment, of the end times The remarkable thing about this is that people will be living in complete ignorance of and indifference to this earth-shattering event.

Jesus reminded his disciples that it was ever thus. In the days of Noah, everything carried on as normal (‘same old’) until the flood came in destructive force. (Luke 17:26-27) The same thing happened in the days of Lot, (Luke 17:28-29) Jesus’s message was always that we should be prepared for His return, a message constantly underlined in His parables (e.g. Matt 25:1-13) and in other parts of the New Testament (e.g. 1 Thess 5:1-11).

We are to live in constant expecation and anticipation of His return, not adopting the ‘same old’ mentality of the world. Faith takes the long view and also aligns itself with God’s promises rather than what we can see with our natural eyes. Jesus is coming again for His people and we need to be ready.

The main lessons we learned from the donkey who led Jesus into Jerusalem were:

1. Experience isn’t necessary if God calls you! He equips the called; He doesn’t call the equipped.
2. God has chosen us for good works and to serve Him as gladly as the donkey did.
3. We need to be ‘untied’ from things which would rob us of the freedom Jesus offers us (see Gal 5:1). God wants us to be free to enjoy His spacious places!
4. God comes in peace and in ways that constantly take us by surprise.
5. The donkey reminds us that the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. (Mark 10:45)
6. Acclamation and despair are both short-term responses. God wants us to keep persevering and to keep our eye on the long view. Jesus, ‘for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.’ (Heb 12:2) Jesus wasn’t fooled by how well things seemed to be going on Palm Sunday and He wasn’t in despair over the betrayal of Judas later in the week. He was looking ahead to the fulfilment of the Father’s plan, to the salvation of the world. Isaiah 53:10-11 says ‘though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many and he will bear their iniquities.’ 
7. Death has to precede life; there are no short cuts to glory. ‘Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.’ (John 12:24)

If God can use this little donkey to take the Messiah into Jerusalem, He can surely use us, this little group of Christians in Goldthorpe, to carry out His plans and purposes for our community in our time!

A colt is a young donkey, a donkey that’s never been ridden or used before. We may feel as raw and inexperienced as a colt or as battered and useless as a donkey in a donkey sanctuary, but the truth is that God has chosen each of us (Eph 1:4), knows us from conception (Ps 139:16) and has good works planned in advance for us to do. (Eph 2:10) Paul reminds us that ‘God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.’ (1 Cor 1:27) Most Biblical heroes were reluctant, knowing their own strength and ability were not enough to fulfil God’s call, but God is more interested in our availability than our ability. All our work has to be done in His strength which is made perfect in our weakness. (2 Cor 12:9)

So often, however, we feel restricted and unable to serve God effectively. We feel as tethered as the donkey was before being untied! Jesus said that the truth has power to set us free (John 8:32) and that ‘if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.’ (John 8:36)

We can be tied up inwardly, driven by guilt or fear or shame, caring more about what other people think and say about us than what God says. Past events may have left us crippled by shame or guilt or disappointment and disillusionment. We may be tethered by low expectations, never believing God could use us or our church to achieve great things. We may feel tied by family commitments or our jobs or our personal situations, but God doesn’t want us to live in narrowness and gloom. He wants to untie us, to set us free, to let us loose, even as the crowds cried out in praise and Jesus acknowledged if they were silent, the rocks would cry out! (Luke 19:40) Freedom was the colt’s experience and it can be ours too: ‘He is wooing you from the jaws of distress   to a spacious place free from restriction, to the comfort of your table laden with choice food.’ (Job 36:16)

As we explored Palm Sunday from the viewpoint of the donkey (Luke 19:28-44), we discovered that in choosing a donkey, Jesus fulfilled Messianic prophecy, for Zech 9:9 tells us, ‘Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’ (Zech 9:9) By choosing a donkey rather than a horse or other animal, Jesus made it plain to all that he was indeed proclaiming himself to be king… but perhaps not the kind of king that was expected.

Zechariah’s prophecy of a righteous and victorious king would have been music to the ears of Jews who had suffered under Roman rule and oppression for over 80 years. Jesus had consistently demonstrated God’s concern for the poor and needy, showing a concern for them which highlighted righteousness as doing what is right (see Matt 11:5). However, Zechariah also spoke of a ‘lowly‘ king. Jesus had taught his disciples that he was gentle and humble in heart (Matt 11:29) and in choosing a donkey, Jesus illustrated his identification with mankind in all its suffering and lowliness (Heb 2:14-15, Heb 4:15, Heb 2:18).

God’s kingdom is not like our idea of a kingdom, where a king rules by authority and might and no consideration for others. The kingdom of God, Jesus taught, belongs to little children, can only be entered by being born again, is a kingdom where the first will be last and the last will be first and the greatest will be those who serve (Mark 1:15, Mark 9:1, Mark 10:15, Luke 6:20, John 3:5-8, Matt 19:16-30). The donkey’s role is to emphasise yet again that this kingdom where Jesus rules is a topsy-turvy one as far as the world is concerned. The people were cheering and celebrating because they thought this triumphal entry into Jerusalem heralded a new king and a new kingdom… and they were right. But the fact that less than a week later Jesus was crucified on a cross tells us that the majority of people did not really grasp at this time the kind of king Jesus was or the kind of kingdom He would introduce.

Paul reminds us that ‘the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength’ (1 Cor 1:25) and that ‘the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.’ (1 Cor 1:18)  What better way to communicate this truth than through a simple donkey?

Using the excellent Lost Sheep series of stories, we looked tonight at Palm Sunday from the point of view of the donkey (named Dave in this story) who carried Jesus into Jerusalem.

Dave’s excited about having been the one to be privileged to carry the king into Jerusalem, but is shocked to hear on his grandpa’s return a week later that the king, so acclaimed by crowds as they entered, was not well received thereafter and did not receive a golden crown or a golden throne. Instead, he had to wear a crown of thorns and was sentenced to death by crucifixion.

Our ways are not God’s ways, however, for this cruel death was not the end of the story. Instead, Grandpa told of the resurrection of Jesus and concluded, ‘Long live the King!’

Those of us of a certain age remember a phrase from the ‘Blue Peter’ programme with fondness: ‘Here’s one I prepared earlier!‘ When demonstrating craft or baking activities, rather than being forced to wait for things to stick or cook, presenters produced a version already prepared to show what the finished item should look like. Preparation is immensely important in any task. as the Robert Schuller quote below demonstrates:

Preparation is crucial to every achievement:

Winston Churchill went so far as to say that all his past life had been a preparation for his service as Prime Minister during the Second World War.

If we admire people’s preparation and perseverance for great events, that’s as nothing compared to God’s preparation! All of Jesus’ life was preparation for His death. but the Son of God was actually preparing for this even before He was born! Isaiah’s prophecy about the Suffering Servant (Is 53:1-6) was made 600 years before the birth of Jesus, but even as far back as Gen 3:15, we see God’s promise of a Messianic deliverer. Rev 13:8 speaks of the Lamb ‘slain from the creation of the world.’ God’s preparation for our salvation was definitely long-term. He chose the person (Jesus), the place of His sacrifice (Jerusalem) and the time (when the message would be quickly spread thanks to the Greek and Roman empires), choosing to sweep away our offences like a cloud and our sins like the morning mist. (Is 44:22)

So much God-preparation can be celebrated at Easter, but His preparation continues now, for Jesus has now gone to prepare a place for us (John 14:1-3) We can’t possibly contemplate all that God is preparing for those who love Him (1 Cor 2:8-10), but we can rejoice in a God who is quite the best at preparation!