Untying Donkeys

April 5, 2009

Mark 11:1-11

Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.

Today is the day that we have been preparing for. Last Saturday, a good number of us scrubbed, dust, washed, touched-up, and cleaned up the church just in time for Easter. For the past 7 weeks, we have been in the season of Lent reflecting on the meaning of discipleship when we come on Sunday to worship and listen to the sermons. For the past 7 weeks, some have attended weeknight Bible studies that examined how we may learn from the mistakes of the disciples. For the past 7 weeks, 12 people have attended Inquirers or Baptism classes to prepare for this day.

Today is the day that we have been waiting for. Jesus at last makes his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. His ministry began out in the rural areas of Galilee. But throughout the Gospel, Jesus has mentioned a time when he needed “to go up to Jerusalem.” There, in Jerusalem, he would confront the powers. There, in Jerusalem, his reign would begin to unfold. There, in Jerusalem, he would enter the holy city and establish his rule over it and take it back for God’s reign. Perhaps it was 7 weeks ago that our church office ordered blades of palm leaves so that you may wave them on this day to once again simulate Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

Untying a Donkey

But for Jesus to enter the capitol city to parade in triumph and take up his crown, he sends a couple of his disciples to go get a colt. This is rather a very mundane, non-spectacular, and even trivial matter, isn’t it? Now if you were one of the disciples and finally, waiting outside of the holy capitol getting ready for the big parade, you would want to stay close to Jesus, the star attraction. The last thing you would want to do is to go get a donkey. But Mark expends nearly half of his verses about Palm Sunday in this rather detailed description of acquiring a colt for Jesus to ride into Jerusalem.

Mark doesn’t tell us who these two disciples were but we might assume that they could be James and John who a few hours before asked Jesus, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and the other at your left, in your glory.” Though no one knows, we can guess that the disciples imagined themselves a grander and nobler role on this day than renting a donkey for the day.

From the point of the disciples, Jesus is to go head-to-head with the principalities and powers, striding into the capitol city, and finally getting the chance to be vindicated before the whole world, that they have been following the true Messiah. But two of them were sent to find a donkey.

The disciples were all busy trying to get some glory, asking among themselves, “When we get him elected Messiah, and God’s reign has come, who will get to sit on the cabinet?” And here are Jesus’ two disciples, sent out looking for a stable from which to rent a donkey for the day.

At the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, he called his disciples to leave home, work, and family and to hit the road with him. Jesus did not look much like the Messiah in those early days, and his path did not remind anybody of God’s reign. But eventually, with hard work, and the infusion of the power of the Holy Spirit, the disciples felt that the movement was finally underway, the crowds will gather, and Caesar will recognize that Jesus is superior than Rome. This parade will be great and impressive.

But the triumphal parade begins with two disciples, sent by Jesus, to wheel and deal with some donkey trader, standing outside in the street, trying to get Jesus the means to get to Jerusalem.

For those who were able to attend the Lenten Bible study groups this year would understand that the disciples were not too impressive of a bunch. They were always misunderstanding what Jesus was trying to teach them. They thought more about themselves than about God and their neighbors. They made mistakes. But in this passage that we have today, we see two disciples not making a mistake but obediently attending to the mundane details and going to rent a donkey for Jesus for the day. If it were not for these two disciples completing an unspectacular chore, we wouldn’t have a triumphal Palm Sunday. No “Hosannas!” would have been sung. They went out as they were told, did as they were commanded, and found a donkey at the last minute, and thus the Son of God was welcomed to Jerusalem.

Preparing the Way

John the Baptist who said, “Prepare ye for the Lord!” was not the Messiah. None of the disciples was the Messiah. We, who are faithful members of this church, are not the Messiah, not even close. We are the ones who secure the room, so that Jesus can have an intimate, last meal with his friends. We are the ones who go get the donkey, so that Jesus can enter the capitol city to truly reveal who he is and what his mission is all about.

Elsewhere in the gospels, Jesus sends his disciples out to preach, to heal, and to cast out demons from troubled people. But this Sunday, let us remember that most of us disciples are also called to perform more mundane tasks.

Take for an example today. There are disciples who baked cookies for the welcome reception we’ll have this afternoon in the Fellowship Hall. There are disciples who will take the wet baptismal robes to launder and dry. There were all those who came last Saturday for the Clean-Up Day to prepare our church home so that we may celebrate Palm Sunday and believers baptism today. I prepared by sweeping the sidewalk this morning.

You may not be the ones who teach English and citizenship classes in our Friday Night School, but you came to cook a dinner and wash up all the dishes so that these students may hear the Good News of Jesus Christ. You may not be called to teach the Bible on some tough biblical texts, but you are willing to start the water for tea and to bake a coffee cake for Sunday school. You might not be up here preaching an uplifting sermon from a lectionary text, but you are sitting back in the PA control room making it possible for everyone to hear. I might not be able to read the Biblical texts in Hebrew and Greek, but I can try to faithfully and humbly interpret the Bible for you to lead a life of costly discipleship. Through all these seemingly small, countless gestures, we are fulfilling the will of God. We are preparing the way of Jesus. We are doing those things that must be done before Jesus can make his entry into the world. Are you willing to go and untie a donkey for Jesus?

Palm Monday

There’s a little story of what happened on the Monday after Palm Sunday. The donkey awakened, his mind still savoring the afterglow of the most exciting day of his life. Never before had he felt such a rush of pleasure and pride. He walked into town and found a group of people by the well. “I’ll show myself to them,” he thought.

But they didn’t notice him. They went on drawing their water and paid him no mind.

“Throw your garments down,” he said crossly. “Don’t you know who I am?” They just looked at him in amazement.

Someone slapped him across the tail and ordered him to move. The donkey said, “I’ll just go to the market where the good people are. They will remember me.”

But the same thing happened. No one paid any attention to the donkey as he strutted down the main street in front of the marketplace.

“The palm branches! Where are the palm branches!’ he shouted. “Yesterday, you threw palm branches!”

Hurt and confused, the donkey returned home to his mother.

“Foolish child,” she said gently. “Don’t you realize that without him, you are just an ordinary donkey?”

We are not the Messiah, not even close. But the Messiah has asked us to take up mundane, sometimes seemingly unspectacular tasks to prepare for the reign of God to come on earth.

While we celebrate Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem today, it is also the beginning of the passion of Christ. Holy Week begins today as we look toward Maundy Thursday to experience the Last Supper in darkness only to be reminded of the truth that no darkness can overcome the Light of Jesus. The disciples were sent to find a room upstairs to eat the Passover. They went out to buy all the food for the meal. If they didn’t do these mundane chores, Jesus wouldn’t have had the bread and the cup to remind us of who he is and what his mission in the world will be.

We look toward Good Friday to experience the horrible death of Jesus on the cross as he stands in for us for the forgiveness of sins. When Jesus died, there were women who followed and provided for Jesus looking on from a distance waiting to take Jesus body to wrap and prepare for burial. There was Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council who asked for Jesus’ body to place in his new tomb. If these women and Joseph of Arimathea didn’t do these mundane chores, they may not have gone back to the tomb to find it empty and the fulfillment of Scriptures might not have happened.

And we look toward next Sunday when Jesus has been buried for three days, the women, Mary Magdalene, and Mary, the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go and anoint him. This was a very mundane and unspectacular job to do. But when they arrived early in the morning, when the sun had risen, they were surprised to find that the large stone was rolled away. Christ is risen. Hallelujah! Death has lost its sting and it is not and will never be the last word.

It is a chore sometimes to get enough people to come and help clean-up the church twice a year. But since you came, we can bear witness to all who comes today that this is the house of the Lord!

It’s a chore and unspectacular to cook Friday night meals and then wash all those dishes, pots and pans. But since you shopped and diced and cooked and washed, there are people who are closer to knowing Jesus Christ and his church.

It’s pretty mundane when you’ve been asked to serve as Deacons to also be expected to take these wet baptismal robes home to wash and dry. But as humble Deacons modeling for us the meaning of servanthood, you have set an example of the cost of discipleship. Twelve people are joining Christ’s church because of seeing you perform mundane tasks.

Jesus has asked us to do all of these often very mundane, non-spectacular, and even trivial chores to prepare for his coming. Jesus said, “

            Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it,

            you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and

            bring it.”

As Jesus’ disciples, let’s go and untie this donkey for him.

Let us pray.

Lord Jesus Christ, even as you entered Jerusalem, on this day enter our world, enter our hearts and lives, and come to us, and rule over us. Teach us, day by day, to serve you as you ought to be served, to walk with you where you walk, to talk as you talk, and to be the faithful followers whom you deserve. Give us the strength to follow you toward the cross, not thinking about ourselves and our needs, but focusing upon God’s reign and its triumph. We pray in the name of the blessed Lord, the Messiah. Amen.