Luke 19:30-31

“Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ tell him, ‘The Lord needs it.’

I love Palm Sunday. It’s probably the traditionalist in me, but I love singing songs of celebration, I love the children’s choir and the little children shyly waving palms up and down the aisles while their grandparents snap photos and their Sunday school teachers try to get them to shout “Hosanna!”

I love reading and thinking about the bitter-sweet story of Jesus entering Jerusalem on a donkey. Adoring crowds shout praises, the Pharisees get mad, the disciples are jubilant and for one brief moment Jesus is seen and acknowledged as King. An ordinary dusty day in Palestine is transformed into the triumphal entry as God’s kingdom message breaks through. The whole city asks, “Who is this Jesus?”

Hands down my favorite character in the story is the donkey. Now I know what you’re thinking…“Yeah, come to think of it, you do remind me of a….” That’s NOT what I’m talking about! But think about it. Is there a more awkward, comical and unlikely beast to carry the Son of God? And yet this lowly animal became central to the unfolding of the passion week. A donkey revealed King Jesus to the world as he carried the Savior through the streets of Jerusalem.

I identify with this donkey and here’s why.

First, the donkey was tied up, unbroken and untrained when Jesus found him. Jesus said, you will find a colt tied there which no one has ever ridden. Now, I’m just enough of a farm boy to know that trying to ride an unbroken animal is an invitation for a broken collar bone. Until a donkey is broken or trained it really serves no useful purpose. No wonder he was tied up! Like a stubborn unbroken donkey, before my encounter with Jesus I was ungovernable, useless and completely bound to sin.

But in the presence of Jesus the stubborn becomes submissive, the useless becomes useful and the bound becomes free. Jesus said, “untie [the donkey] and bring it to me… for the Lord needs it.”

What an astounding thought. The Lord needs me! I’ve been freed for a purpose. I have a destiny within God’s larger mission on this earth. However small it may seem, God has formed and freed me for a reason. And God is guiding me to that purpose. Just as the firm but gentle hand of Jesus guided the inexperienced donkey through the noisy streets, so Jesus is guiding me on my earthly journey. With King Jesus at the reins, the distractions of the crowd, the waving palm branches and even the unsure footing of branches strewn in the way fade. I am vital and needed. That is why I was brought to Jesus.

It’s easy to buy into the lie that we are insignificant and that our choices for good or bad really don’t matter. So what if I… You can fill in the blank. That little donkey rebukes the lie. Bring him to Jesus, the Lord needs him.