Why the Donkey? Sermon for the 1st Sunday in Advent - Dec. 3, 2023

The First Sunday in Advent

December 1^st, Year of Our + Lord 2023

Our Savior’s and Our Redeemer Lutheran Churches

Hill City and Custer, SD

Why the Donkey?  Matthew 21:1-9

     A conversation among 12 men, on a particular Sunday evening, during the spring of a particular year, in a village a short distance outside Jerusalem. 

     “Say, Bartholomew,” Thomas calls to his friend as the evening light fails, “Why did Jesus have us go get those donkeys for Him to ride as He came into the city this morning?  I mean, I have some ideas, but I doubt I’m right.  You always paid more attention in Synagogue.  Help me out here, would you?” 

     Grinning in the darkness, Bartholomew quips, “Well, I think the Master wanted the mama donkey along so that the colt would be calm and let Him ride it.  Nobody wants to get bucked off, you know… not even the Son of Man.”

     “Knock it off, Bart,”  Thomas snapped, “I know plenty about donkeys.  And you know that’s not what I’m getting at.  I’m trying to sort out what it all means.  It makes me think of a bunch of stories from the Book, like Zechariah’s promise of Zion’s king coming to her on a colt of a donkey.  And of course the people were shouting Hosanna to the Son of David, so they were thinking the same.  But which of Zion’s stories apply to today?  The whole Scripture can’t all be connected to this morning, can it?” 

     “Can’t it?  Why not?” asks Bartholomew.  “Come on Tom, you can’t always be doubting God’s Word.  If there’s one thing Jesus has been teaching us for the last three years, it’s that all of it, Moses, the Prophets, the Psalms, all of it is about Him.” 

     Matthew, drifting off in the corner of the house in Bethany, tries to rouse himself from sleep.  “This should be interesting,” he thinks.  “I should take some notes, so I have this stuff when I write my biography of Jesus.  There could be some great details.”  Matthew lifts himself up on one elbow to listen.    

     “O.k., Tom,” says Bartholomew, engaging his friend, “Let’s work through it.  Which stories from Scripture are you thinking of?” 

     “Well, there are lots of donkey stories.  I guess the first one is Abraham and Isaac heading up Mount Moriah, with a donkey carrying the wood for the sacrificial fire.  But I’m not sure that fits.”

     James, John’s brother, jumps into the conversation: “I hope it isn’t connected. 
This is going to be a bad week if Jesus is fulfilling what almost happened then, the sacrifice of the only son, the son of the promise…  Of course, Mt. Moriah is where Jerusalem was built, and Jesus did say that He is coming here to be arrested and killed.  I was hoping He really didn’t mean it.  You don’t suppose that’s what Abraham meant when he said, ‘The Lord will provide the sacrifice’?” 

     James, the other James, the son of Alphaeus, speaks up:  “Back to the whole donkey-colt thing.  I know the mother donkey’s presence would calm the colt, but did anyone else still expect that to go very badly?  First rider on its back, and the colt lets Him sit there, like he knew his Rider.  I guess Balaam’s donkey isn’t the only one who’s smarter than he looks.  Still, I wish the colt could speak, to tell us what he was thinking, like God let Balaam’s donkey do.”

     “Balaam’s donkey taught us that animals sometimes recognize the presence of the Lord and His angels better than we do,” offers Bartholomew, “so why should we be surprised that the One who can walk on water can also calm an unbroken colt?  And since the people today recognized Jesus as the Son of David, we should remember how King David rode a mule.”

     “Say, Bart, I’m just an old fisherman, so I get confused with all this animal husbandry stuff.  Tell me again, what’s the difference between a donkey and a mule?”  No one says it out loud, but Peter’s bad jokes always make them wonder why Jesus singled him out as a leader among them. 

     Bartholomew continues, trying to ignore Peter, “Well, donkey or mule, the prophet Zechariah was certainly referring back to Solomon, the son of King David.  You remember how David, when he was getting close to death, put Solomon on his own mule and had him ride into Jerusalem, to let everyone know who the next true king was.  It certainly seems Jesus was trying to make that point about Himself today.  That is for sure what the crowds understood, when they hailed Him as the Son of David.”   

     “Then the Master is trying to get Himself killed,” says Thomas grimly.  “The Romans are not going to like hearing all this ‘new king’ talk, and you can be sure the priests will let them know…”   

     “Another Scripture comes to mind,” adds Bartholomew.  “Did you notice that we entered the city from the east, from the Mount of Olives?  And then Jesus accepted the worship of the people, making the Pharisees crazy.  Like He did with the Canaanite woman, and those women who have come and anointed Him, today Jesus acknowledged that the proper place of worship is at His feet.”

     “Yes, just like the blind men in Jericho.”  “Don’t forget the Samaritan leper.”  “Or Peter, in the boat, at the great catch of fish.”  Simon Peter has no joke to reply to this memory. 

     “Well,” continues Bartholomew, “I’m remembering how the prophet Ezekiel tells of the departure of the Lord from the Temple, out the East gate, departing to the Mount of Olives.  And then Ezekiel later promises that the Glory of the Lord will return to the Temple, from the East, from the Mount of Olives.  And after his donkey ride, entering Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, what did Jesus do?  He went straight to the Temple and cleansed it.”

     “Again,” says Thomas, “trying to get Himself killed.”

     “I don’t know about that,” said Bartholomew, finishing his thought, “but if Jesus is the Son of God, like Peter said, didn’t He fulfill the prophecy of Ezekiel this morning, the Glory of the Lord returning to His Temple from the east?”   

     “But if Jesus is the new King David, why isn’t He gathering an army?  Simon, the other Simon, the zealot, joins the conversation.  “Instead, He goes around unarmed, unprotected, and taking such risks, always challenging the Pharisees, and the Priests, giving them plenty of ammunition to accuse Him to the Romans.”  Simon cannot understand how Jesus thinks He is going to re-establish the kingdom of Israel when he is always insulting and angering the Pharisees, the Priests and the whole Sanhedrin.  Plus, why doesn’t He start building an army?  None of them understand.  Not yet. 

    The Church has historically opened the season of Advent with the account of Jesus entering Jerusalem on the Sunday before His Crucifixion.  But Advent is the season leading up to Christmas, to our celebration of Jesus’ coming into our world as the Babe of Bethlehem.  So, this fast-forward to Holy Week seems odd, out of sequence, at least to our one-thing-after-the-next way of thinking and living.  But God is not bound by time, and all of His comings, all of His Advents have similarities.  When the Lord comes to His people, His holiness brings dread to sinners.  But Jesus comes in Peace, and gives joy by announcing God’s forgiving love. 

   We can make many connections between His Palm Sunday entrance and the stories of prophecy, kingship and priestly sacrifice that fill the Hebrew Bible.  Our imagined conversation only hits a few highlights.  In His Palm Sunday entrance, Jesus reveals that He is the fulfillment of all the Old Testament. 

     The Advents of Christ, in the Old Testament, at His conception, at His birth, and His entrance into ministry, all of these have similarities, most especially the Holy Spirit’s continuous call for all to repent and believe that Jesus is Lord.  In every Biblical account, the Spirit calls us to repent of our sins, including our foolish idea that God should come to us in the way that we want and expect.  The Spirit calls us to repent of our sinful thoughts, words and deeds, repent, and believe, even though we cannot fully understand, even though we can’t completely connect all the dots. 

     Faith comes as we begin to understand that at the center of every Biblical story is a connection to the Cross of Christ.  From Mount Moriah where Abraham went to sacrifice his only son Isaac, to the manger, where the True Sacrifice of God lay; from Balaam’s donkey, who spoke the truth of God, to the angels sent to the shepherds, bringing good news to all God’s flock.  We enter Advent anticipating the celebration that the coming of Jesus brings.  For He came to us, long ago in Bethlehem, and on Palm Sunday.  He entered into Jerusalem to be the Sacrifice, even as He enters in our midst today, in His Word and Supper.  And someday, maybe not for a long time, or maybe tomorrow, Jesus will come visibly, once more.  Someday, in God’s timing, Jesus will make His final advent, riding the clouds, fully revealed in glory, to bring His faithful into His everlasting, perfect, joyful, and glorious kingdom.

Today I have imagined this conversation of the  Apostles that evening after the original Palm Sunday.  The conversation is imaginary, but the connections to God’s Word are true, and they are only part of the story.  This Advent and Christmas, God grant us to grow more and more in our understanding of Jesus, of His Advent, of His Purpose, and of His forgiving love.  He is our coming King, coming with healing, mercy, peace and joy, for you, and all people, the true gifts of Christmas, yours already today. 

     “Say,” murmurs Thomas, just as everyone is drifting off to sleep, “When Mary was pregnant with Jesus, do you suppose she rode a donkey into Bethlehem?  And what about when they fled from Herod to Egypt?  Somebody should remember to ask her, and write it down.  That would be a pretty cool.” 

   That we know of, nobody heard or followed Thomas’s suggestion.  So we are left to wonder whether Joseph really found a donkey for Mary, as we tend to portray it in our minds and artwork.  Scripture doesn’t tell us this detail, but we do know all the important parts of the story.  And so, with the story of God’s Advent and our salvation filling our ears and hearts, we wait with confidence and peace, knowing we can ask the Lord ourselves, someday, face to face, when He comes again. 

Come Lord Jesus, come, Amen.