Trinity Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Sermons 

Title: "The Lord Needs It"

Text: Luke 19:28-40

Don’t we all have the scene well-fixed in our minds? Here comes Jesus on the colt, surrounded by his disciples, with huge crowds along the streets of Jerusalem, cloaks and palm branches covering the way before him, shouts of "Hosanna!" filling the air. The moment of exultation and expectation, the arrival of the King!

Well, this morning, let’s take a closer look at the Lucan account that serves as our Gospel text for this year – and see what we encounter.

According to Luke, the scene opens at the Mount of Olives, near two places known as Bethphage and Bethany, located less than two miles east of the city – perhaps forty minutes’ walk away from Jerusalem and the Temple.

While stopped there at the Mount of Olives, Jesus instructed two of the disciples to go into an unnamed village ahead of them on the road to Jerusalem, where they would find tied a colt that had never been ridden. Jesus tells the disciples to untie the colt and bring it back to him.

And then Jesus says something that sounds prophetic, as if he were reading a future that only he can see. He says to his two disciples, "If anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' just say this, 'The Lord needs it.'"

Well, we know what happened. Sure enough, the two disciples found the colt just as Jesus had told them. And sure enough, as they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, "Why are you untying the colt?" And the disciples repeated what Jesus had told them to say, "The Lord needs it."

Now, here is the curious bit about this scene. In the original Greek text, the word used for the "owners" – note that the word is in the plural – is the same word as that used to convey "Lord" in the phrase "The Lord needs it." This noun comes from an adjective that meant "strong" and "authoritative." In the non-religious sense, it was used as a term of respect for an owner, lord, or master of property or persons, but it also was used as a title for God and, in the Gospels, for Jesus himself.

In effect, Jesus has instructed his disciples to tell these plural "owners/masters/lords" that the one (singular) true "owner/master/Lord" needs the colt.

At this point, I have a confession to make. As I imagine the scene in the Lucan Gospel, I can’t help but recalling a scene in one of the early Star Wars movies where Master Obi-Wan Kenobi (played by Alec Guiness) and Luke SkyWalker (played by Mark Hamill) are going into the city with their droids, R2D2 and C3PO. Perhaps you remember the scene, too. When a pair of imperial troopers stop them at a check point, Obi-Wan waves his hand at them and says quietly (but forcefully), "these aren’t the droids you’re looking for; go about your business." And, of course, the mesmerized imperial troopers do as he says.

This morning, reading a much earlier Lucan text, we are presented with a structurally similar story. The two disciples encounter a colt and begin to borrow it. And its owners, quite reasonably, ask what is going on. Jesus’ disciples respond with the "mesmerizing" phrase, "The Lord/master/owner needs it," and the colt’s owners find themselves cooperating with a silent, unseen force.

Then, the disciples brought the un-ridden colt back to Jesus. After throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it, and they all set off on the final phase of their entry into Jerusalem.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I can’t imagine being "set on" a colt that never had been ridden and calmly setting off on a ride. For me, the image that leaps to mind is something like the Mesquite Rodeo! You know, the assistants help to set the cowboy down onto the back of the young bronco, and then the gate is released and the colt leaps forth – and the cowboy holds on for dear life!

Perhaps, in ancient times, un-ridden colts were more docile, but I doubt it. So, here is another example of Jesus’ power and force in the world. With no hint of any kicking or bucking, the colt accepted Jesus as "master," and they went forth toward the gates of Jerusalem.

As Jesus rode along on the colt, presumably at a slow gait, the people kept spreading their cloaks on the road and the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for the deeds of power that they had seen, saying, "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!"

Curiously, two elements of the "standard" synoptic Gospel account of Palm Sunday are missing from the Lucan account of these events. Did you notice what is "missing"? It is not easy to spot, because we have the synoptic story so well engrained in our minds. It is sort of like the famous mystery of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – the one that revolved on the plot point of the "dog that did not bark in the night."

In the present case, in Luke’s account of Jesus entry into Jerusalem, there are no "Hosannas!" and there are no palms branches! The gospels of Matthew and Mark both include "Hosannas!" and tree branches being spread on the road, while John’s Gospel includes "Hosannas!" and specifically mentions palm branches. But, in Luke, nothing of this sort is to be found. So, on this particular morning, I suppose that we should have spread the sanctuary with cloaks rather than with palms. (It would be a different look, don’t you think?) Perhaps we can try it when Year C of the Lectionary cycle rolls around again in 2007?

At the same time that Luke omits the "Hosannas!" and the palm branches from his narrative, he inserts a word not found in the story in any of the other gospels.

As the multitude of disciples began to praise God joyfully, Luke records that they were saying, , "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!" This proclamation comes from Psalm 118, our psalm of the day, but without the word "king." Among the synoptic Gospels, only Luke inserts the extra word "king" into this phrase from the ancient scriptures. Some commentators have suggested that Luke combined the saying from Psalm 118 with another saying, taken from Zechariah 9:9, that said, "Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey." (note: this also may be the source of Matthew’s Gospel version having both the donkey and the colt, where Jesus sat on them both!)

The story, as Luke tells it here, is more subdued and less crowded that the narrative found in the other Gospels. Luke’s version is "an event of and for believers, and its meaning lies in Jesus and in their faith in him . . ." (Fred B. Craddock, 1990, Luke, p. 227).

Finally, Luke’s Gospel is unique in bringing the Pharisees into the story at this point. According to Luke, some Pharisees come to Jesus, not to complain about him, but to object to the activities of his disciples. Regardless of the Pharisee’s motivations, Jesus rebukes them with these words: "I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out." In effect, Jesus is saying that the truth will come out in the end. After all, a God that can extract water from a rock will have no problem getting words from stones!

This brings us to the end of the passage, to the end of the long journey toward Jerusalem, to the moment of the triumphal entry into the holy city. Yet, despite all of the excitement of the crowd of disciples along the road to Jerusalem, I am drawn back to the scene with the borrowing of the colt and the little phrase, "The Lord needs it."

This is a puzzling phrase for me. On one level, it provided a sufficiently compelling justification for the disciples needing the colt that the owners did not object – in fact, the owners are silent in the face of the power of the statement, "The Lord needs it." Unlike the versions in Matthew and Mark, the Lucan narrative includes no promise that the Lord would return the colt any time soon, if at all!

At a deeper level, this phrase raises questions about what kind of "Lord" we are encountering here in Luke’s Gospel. If you consider it for a moment, you might begin to wonder what kind of Lord, what kind of God, actually "needs" anything from us or from other creatures? After all, if God is all powerful, if God is the ultimate sovereign, how is it possible that such a God could "need" anything, much less a colt that had not been ridden?

John Calvin’s great theological document, the Institutes of the Christian Religion, offers a helpful discussion of God’s "providence," a word that Calvin used to understand how God interacts with humans and other creatures in the world. Calvin emphasized that God chooses to deal with us in certain ways.

In the case of the colt in Luke’s story about Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the expression "the Lord needs it" is not just a mesmerizing message to which there was no choice but to respond with a silent "yes, my Lord." Instead, the owners of the colt could have said "No" to the disciples who claimed to represent some "lord" whom the owners never had encountered.

And what about us? If we had been the owners of that colt, what would we have done or said? Would we have given our silent assent? Or would we have protested and refused the colt to the disciples? Or, perhaps, we might have been sought a compromise by asking for some collateral from the disciples for the colt they were borrowing?

And what about today? Suppose that after church you were to walk into the parking lot, where you found two strangers in the process of borrowing your car. When you ask what they were doing opening your car door, they replied "The Lord needs it." Would you simply accept that explanation and wish them on their way with a "Good day, brothers"? More likely, you would call 911 to report a car theft in progress!

Is it that we are not as trusting as those colt owners back in the first century? Do we reject the possibility that the Lord could "need" something that we have? And what about us? Is it possible that the Lord might need us? That the Lord might choose us? That the Lord might choose me? That the Lord might choose you?

Our sovereign God chooses to deal with all creation and with all of us human beings through love and mercy. And in covenant after covenant with the people of Israel, the Lord chose to keep trying to bring them into the light, instead of abandoning them in the darkness. Finally, God sent Jesus to be the light of the world, to be the first and the last Word not only to the people of Israel but to all the peoples of the world.

As we celebrate this Palm Sunday, as we remember this day in which the journey to Jerusalem was accomplished with the borrowing of an unridden colt, the Lord continues to offer us a choice. As you sit there in the pews, contemplating the Holy Week ahead, and the weeks, months, and years trailing off into the distant future, consider your choice and consider your life. And, then, remember this, "The Lord needs it." Amen.

© 2004 Robert V. Kemper (e-mail: rkemper@trinitypresdallas.org