Palm Sunday: What Jesus and a Donkey Have to Teach Us

Our Palm Sunday gathering is approaching so I read the scripture of Christ's entry into Jerusalem in Mark 11:1-11 and Matthew 21:1-11. I also read a few commentaries and one gave me a new perspective on this old story.

The word "triumphal" is often used to describe this event in Jesus' life. This sounds amazing, even dazzling, doesn't it? But when you look at the elements that made up this scene, the word "humble" is the only way to describe it.

Jesus enters, riding a donkey. Not a magnificent horse, which can prance, fling its mane and offer its rider a lofty perch from which to look down upon people. No, this was a donkey. Actually, it was a donkey's colt--not even a grown-up donkey! And a borrowed one at that.

Donkeys have admirable traits but flamboyant isn't one of them. They are smaller than horses and not as fast. They are ridiculed, and aspects of donkeys are used to ridicule people in many ways.

They are the animals that, to this day, carry the burdens of the poor. Even Scripture describes this animal as "a beast of burden."

And as to the young donkey in Jerusalem, there was no leather saddle for Jesus to ride on, no ribbons or bells for decoration. Jesus' disciples took off their cloaks and placed them on the animal's back, a makeshift kind of seat that may have been threadbare, dusty or even smelling like fish.

The people who came to accompany him laid their cloaks on the road for his passage. Others cut branches from trees to strew on his path. They wanted to honor him, but the shirts off their backs and the nearby nature were all they had to offer.

Yes, it was a triumphal moment because it was a a proclamation that the crowds of people believed him to be a prophet who had come to them from the Lord. But it was not majestic, not a procession of a king of wealth. There were no musicians, banners, no sedan chair held high.

Even at one of his greatest moments of glory, Jesus made it clear that he was a king for the lowly and humble in a society. His example teaches that for those with resources, the riches are not the treasure.

Some questions to ponder this week: What is your burden to carry? What is your treasure?