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The following is a poem by the late English Christian author, G.K. Chesterton, entitled The Donkey:
WHEN fishes flew and forests walked
And figs grew upon thorn,
Some moment when the moon was blood
Then surely I was born.
With monstrous head and sickening cry
And ears like errant wings,
The devil's walking parody
On all four-footed things.
The tattered outlaw of the earth,
Of ancient crooked will,
Starve, scourge, deride me I am dumb,
I keep my secret still.
Fools, for I also had my hour,
One far fierce hour and sweet,
There was a shout about my ears
And palms before my feet.
Thus, the point of view of the donkey, “the devil's walking parody on all four–footed things.” Certainly not the white stallion one expects a king to ride in on. The white stallion would describe himself as meant for the kings of the earth, born to prance through the streets in many a finest hour.
But, time and again in Holy Scripture, the donkey takes a central place in the story of salvation. Abraham and Isaac ride a donkey three days to Mount Moriah for the sacrifice of Isaac, where God instead provided the ram in substitute, and Abraham's faith saw God's Lamb of salvation coming. Moses and his family rode a donkey back to Egypt from the land of Midian to lead God's people from slavery. Young David brought gifts of bread and wine and lamb on a donkey from his father Jesse for his brothers serving in Saul's army.
But notice, our donkey thinks he keeps a great secret to himself. He actually claims to be smarter than a lot of people. He has fooled those who operate with the stars of earthly glory and earthly idols in their eyes. He has fooled those who see this scene through their sinful flesh.
“Fools” the donkey calls you if you do not see by the eyes of faith in Jesus and His Word. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords rides to you on a colt, the foal of a donkey. He alone is righteous and worthy of praise. He alone has the gift of salvation to give you. Yet, He rides a small little donkey.
The crowd of faithful who recognized the Son of God by His power over the life and death of Lazarus were right to ask Him for that salvation. “Hosanna” is to say, “Save us, now!” They were no fools. They knew their Scriptures. This was God's Son and David's Son, despite all the appearances, despite the lack of trappings. Donated cloaks and ripped down palm branches would more than do for the Palm Sunday parade of God's Son into His Holy City.
The donkey indeed had his “one far fierce hour and sweet — there was a shout about my ears and palms before my feet.”
It was a fierce but sweet hour. There was the adoring crowd and their sweet praises. There was the sweet irony of God's salvation Lamb riding in on a donkey to His sacrificial death. There was the fierceness of hatred — the part of the crowd seeking to kill our Lord, hoping it would bring an end to Jesus' call to repentance and faith in Him, being the promised Son of God and Son of David. They were hard hearted, unwilling to listen to God's Word.
The Jewish leaders were fools, children of their father, the devil. They wanted to hang onto their earthly kingdom, to their idol gods of money, wealth, power, earthly vanity and self–glorification, to the belief that they could please God on their own merits. They believed that no savior bearing the gift of salvation was necessary for them.
What a trap Satan sets for those in his fierce grasp. He blinds the eye of faith. He turns the ear deaf to the life–giving Word of God. You know this is true. You know that your heart is black within sin. You are infected with sin, by nature, from your conception. It is inherent in you. And there is no quick fix, no long–road fix, no way to just gradually get better, no way to pull yourself up out of that waterless pit prison of sin. You cannot free yourself, cannot save yourself. Help must come from elsewhere. Change must come or you will die eternally.
That's why the sinful flesh and the world imprisoned to sin see the man on the donkey as not just something to revile or think little of because of the humble appearances. The donkey is bringing in its “one far fierce hour and sweet” an unwelcome change.
Our darkness is going to have eternal light shed upon it. Our dark deeds are going to be called for what they are — sin. And repentance and true faith in God are called for in its place.
Our sinful love of self and hatred of God's light and life is going to be battled to the death, our fascination with and lust for death is going to be crushed, and God's light and life will defeat it and take its place. Our sinful nature, our dead flesh, our adversary the devil — they tell us to resist God's change, resist God's rescue, resist God's salvation Lamb.
But we need this Lamb being offered up on the donkey. We need this heavenly King who comes to serve, this earthborn, heavenly Prince of Peace who breaches this satanic house of doom, where death has royal scope and room, breaches it and invades it from heaven above to the humble womb of the Virgin Mary, to His humble, innocent life and ministry, to the donated cloaks on top of the humble colt, the foal of a donkey, Jesus has come to breach the walls of Satan's prison of death for your release.
Jesus came on Palm Sunday amidst the shouts and palm branches to change this world totally over from darkness to light, from death to life, from imprisonment to Satan over to reconciliation and the loving embrace of your Heavenly Father. Jesus came on Palm Sunday into Jerusalem knowing full well He was coming to His barbaric, cruel, tortured suffering and death — but knowing full well it was necessary to undergo it all so that He would not lose one of you, His eternal flock.
Jesus does not leave it there. We don't celebrate history for history's sake. This isn't just reading and hearing about dead letters on a page. This Savior is not dead. He comes today on this Palm Sunday, during this awesome and profound Holy Week, and on every Sunday of the year: each time, we sing our Hosannas, praying to Him for our salvation with our praises. Each time, He answers in His Word and Sacraments.
He comes each time His Spirit gathers us together in His humble Gospel to comfort and assure you, to tell you your sins are forgiven on account of His Holy blood shed for you.
He comes to you each day in your baptism to daily drown the Old Adam in you, that sinful flesh that hangs onto us in this lifetime. In our baptismal waters, His blood washed us clean in God's eyes. Today, our brother in Christ, Jonathan Massegee, has been washed in His Savior's holy blood in this font, and He has been made an adopted blood brother with you and with our humble King Jesus. Each day, living as baptized children, we can freely repent of our sins and flee for refuge to the infinite mercy of our righteous and loving Savior.
He comes to you humbly in mere bread and wine where, at His Word, His holy, precious, given and shed Body and Blood, the same Body that the donkey brought in on Palm Sunday so many years ago, is placed on your tongue to make you one with your Savior, to give you His forgiveness, to renew and strengthen you unto the everlasting life He promises each of You.
Jesus came on the donkey on Palm Sunday for his “one far fierce hour and sweet” — the hour of His passion and death on your behalf, the hour when He changed things for you for the better. There was quite a shout about His ears and palms before His feet. The shouts did not grow quiet until He was laid to rest in His tomb. His way became marked, not by palms but, by His blood on the rocky road to Jerusalem.
But that hour is not sour. It is sweet. It is your victory in Christ Jesus, your Lord and King. He is righteous to make you righteous. He brings God's salvation for your rescue. He lives, He lives, who once was dead — and now we continue to sing His sweet Hosannas, and in eternity, we will waive the victor palm branch, freed forever from sin, devil, and death.
Thank God that He gave that “one far fierce hour and sweet” to that lowly donkey, that He made that donkey to be more than just a walking parody, a tattered outlaw of all animals. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for bringing your Lamb and your Prince of Peace and King of Kings to us, for us, even on the lowly colt, the foal of a donkey. Never a greater honor was given to a donkey or any animal. Never was any greater gift given. It is my prayer that, by faith, each Christian gladly and joyfully receives the gift of Christ's salvation, brought at the donkey's greatest hour, as often as possible during this blessed Holy Week and the joyous Eastertide to come.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
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