Untying the Colt

Luke 19:28-40

Palm Sunday: the story of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on the back of a colt as crowds wave palm branches and shout loud hosannas to the King of kings.

There seems to be a problem with Luke’s text, then…

No crowds. No palm branches. No hosannas. But there is a colt that no one has ever ridden.

Two disciples are sent to “borrow” this colt for Jesus' to ride into town. The disciples untie the colt, bring it to Jesus, place him upon it, and then stir up a hullabaloo about “Jesus the King who brings peace” as they parade into Jerusalem. The story in Luke paints less a scene of triumphal entry and more a scene of boisterous boys stealing a donkey and plowing through the city streets loudly shouting and being generally obnoxious.

“Hey, you kids, cut that out!” Shout the curmudgeonly Pharisees.

Or perhaps, not so curmudgeonly.

Remember the Pharisees warning from earlier in Luke? They warned Jesus that Herod wanted to kill him, and it was a pretty genuine warning. And here is Jesus with his group of friends making a scene in the streets of the big city. Perhaps here, too, the Pharisees are equally concerned for the safety of these fools, cavorting about the capital, as they are embarrassed or annoyed by them.

It’s one thing for Jesus to respond to their warning to stop his teaching and healing, by saying “No, I’m going to keep teaching and healing,” but it seems another thing entirely to go so above and beyond their warning to parade about in such a blatantly offensive manner to the political powers while proclaiming a “King” who comes to bring “peace.”

If thinking about Jesus and his disciples as “behaving obnoxiously” makes you feel a bit uncomfortable...good. I think Luke intends this scene to baffle us a bit.

“What in God’s name is the one who comes in God’s name doing?”

Jerusalem has always been the “goal” of Luke’s narrative, explains Eugene Boring in his Introduction to the New Testament (yes his name really is Eugene Boring, and the book is actually quite a fascinating expose of the history, literature, and theology of the New Testament), and in the verses following this “arrival” (captured in Luke 19), “Jesus will confront the center of Jewish national and religious life with his message of peace.” [1] An important thing to keep in mind, Boring adds, is that Luke wrote his gospel many decades after the event took place. [2] He knew that “the city did not follow the way of peace, but that the revolt [in 66-70 CE] incited by militaristic rebels brought the catastrophic destruction of the city and temple. Thus in Luke it is his disciples--and not the residents of Jerusalem--who celebrate his entrance into the city...Jesus weeps because the city was blind to the reality of God’s kingdom and did not recognize the time of God’s visitation and the things that make for peace.” [3]

For me, untying the colt in this story is symbolic of releasing the wild and untamed power of God’s peace...a peace which, from the perspective of the status quo, may appear to be quite disruptive. Maintaining power within the status quo requires, to some extent, that the masses being governed and guided are only able to see but so much. In the same manner that one might put blinders and a bridle on a trained horse, the Roman Empire has harnessed its constituents. The Pharisees, while I do not wish to label them as “antagonists,” represent a powerful relationship between religion and the ruling class that acted as blinders for many. And here come Jesus’ disciples untying an untamed colt so that Jesus could ride it, without bridle or blinders, through the streets of Jerusalem.

Walter Wink helps unpack the complexity of social/religious/political relationships within the Roman Empire. Please do continue to pay attention, but forgive me for this brief academic interlude as I quote from Engaging the Powers:

“In a legitimate society, people freely give their consent even to rulers they despise, because they approve of the political framework by which those rulers come to power and exercise it. In such a system the citizen is an active, creative, and critical participant who becomes more and more identified with the social system as the social system becomes more acceptable to the participant. The rules by which society functions are backed by sanctions, to be sure (embarrassment, public censure, fines, arrest, incarceration, execution), but their real power depends on trust. When a government or institution must resort to threat or the use of force, its power has already eroded, and the system is in crisis.” [4]

So look at the Roman Empire, and their use of the cross, through this lens. They hoped to use the cross as a way of flexing their muscles and demonstrating their power, but for Jesus, it would be exactly the act by which the eyes of the blind would be opened: his death on the cross would expose the manipulative nature of the system for what it was. Wink continues:

“An empire is, by its very nature, a system in a permanent crisis of legitimation. It is not a natural system, but an artificial amalgam held together by force. That is why propaganda is so essential to it. People must be made to believe that they benefit from a system that is in fact harmful to them, that no other system is feasible, that God has placed the divine imprimatur on this system and no other.” [5]

And so the emperor demanded to be referred to as “Lord” and “son of god,” he filled the realm with statues of his likeness and stamped his face on all the coins. He scattered seeds of propaganda to re-brand the fear which kept the empire paralyzed as an "era of peace and prosperity", the Pax Romana. These are the very blinders Jesus sought to remove...the blind faith that allowed people to believe they benefited from a system that was hurting and harnessing them. In order for God’s heavenly peace to take root, the Pax Romana would need to be uprooted. In order for God’s peace to blossom, the weeds of propaganda must be removed. The prophet Isaiah also spoke of this transformational take-over by God’s kingdom, describing the swords of conquest being beaten into plowshares. In order for the Garden of God to be restored to glory, the earth must be tilled and turned...which I imagine would feel rather disruptive from the perspective of the soil.

We began our Lenten journey with a paraphrase of these words spoken to humankind in the Garden of God: “Remember that you are soil…” Can we remember this as we listen to the story of Jesus and his disciples “plowing” through the streets of Jerusalem on the back of a colt? Can we remember this as we relate to the Pharisees in our discomfort, wishing to silence the sounds of God’s kingdom being proclaimed. But you cannot silence the stones as they clang against the plow-blade. Can we remember that we are soil...and so seek to transform our discomfort into hope, to allow our blinders to be removed that we might perceive the new thing God is doing in our midst. Next Sunday, we will flower the cross, transforming the Roman tool of execution and death into a symbol of new life in the redeemed kingdom of God. We will plow through the propaganda of the powers that be and give growth the glorious garden of the Gospel.

Where shall we find the power to pull the plow?

“Go, and you will find a colt that no one has ever ridden before...

Untie it and bring it here.”

Amen.

* * *

[1] Boring, Eugene. An Introduction to the New Testament: History, Literature, Theology. 2012, Westminster John-Knox. Louisville, KY. 606.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Wink, Walter. Engaging the Powers. 1992, Fortress Press. Minneapolis, MN. 93

[5] Ibid.