“The LORD Needs It!”
“The LORD Needs It!”
Luke 19:28-40(41-45), Zechariah 4:4-9,9:9
Preached by Dr. Laurey Murphy on March 24, 2013
“The LORD needs it!”
That’s what he said as the two from Galilee were untying our colt…our only colt.
“What do you mean ‘the LORD needs it?’” I asked my husband as they were leading our colt, our only colt away. “…for there goes two complete strangers with our only means of transportation. Why– I was counting on that colt for being able to take me to the store one day soon!… or to see my mother!…. or to take a load of clothes to the river wash! I hadn’t been taking care of that colt since its birth for nothing…coaxing it, feeding it, talking sweet nothings in its ear ever since his poor mamma died giving him birth. What were you thinking, my foolish husband!?”
He just kept on giving me this strange look and said again, “The LORD needs it…that’s what they said and that‘s what they told me he said for them to say.”
I threw up my hands in exasperation, “Why? That donkey has never even had somebody on him.”
My husband with that strange look said again, “ That, too, is what their Lord told them.”
Shaking my head not understanding him at all, I said, “ So now two complete strangers have taken our one and only colt for someone they call ”the lord” to ride on it?! Who do you think this Lord is? The Messiah or something?”
And that just started my husband a talking! He got so excited that I thought he was going to have a heart attack instead of me over that animal being taken down the road by probably never to be seen again
“That’s exactly who it may be!” he said as he quickly pulled out his go-to-meeting prayer shawl and his yarmulke— telling me to remember what has been written in scripture.
“Where are you going? It’s not the Sabbath yet.” I told him as he started out the door. “Passover is this week, remember?”
“I know,” he said turning around. “What a perfect time!”
“The perfect time for what?” I asked him, starting to panic that my poor husband was on the verge of really losing it.
He said, “For the Lord who is to be King to come! Don’t you see—THIS is the place that the prophets have said….the Mt. of Olives. And OUR colt is the sign! For the Prophet Zechariah wrote that he would come riding on a donkey…a colt…the foal of a donkey. That’s our colt…don’t you see—-because no one HAS EVER before been on it.”
My poor husband was already running down the way clutching his prayer shawl around him and hanging on to the cap on his head for dear life or rather trying to hold on to his dear head, in my opinion. Does anyone really believe all that is written in the scrolls of scripture? Do you believe it yourself especially in the midst of it happening?
I don’t know …but I decided to go see for myself and went running towards to the top of the mount just like a lunatic, too.
And sure enough…do you know that …on the only way from the Mt. of Olives down to the Valley and into the city there was a crowd gathered…on both sides…and it’s not very wide—-just about twice as wide as this space here (center aisle). People were going crazy…men, women and children—all ages were lauging, crying (—for joy that is!), and dancing!
Everyone was slapping each other on the back, clapping their hands, waving their hands and picking Palms to wave, too.
I couldn’t find my husband because there were so many.
A wave of excitement went through the crowd, “He’s coming! He’s coming!”
Who’s coming? I tried to see. But people were pushing closer together, putting children on their shoulders, lifting up their babies and waving those dang palm branches!!!!!
The you could see someone, a man, coming slowly down the path …whose head was just above the chaos…the people around me began shouting at the top of their lungs, “Hosanna! Hosanna in the highest!”
Many were even saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord”
And others cried out, “Save us! Save us!”
And still others shouted, “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heaven!”
It made me want to join them, too, but didn’t they know? Weren’t they afraid? I looked around in fear for if the soldiers heard us…that would be the end…that would be our
tragic ending.
But how could I forget! It was the first day of the week leading up to Passover. And where would all the Romans be?…but on the other side of the city to welcome Herod Antipas on his annual trek, with his entourage of warriors to keep all of us in line and not to get too carried away in our faith….eh!…like that which was happening right then—- beginning with my own husband saying yes to the Lord needing our one and only colt.
If I had been the one first there at the door when the two strangers from Galilee came asking— -would I have said, “yes?” Would you have said yes?
I think I would have missed this chance to be in the midst of history happening…grace abounding and this Lord who is King coming down on this narrow path just as my dear husband reminded me the prophets said he would be….
But did you know that not everyone there in the crowd was joining in……………………..God’s most religious weren’t—-some of the Pharisees were looking with scowls on their faces, not shouting, nor raising their hands and certainly not waving any palms. In fact, I could see them shaking their heads in disapproval at the crowd and telling them to stop.
But the only one who stopped was the one making his way down thru the crowd…on our colt….the colt of my husband and me!
And there was my husband…my poor dear man… calming the colt with a few bits of grain out of his pocket while the One talked to these grumbling men in the midst of this praising, rejoicing crowd.
What was he telling them while pointing beyond the people to the rock walls of the this path…All I could hear above the deafening roar of the crowd was something about these very stones shouting, too.
Can you imagine the stones joining in, too. And maybe they are, I tell you ….when something so good to be—– is really coming true.
Come on…..come go with me. Let us follow this One for who knows what this year’s Passover is coming to? What a Holy Week! Hosanna! Hosanna in the Highest!
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