"They brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and [Jesus] sat on them." - Matthew 21:7
Dear Friends in Christ -
When Palm Sunday is over, I never feel like I'm quite finished. I always have the sense that I'm still standing on a streetcorner, palm branch in hand, my cloak in the middle of the street with hoof-prints on it. Jesus has passed by, and now the rest of the crowd has moved on. But there I am, still drinking it all in.
It's a beautiful scene, and I want to remember it, hold onto it: thousands of people hailing Jesus as their radiant king, waving to people from the back of a donkey.
This is it. He's the one. The Messiah for whom we have waited. The one who will save us.
Matthew, the author of today's Gospel, is so eager to impress upon future readers that Jesus really is the Messiah, that he goes to great lengths to point out EVERY prophecy that is fulfilled by Jesus' coming - including prophecies from different Old Testament prophets that say Jesus will enter Jerusalem on a colt AND a donkey.
The thought of Jesus riding two animals simultaneously brings a smile to my lips. That would have been a sight to see! And I'm sure it's not quite what Matthew had in mind. No, he was just trying to tie up all the loose ends.
But that's impossible. At least for now, not even Jesus himself tries to do it. The story has to play out - messily - to the bitter end. On the same streets where people waved branches of palm and hailed him as their king.
Faithfully,
Janet+
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