Giving Jesus What You Have

Mark 11:1-11

On September 3, 1939, German troops invaded Bielsko, Poland. A fifteen­ year-old girl, Gerda Weissman, and her family survived in a Jewish ghetto until June of 1942. That’s when Gerda was torn from her mother kicking and screaming. Her mother, Helene, was sent to a death camp. Gerda would spend three years in a Nazi concentration camp, followed by a 350-mile death march that she somehow survived. By the time she was liberated by American troops, she was a sixty-eight-pound skeleton. And in what must rank as one of the most improbable love stories ever, Gerda actually married the soldier who found her, Lieutenant Kurt Klein.

The Holocaust Memorial in Boston has six glass towers, each representing one of the six extermination camps where six million Jews, including Gerda’s mother, had their lives stolen from them. Five towers tell the story of unconscionable cruelty and unimaginable suffering, but the sixth tower stands as a testimony to hope. Inscribed on it is a short story titled “One Raspberry,” written by Gerda Weissman Klein. The story goes like this …

Ilse, a childhood friend of mine, once found a raspberry in the camp and carried it in her pocket all day to present to me that night on a leaf! Imagine a world in which your entire possession is one raspberry and you gave it to your friend.

The true measure of a gift is what you gave up to give it. One raspberry isn’t much unless it’s all you have! Then it’s not next to nothing; it’s everything. The same is true of two billion dollars or two mites. Big dreams often start with small acts of kindness. It’s powerful when we’re on the receiving end, but it’s even more wonderful when we’re on the giving end.[i]

Today, after taking a break for the summer to look at the life of King David in the Old Testament books of 1 and 2 Samuel, we’re picking back up with our sermon series on the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament, a series called JESUS: His Life, His Mission. We pick things back up in Mark 11. Jesus has been moving with purpose from Gentile territory north of Israel, through Capernaum in Galilee, which was his home base for his ministry, to Jerusalem. We left things back in June with Jesus healing a poor, blind man named Bartimaeus in Jericho, just 18 miles from Jerusalem. Doesn’t seem very far, and it isn’t. But it was rough terrain, and on foot it would take the better part of a day to cover that 18 miles.

We pick it up with Jesus and his disciples at Bethany, which is where his friends Mary and Martha and Lazarus lived, about a mile outside of Jerusalem. Turn with me to Mark 11:1-11.

This is the passage we re-enact every year on Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter, at the beginning of holy week. In some churches, children process in waving palm branches. I’m pretty sure the children don’t like doing that, by the way. But we make them do it because we think it’s cute and it’s the only way we can think of to commemorate Palm Sunday.

Throughout Mark’s gospel, Jesus has been careful not to make too big of a scene. And he’s done some incredible things, so that wasn’t easy. But the consistent message was “Don’t tell anyone what I have done for you.” Yes, he taught and healed massive crowds in public, but that was typically out in the wilderness, and usually up in the backwater region of Galilee, not right in the middle of Jewish life and culture in Jerusalem. It’s the difference between something extraordinary happing in Traverse City as opposed to New York City, before social media made anything, anywhere an event.

But now, as Jesus enters Jerusalem, he goes from not really wanting to draw a scene, or at least Roman attention, to openly making noise. Now, the amount of noise he created here is a bit open to interpretation. Matthew and Luke make it clear that people definitely noticed. Matthew even says that the “whole city,” which is a way of saying “everyone” noticed. But whether that was a scientific “every person inside Jerusalem’s walls” or more of a hyperbolic “a whole lot of people” is open to interpretation.

It’s significant, though, that there’s no report in any of the gospels of Jesus’ entry drawing Roman attention, and they were hypervigilant to large gatherings and commotion. Caesar wanted the peace kept and potentially inflammatory events diffused. And when Jesus went to the temple after his entry, Mark makes it sound like he’s there by himself, so whatever attention Jesus attracted quickly dispersed. John makes it clear that his disciples themselves were making most of the actual noise, and their noise likely drew the attention of others too, especially those who had heard that he’d raised Lazarus from the dead, an event that Mark doesn’t mention.

The thing is, in Mark’s telling of Jesus’ triumphal entry, he almost pays more attention to Jesus’ mode of transportation than he does to Jesus himself. It’s almost like the donkey takes center stage here. Why is the donkey important?

Jesus is making a very intentional statement by riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. You see, an Old Testament prophet named Zechariah, talking about the coming messiah, said, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zech. 9:9).

That right there should have been all the Jews needed to realize that the coming messiah was NOT going to be a great, victorious military leader. Jesus’ mission was, and still is, larger than any one nation or people, but while he came for the salvation of all, God always reached out to his special people, Israel, first. He was not going to be a nationalistic military leader who would help Israel throw off the bonds of her Roman oppressors and lead her to victory and a resurgence in international importance.

Conquering kings don’t ride into conquered territory on a donkey. They ride in on a great war horse, a charger, and for most kings it would be a white horse. Spirited. Valiant. Unafraid. Pawing the ground anticipating the coming battle. Rearing up in barely controlled strength and bravery. That IS the imagery the book of Revelation uses to describe Jesus’ SECOND coming. “Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords” (Rev. 19:11-16).

When Jesus comes again there will be no questioning him. No doubt about his identity. He will come as the victorious, conquering king who defeated not America’s enemies or Israel’s enemies or England’s enemies, but GOD’S enemies – sin and death. And he will establish not a human kingdom but the kingdom of God in its fullness. He will come not with nationalistic intent and goals of human nation-building, but to establish, once and for all, the unquestioned and unrivaled rule of God over the cosmos.

But that isn’t how he entered Jerusalem. Not on this day. That isn’t how God’s messiah would enter Jerusalem. There was supposed to be NO mistaking him for some kind of national ruler or military conqueror. But the people read Zechariah 9, and somehow HEARD Revelation 19 instead, and it hadn’t even been written yet.

He didn’t enter on a brave, spirited white charger. He entered … on a donkey. People often speak of donkeys in belittling terms. You may have heard the expression, “I’m just someone who has to do all the donkey work.’ Or “So-and-so is as stubborn as a mule” (a mule is part donkey). These sayings overlook the contributions of a truly valuable animal. Donkeys have served the human race for thousands of years. They were once prized as symbols of humility, gentleness, and peace. But not war. Fitting for the Prince of … Peace, don’t you think?

In Jesus’ day and long before, donkeys that had never been ridden were regarded as especially suitable for religious purposes. So it was most fitting that Jesus sent for a colt to perform the task of carrying Him into Jerusalem. Oh, he was coming to conquer. But not the enemies we wanted him to conquer, and not in the way we wanted him to conquer. He wasn’t coming to defeat Rome. He wasn’t coming to overthrow an empire. He wasn’t coming to “Make Israel Great Again.” He was coming to set Israel, and everyone else, free from sin and death. So he came not on a war horse, but on a donkey.

Now, think about the donkey’s owner for a minute, and what that donkey meant to them. This person – by the way – shows great faith but never gets named. Jesus sent two of his disciples ahead from Bethany into Jerusalem to grab his ride. Not a Lamborghini or a Porsche or a BMW or a bullet-proof SUV with tinted windows, but a Ford Focus – the kind of car pastors have driven for decades. Ok, maybe not literally, but that’s kind of the effect.

They would find the colt tied to a door, and they were supposed to just untie it and take it with them back to Bethany. And if anyone asked, “What the heck are you doing?” they were supposed to reply, “The Lord needs it, and will return it immediately after he’s used it.” Whether Jesus had pre-arranged with the owner or not, we don’t know. All we know is that the owner of the donkey colt had something Jesus needed, and he gave it to Jesus to use.

Yes, Jesus had promised to return it. But what if he didn’t? What if the donkey was injured? Jesus was, after all, a controversial figure. What if something happened to it? We have lots of excuses for holding on tightly to the things we have that Jesus wants to use, don’t we?

What do you have that Jesus wants to use? When we think about the things we have that Jesus wants to use, we can place them in three main categories – our time, our talent, and our treasure. All three are gifts from God anyway. Every moment you have on this earth is a gift from God. He gives life and he creates time.

Your talents – abilities you were born with that you have sharpened over time through education and practice. The things we think are just built into our DNA. Speaker and pastor Louis Giglio has this to say about your genetic makeup, your DNA. “We all began in the same way, one cell from your mom found one cell from your dad. The cell from your mom carried ½ of your DNA and the cell from your dad carried the other ½ of your DNA. They merged into 1 single cell. Out of this 1 cell they began a brand new DNA code. This cell began to write out what we now know is the 3 billion character description of who you are, written in the language of God.

This DNA, 3 billion characters, describes who God ordained you to be. In that one little simple cell! Scientists say that if you took the DNA of out of that one little simple cell, and stretched it out, it would be 6 feet long, 3 billion characters. So amazing that if I would read your DNA, reading one character every second, night and day, it would take 96 years just to read the description of YOU! When they were written down, they painted a picture of you, one that has never been painted before, in the history of human kind!

Then that one cell set out to build a model, from 1 cell. I’m telling you that you are a miracle sitting here today. And each of you has come a long, long way. Each one of you is made up of 75 trillion cells. There is so much DNA in all the cells of your body, that if we stretched it out, it would reach to the moon and back, 178,000 times. That is how amazing God has designed you to be!” You think your DNA isn’t a gift from God? It’s God’s 3 billion character description of you!

And your treasure. Oh, we love to say, “That’s mine. I earned it.” Using what? The time and the talent God gave you. Yes you’re a part of the process. You either sharpened those talents through education and practice or you didn’t. And not all education happens in the classroom. I understand that. But your time, your talent, and your treasure are all gifts from God. What do you have, that Jesus wants to use?

What talent are you not giving him … keeping hidden? Yeah, I play an instrument, or I can sing. But I’m too shy. Folks, I didn’t talk above a whisper in public until halfway through my first grade year. That doesn’t sound like much, but it’s a grade and a half! And now look. Some of you wish I’d shut up more quickly, don’t you. What talent are you holding back?

What about your time? Yes, God wants you to rest, and to play, to have fun and enjoy his creation. But he also has something for you to do in the church he’s planted you in. What time are you holding on to?

And what treasure are you keeping back? When that man’s donkey had a male baby, it would have been like hitting the jackpot. He’d probably paid dearly to breed his female to someone else’s male. That’s the way raising livestock works. But he wouldn’t have to buy another donkey. When momma wore out, he had another one ready to go, one that had been trained walking alongside his mother. That colt was his agricultural and transportation future. It could pull a cart, plow a field, and be ridden. His future and the future of his family rested on the shoulders of that little colt. What if something went wrong?

But Jesus asked for it, and he gave it. And then Jesus, having ridden into Jerusalem on that donkey’s back, in an act that said a TON about what his conquering would look like, and then he returned it. When we let Jesus use what we have, he always returns it to us. There’s always a return. Now, be careful. If you write a thousand dollar check, that doesn’t mean there will be a two thousand dollar check in your mailbox a week later. Jesus asked for two of my sons and I had no choice but to give them, and I will not get them back in this life. And that hurts. There is no more deep sacrifice than to lose a child. But I will see them again.

Listen to what the Old Testament prophet Malachi said about God’s returning what we give to him to use. “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, (the full tithe, don’t hold back) that there may be food in my house. (so that my full time workers can live and so that my people can do the work I have for them). And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts. Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts” (Mal. 3:10).

God always blesses those who willingly give things he wants to uses. Maybe not materially, but he always blesses.

The donkey had to be untied before Jesus could use it. We too must untie those things we are attached to and allow him to use them. Are we willing give Jesus what we have? Let’s pray.

[i] Mark Batterson, Chase the Lion, (Multnomah, 2016), Pages 34-35