Take my colt and let it be!

Reflecting on Mark 11:1-11

"The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly." (Mark 11:3)

I’ve always wondered how Jesus knew the donkey would be there.
My personal belief was that Jesus did not know everything.
Jesus acted fully as a human, like us; He didn’t have extra God-powers.
He performed miracles just like other humans, with God’s help.
He promised that His disciples could do even greater miracles, with help (John 14:12).
Jesus emptied Himself of His God-ness to become fully human.

“Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage (literal: ‘grasped’); rather, he made himself nothing (literal: ’emptied’) by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” (Philippians 2:6-7)

When Jesus knows things like this, it is for different reasons.
God may have revealed it to Him in prayer, or in a dream or vision.
Or another possibility: He knew this place well, He had seen it before.
Bethany was where Martha, Mary and Lazarus lived, and he was there often.
It is not inconceivable to think Jesus had seen this colt before.
And the neighbours would know who the disciples meant by ‘the Lord needs it!’
Jesus was well known by this time, and many people put their hope in Him.
Hearing of His arrival, they cut branches and used their cloaks.
They offered themselves to Jesus, and Jesus welcomed their praise.

The main idea in this verse for me is how the Lord needs something.
In His human-role as Messiah, the Lord needs help.
I believe that Jesus becomes Adam to restore God’s kingdom.
The kingdom of God is this world under God-like human leadership.
Genesis 1 is the first picture of God’s kingdom, but it fades in Genesis 3.
When humans fail to be God-like, this world becomes a dominion of darkness.
Jesus is the first human since Adam and Eve to be fully God-like again.
He refuses Satan’s lies, stays true to God, and does not sin.
Therefore death cannot hold him; there’s no sin to hold on to.
Jesus’s resurrection makes Him Lord over all creation (Matthew 28:18-20).
But He does not rule as God; He rules as Adam, and we reign with Him.

This means that as Lord, He still needs our help.
He needs our hands, our resources, our time, our hearts.
He needs my car, my pantry, my house, my laptop, my education.
He does not take them from us (like worldly/human rulers).
But He uses them for a purpose, while still giving them back.
“The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.” (Mark 11:3)

Jesus is Lord, holding all authority over heaven and earth.
But He does not use His God power to take control or force obedience.
He does not rule from the top down, but from the bottom up.
Jesus as Lord remains a servant-king, humbled and gracious.
He asks us to join Him, and allows us to retain our freedom.
Our response is not forced or motivated by fear.
We know Him, and He knows us, and we gladly offer our ‘colt’.

Our world is filled with sadness and suffering.
So many people are lacking justice, food, shelter, love.
Jesus offers these things to all people, through His human helpers.
We are Jesus’s donkies (that sounds bad, though it is how we sometimes act).
The Lord needs us, if people are going to be helped, healed, blessed.

Last week I was with a group of medical professionals in Dominican Republic.
We were working with a local church in an extremely poor Haitian batey.
These people, many of whom or illegal refugees, are desperately.
They do not go to the hospital; they would be arrested and sent back to Haiti.
One woman with a month-old infected bullet wound, unable to walk.
The local church asked for help: ‘the Lord needs your skills’.
And these medical professionals responded gladly, freely.
Even with my lack of medical skills, my hands were useful too.

The Lord doesn’t take our skills and resources.
He asks to use them, and allows us to enjoy them too.
His family becomes a community that shares everything with Jesus and each other.

“All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.” (Acts 4:32-35)

Take a moment to think about the many things you possess.
The Lord is not demanding them, or taking them by force.
Yet He does need them somehow, somewhere, for someone.
And He is whispering to you as well:
“The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.” (Mark 11:3)

PRAYER
Lord Jesus, nothing I own is mine alone. It is mine, it is Yours, it is everyones. If we all would share everything we had, there would be no needy persons among us. Yet this is not how we live. Much that we possess, we horde, store it for ourselves and our own present or future needs or wants.

You need me, You cannot do it without me and what I have to offer. Shape my mind to think less like an owner, and more like a steward, sharing Your blessings with others so that I can truly enjoy the blessings I have.

Take my colt and let it be, consecrated Lord to Thee!