A donkey's tale (burden-bearers)

What does winning look like to you? What does triumph look like?

The Ancient Romans had perfected the art of what winning should look like. Winning looked like a triumphal entry.

The Roman triumph was a civil ceremony and religious rite held to publicly celebrate the success of a military commander who had led the forces to victory in the service of the state.

On the day of his triumph, the general wore a crown of laurel and an all-purple toga – that symbolised kingship and divinity.

He rode in a four-horse chariot and processed through the streets with his army, captive and the spoils of war. He would go to the temple of Jupiter and offer sacrifice.

The triumph was a huge celebration for the whole city. And was followed by several days of feasting, public games and entertainments.

Imagine you are Ancient Rome watching this procession. The sounds you would hear, the cheering, shouts of triumph. Even from the back of the crowd you would see the Roman general raised high on his chariot pulled by magnificent looking war horses.

A Roman Triumphal entry was spectacular. It looked like winning.

This morning we read about Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. And, when compared to the Roman Triumph, it doesn’t look triumphant. It doesn’t look like winning. It doesn’t look very spectacular. In fact, it looks a bit of a spectacle.

Jesus chooses to ride into Jerusalem, not on an impressive war stallion and chariot, but on a donkey - a young, inexperienced, unimpressive donkey that no one has ever ridden. He isn’t raised high above the crowds. In fact some near the back would struggle to see him sat so low down on the donkey’s back. The modern day equivalent would be seeing a newly elected President of the United States turning up at the White House, not in his bullet-proof, blacked out windowed, secret service protected car, but on a bicycle with a bell and basket.

Instead of a fancy chariot or saddle, Jesus rode bare-backed with just the disciples coats as a makeshift seat.

No red carpet or flowers. But instead his followers throw their coats, cloaks and palm leaves in his path.

A Roman commander would be heading to be crowned. This heavenly king is on his way to be rejected and crowned with prickly thorns.

An earthly king would be entering to take his place on the throne as ruler. Jesus enters to take his place on a scandalous cross.

This is triumph? This is winning? It doesn’t look like winning. It looks a lot like losing.

And I guess, when viewed from a natural perspective, if this is a triumphant entry it is an entry into the kind of kingdom where the winners seem to look an awful lot like losers.

In a few days the disciples will run away in fear, one will betray Jesus, another will deny they even know him, many of them will be too scared to stand with Jesus at the foot of the cross he dies on.

But the caption over this passage in my bible calls it a triumphal entry. This is triumph? This is winning?

It doesn’t look like winning. It looks a lot like losing.

But let’s take a look at this from a different perspective. The reading in Philippians tells us to have the same mindset as Christ. So what does this triumphal entry look like from his point of view?

From Jesus’ perspective we see everything differently.

This donkey: The world sees an unattractive, unglamorous beast of burden. An animal used for necessary but mundane everyday tasks, not the glory of the battle field. Not the glamour of the Grand National or dressage.

But this donkey isn’t the first donkey Jesus has ridden on. In Mary’s womb he was rocked by the steps of the donkey that she rode to Bethlehem. Her entry to Bethlehem looked a lot like losing too. A pregnant teenager, an embarrassed new husband, an administrative requirement that came at the worst possible time. A stable for a maternity ward.

We may see a donkey. But God saw the creature that he called to bring his Son, His most precious gift, to Bethlehem, the place Jesus would enter the world.

We see a donkey in today’s triumphal entry but God sees the vehicle called to bear Christ to his death on the cross. A cross that looks a lot like losing: that looks nothing like triumph. But this donkey is carrying the world’s salvation on his back.

The people cheering Jesus’s entry will turn against him a few days from now. They cheered because – despite the low-status transportation – they saw the fulfilment of prophecy. They saw a Messiah who would restore Israel and free them from Roman occupation. A Messiah that would rule over all the world victorious and triumphant. When they find out he is not heading to Jerusalem to ‘win’ the earthly kingdom they turned away because not doing that looked too much like losing.

As Christians, in a world that is often very much opposed, indifferent or mocking towards Christianity and religion in general, it can be easy to sometimes slip into an earthly mindset.

In this mindset, from this earthly point of view, Christianity looks a lot like losing.

We are mocked on TV and in films.

The name of Jesus is used as a curse word universally.

Church attendance is in decline. The number of people wanting to align themselves with Jesus is getting lower and lower according to the UK census.

Atheism is more popular. The winning side to be on.

Christians are the loser – the religious are “unintelligent”, believing in a Sky Fairy, “unscientific”, “ignorant”, not respected, “Ineffective”, “Out of touch”.

This doesn’t look like winning. It looks a lot like losing.

But we are called to have the mindset of Christ. To look at things in the way Jesus does.

Christ stayed on the path to Jerusalem even though he knew it would involve him looking like a loser when he got there. He rode towards the place where he was called. The place he had to go in order to fulfil his calling. The cross. The place that may have looked like losing but was actually God winning the battle over evil, the battle over the sin that we can be slaves to.

And in the shadow of his cross, of what his death means for us all, Jesus is calling us to be like this donkey. The donkey that he chose and said he needed to travel with.

Jesus had called and appointed that donkey long before he told his disciples to go and get him. The disciples were just called to untie that donkey so the donkey could live out his calling.

Jesus calls us to be burden bearers, to follow His example: the King of all burden bearers. On the cross, He bore the sins of the world. And He bears our burdens now, if we allow him to.

He has called us and many others before and after us. At some point in our lives it was faithful disciples who He sent to untie us. – Messy church and Sunday School leaders; seeds planted by Christian grandparents, friends and strangers; a persistent vicar. These faithful disciples led us to Jesus, one plodding step at a time. Faithful disciples who stood by us, stood up to the things that held us back through prayer, through support, through being that shoulder to cry on.

These disciples, called as burden bearers by Christ, walked alongside us, led us to Christ, our purpose. Burden bearers led us to Jesus who had called us to him and offered to take the reigns of our life from us and from those things and people that were leading us away from Him.

As burden bearers, as His disciples, Jesus wants to lead us to the places and people He wants to enter into.

He wants us to carry him with us to the place of the cross. The place that may look like losing. That may look like defeat.

The places where evil closes in; where hatred and social division in society heats up; where communities are divided between “Brexiteers” and “Remoaners”; where there is injustice and poverty of money, poverty of morals, poverty of love.

Jesus wants us to carry Him to the places and situations where religious pride and religious rigidity push God out; where the church has no room for God and can’t see where He is moving; where the state and society seeks to force God and Christian influence out so they can be free to be their own gods and do what they want.

Jesus wants to lead us to Jerusalem. To see in the Cross, the sight of God, who made a triumphal entry into the world that looked a lot like losing. A God Who loved us so much that he stepped into a human body, stepped into human society, showed us how to live it; Showed us what life is supposed to look like when lived in obedience and in step with God; Who showed us what love is supposed to look like when he carried our burdens to the cross and gave up his life so that we could have this life of relationship with the Father, of one-ness with God. So that we could have the power of God living within us, taking the reigns of our lives.

This sight of God held up on a cross, not by nails or ropes but by love for us is the ultimate triumphal entry.

When we focus on this triumph of self-surrendering, self-sacrificial love suddenly we will see everything in a new light.

As burden bearers we are called to live lives of self-sacrificial love. Called to let our self-interest die at those times when our interests and the interests of others meet at the cross roads in our lives. This might look like speaking up about injustice when we see it, even if it makes us unpopular and it would be easier to say nothing.

This won’t always look like winning. In fact it might look a lot like losing.

But this is our call. We are burden bearers called to untie others from their bondage, to point them in the direction of Jesus and to cheer each other along the way.

This is the call of the burden bearer, to participate in Jesus’ rescue mission to the world. To participate in his triumphal entry into a topsy-turvy kingdom that looks a lot like losing. A kingdom that turns on its head what we understand about winning and losing. Where the last is first, the meek are rulers, where the persecuted are blessed, and the donkeys, the burden bearers, are triumphant.