In the O.T. it is written that Balaam’s donkey spoke. And here Jesus says that even the stones would cry out in praise of Him, if His disciples were silenced. Non-rational and inanimate objects, though unable to speak on their own, are given the ability to do so, when God their creator so wills it. And David writes, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork.” So why not the colt mentioned in today’s Gospel text? What lessons might it have to teach us? Oh, it doesn’t speak to us with words, but St. Luke gives it a voice just the same, a voice that tells us about the mighty works that Jesus, our King, has done for us.
You see, the colt represents you and me as sinners. It’s first lesson is that we are all asses, every one of us. We are as ignorant, rebellious, and stubborn before God as donkeys are. Not only that but we are also bound asses, fettered and enslaved to our sins, death, and the devil. And yet, in our ignorance and rebellion we don’t know that we’re so bound, nor do we seek release. And when anyone comes along trying to release us with the Gospel, we kick at them and resist them. We stubbornly insist that we are already free, even though our so-called freedom is really a kind of slavery. As Jesus says, “Everyone who sins is a slave to sin.” On occasion some of us do come to the realization that we’re bound, as the Law does its work on us. But instead of looking to the only One who can free us - Jesus Christ, we either wait for someone else to come along, or we try to free ourselves. But both actions are in vain. Neither our own attempts, nor the attempts of others, whether they be gods or men, can loose us from these bonds. We are bound with these chains in time, only to be bound with them for all eternity.
But this is not the only lesson the colt teaches us. What it did not expect, and what happened apart from any willing or doing of its own, was that Jesus came to free it from its bonds. This He did through His disciples. St. Luke uses very significant vocabulary words here in describing the colt’s situation and how it was freed from its bondage. They are words that remind us of what Jesus does for us when He absolves us of our sins through the called and ordained servants of His Word. Where our English translation reads “untie” Luke uses the word “loose.” And where our English translation reads “sent” Luke uses the word “apostled.” So, Jesus apostled His disciples to loose the colt from its bonds and bring it to Him. Here the colt teaches us that through those whom Jesus calls and sends with His authority He looses us from our sins, death, and the devil and brings us to Him. When the disciples did what Jesus apostled them to do, the owners of the colt couldn’t hold onto it any longer; they had to release it. Your former owner was the devil, to whom you were enslaved and under whom you were bound on account of your sins. But when Jesus proclaimed His loosing Word of the forgiveness of your sins to you through those who baptized you and preached the Gospel to you, the devil had to give you up, and you were brought to Jesus, that He might now take His seat upon you.
To be sat upon by Jesus is no form of slavery, but true freedom. It is to be subject to your loving and merciful Maker and Redeemer the way you were intended to be from the beginning. The fact that we come into this world riderless is not a good thing. Without our Lord directing us, we wander off, get lost, and fall prey to whatever or whomever would bind us. And that’s just what happened. We wandered away from our creator, maintaining all along that we were free, yet look how we’ve ended up! But now, having been freed by Him with the words of His Gospel, we have been brought to Him to be directed by Him who loves us and purchased us with His own blood. To be His slave is to be truly free. And as He sits upon you, He daily directs you with His Word in the paths of righteousness, protecting you from those who would try to enslave you all over again. Not only that but He also cares for you and feeds you. He doesn’t give you what you want, but what you need. As David writes, “He makes us lie down in green pastures. He leads us beside still waters. He restores our souls.”
But this freedom to belong to Christ came at a high price: the binding of Christ Himself. The colt teaches us not only what our condition was before Christ freed us, but it also teaches us what God required of His Son in order to free us. Jesus had to be bound in your place, so that you might be loosed. As Lord and King of all creation, He had always been free; nothing could or had ever bound Him. But when He took on human flesh and came to dwell among us, He allowed Himself to be bound with our sins. He allowed Himself to be bound under God’s Law, allowing Himself to be bound by its threats and punishments. He allowed Himself to be bound by the devil and those allied with him at His arrest, in order that the devil might “strike His heal.” He allowed Himself to be bound to the cross, bound by death, and bound by the grave. But He did all of this, so that He might loosen these bonds for you and me. Through the binding and loosing that He Himself experienced by way of His cross and His resurrection from the dead, our King has triumphed over all our enemies and released us from their grip forever.
The disciples who ushered Him into Jerusalem on that Palm Sunday, however, did not understand that this was how their Lord should enter into His kingdom. They rightly cried out, “Blessed is the King who comes in the Name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” but they didn’t really know what they were saying. They had seen His mighty works, His miracles, and were rejoicing because of them, but they hadn’t really listened to His words. They didn’t understand that this King, in order to enter into His glory, had to first of all be bound, suffer, and die. Jesus was the King of whom the prophet Zechariah had spoken, saying, “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.” Like the beast of burden on which He sat, Jesus would bear the sins of the world, as bound under their weight He would take them to the cross to atone for them there.
But Jesus wouldn’t be stubborn, rebellious, and unwilling like we were. Instead, He gladly, willingly, and freely humbled Himself to take His seat on the throne of the cross. He prayed to His Father that He might remove that cup of suffering from Him. Yet, He prayed not that His own will be done, but that His Father’s will be done. And so the Scriptures describe Him as a lamb that was led to the slaughter, and that like a lamb before its shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth. He was the Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world, so that there might not only be peace on earth but also peace in heaven and glory in the highest.
At the beginning of the Gospel according to St. Luke the angels announced peace on earth. But here towards the end the disciples rejoice that there is peace also in heaven. These are not contradictory, but complementary statements, because the peace that Jesus worked through His suffering, death, and resurrection now joins heaven and earth together. This is no worldly peace, where there are no more wars, no more violence, sickness, or death. That day is certainly coming at the resurrection of the dead in the new creation. But now, in spite of the fact that we live in the middle of all the unrest that is going on in this world, we live under the gracious rule of the King of kings who has worked peace between ourselves and God with the shedding of His blood on the cross. Because this King humbled Himself and laid down His life for you, you no longer have to fear God’s wrath. You live perpetually under His proclamation of peace.
And the stones would tell you the same thing. “Stones,” by the way, was a not so nice term which the Jews liked to use in reference to the Gentiles. The Jews liked to pride themselves in the fact that they were God’s chosen people, children of Abraham, and that everyone else was not. The Messiah was the King of the Jews, not the Gentiles. And yet, here and throughout the Gospel we see the majority of the Jews along with their leaders rejecting their Messiah-King. Here, as He enters Jerusalem to take His seat on His throne, they even want to silence His praise. But Jesus says to them, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” And those stones cry out today, as the Gentiles now rejoice in Jesus as their Messiah-King, too. What’s more, you don’t have to go to a stone, a beach, a mountain, or a tree to hear the good news about Jesus. He’s put it into the mouths of all those whose hearts of stone He’s replaced with hearts of flesh by way of the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. Here today in this place you are hearing the voice of this particular stone (me) telling you of the mighty works of your Messiah-King. And as the Apostle Peter writes, “As you come to Him, a living Stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” And so, you redeemed stones are also used by the Lord to offer to God the same spiritual sacrifice of praise that these disciples did, as you proclaim with them to the world, “Blessed is the King who comes in the Name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
Donkeys, colts, the heavens and the stones, then, would all have something to say about our Savior, were they given to speak. They would teach you of how Jesus has loosed you from your sins, death, and the devil by being bound with them Himself, so that He might triumph over them through His cross and His resurrection from the dead. But now, as He lives and reigns as your gracious King at the right hand of the Father, He guides and directs you with His Word. This Word He puts into the mouths of His servants to proclaim to you, so that you might rejoice in the peace He’s worked for you before God and live under that peace now and forever.
This Advent season, then, receive anew your King who comes to you in the Name of the Lord, as He rides in on the humble means of His Word and Sacraments, in order to loose you of your sins and grant you His eternal peace. Amen.