By Jared Warner
Willow Creek Friends Church
April 13, 2025
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Luke 19:28–40 (ESV)
28 And when he had said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. 29 When he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of the disciples, 30 saying, “Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here. 31 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say this: ‘The Lord has need of it.’ ” 32 So those who were sent went away and found it just as he had told them. 33 And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?” 34 And they said, “The Lord has need of it.” 35 And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. 36 And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. 37 As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, 38 saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” 39 And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” 40 He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”
Today we announce Jesus as King! Today our King enters triumphant! Today we proclaim with a loud voice, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
I sat with this passage this week. I sat wondering what I might say. I struggle as a pastor. I struggle because I am fully aware of who I am. I know that I am not perfect. I often sit paralyzed in my own mind with what some might call imposer syndrome. This is a physiological term that means, “the persistent inability to believe that one’s success is deserved or has been legitimately achieved as a result of one’s own efforts or skills.” What can I say, what can I offer? Sometimes I feel as if it would just be better if I read the passage of scripture and sit down letting the Spirit teach us.
I am justified in my thoughts in part, because I and we as Friends fully believe that Christ is our ever present teacher and guide, that God’s Spirit will visit our hearts and lead us in the places we need to go without any need for a human intermediary. But then there is urging within me that will not allow me to heed my anxieties and self inflicted inadequacies. This urging, this prompting drives me to look deeper into scripture, to study, to pray, and to speak.
I struggle even more during the High Holy Days of the liturgical calendar. What can I say about Christmas? How can I offer anything meaningful to the Triumphal Entry or Resurrection Sunday that has not already been heard?
This is my humanity. This is my pride. This is my sinful nature bearing a disfigured image. We often want to add something great, to make a difference in our community and in our world. Yet for most of us we are not in a position or have the resources for us to believe that this is possible.
This is where I have been this week. I read through the passage. I prayed. I let myself be distracted.
I read the passage again. I prayed, and I let myself get distracted before I could even bring my mind to a state of centered worship.
I did this several times. I even chided myself for being lazy. I compared myself against all people that I perceived to be better than I. I even said to myself, “Pastor Bilengana would not let his mind get distracted like this.”
I am sure we all get caught in self doubt. We can all dwell in a place where we focus on the things we wish we did better, instead of living as we are. Our minds can become focused on ourselves, our needs, our wants, our short comings, our… we are often trapped in ourselves. Trapped instead of living free in the time and place, in the situation God desires his light to shine into through us.
This is something that struck me about today’s passage. Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. He knew full well what he would face once he arrived. Even his disciples knew to some degree what they might face. My favorite disciple, Thomas, spoke up when Jesus announced that they were heading to Jerusalem, saying, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” (John 11:16). They knew what they were facing. They knew that they were going to walk into a struggle, yet they went.
In John’s gospel, this trip would have happened right after Jesus raised Lazarus, who lived in Bethany, and they leave the mourning that turned in to celebration and turned toward Jerusalem once again. They draw near to Bethphage, which is a small village just outside of Jerusalem. If we were to consider this in contemporary terms Bethphage which is between Bethany and Jerusalem, would be a suburb. It was part of the metro, but just outside the city’s jurisdiction. But there is a difference between suburbs in ancient times and today. In ancient times the city was the place to be. The city had the services, the protection, the jobs. And the suburbs were the places of darkness. The places people lived to get out of sight so that they could prey upon those going into the city to do business. Today this is somewhat reversed. We often regard the city as the place of danger, and the suburbs as a place of quiet safety. This is a recent phenomenon, as a result of transportation technologies.
They stop in this suburb. And Jesus tells the disciples to go into the village and get a colt. We often get caught up in the tradition of this story and do not really consider the context. In the entire Gospel up to this point we never read about Jesus riding an animal anywhere. They are either walking or on a boat going across the Sea of Galilee. Yet here they are on the outskirts of Jerusalem, and today Jesus wants them to get him a donkey to ride.
To obtain a donkey to ride in itself is not an uncommon request. As I was studying, one of the commentaries mentioned that there were stables where people could hire a donkey. Like renting a car, or one of those little electric scooters you can scan with your phone and ride around town and leave sitting when you are done. Jesus tells them he wants a donkey, and they go out to get him one. But the kicker is he did not give them any money.
Imagine what you might have been thinking if you were one of the disciples he sent to do this task. Never in the entire time you had been following this teacher had he ever made a request like this. They walked from one end of Israel to the other multiple times over the past few years. They walked. Jesus had never asked for such a luxury before, yet right now he does. And he is specific he wants a colt, a beast of burden that had not yet been trained to carry the weight of a passenger.
What is going through your mind? As I sat with this passage the first thing, because I always think of these things, was that sounds like a unnecessary expense. I am sure that some of the disciples probably thought like I do, their name is usually Judas. But there is something more. These disciples knew the scripture. They knew that the prophet Zechariah spoke of this.
“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 cold, the foal of a donkey.” (Zechariah 9:9)
Is it time? Is it about to happen? Is everything we hoped for going to finally come to pass?
They go out to find this donkey, exactly where Jesus said it would be. Some commentators have said that it might be likely that Jesus had already arranged for the donkey to be there, but as I read that I go to thinking, how? When would Jesus have made an arrangement like this. According to Luke, they had traveling from the far north down to Jerusalem. And just prior to this he was in Jericho eating with Zacchaeus. According to John, he would have just left Bethany, after attending a funeral service. When would he have made arrangements to get a donkey, and if he did make such arrangements, I would have thought he would have ridden it from Jericho on in.
The other likelihood is that Jesus knew where the donkey was because Jesus knew. This is what Luke is alluding to. Jesus knew things that were beyond the abilities of a common man. The disciples found this donkey just where he said it would be. And just as Jesus told them, the owner of the donkey came out to question them. “Why are you untying the colt.”
This is where things began to get interesting to me. Jesus told them that if anyone asks you, “’Why you are untying it?’ You should say this: ‘The Lord has need of it.’” They get there and the owner comes out and ask. There is something interesting in this because the word owner and the word Lord in English were translated from the a derivative of the word Kurios, which means master or owner. This word is often used to refer to the Lord, but to use the same word for both the owners of the colt and Jesus in the same sentence is interesting. The owners asked a question and the disciples answered them saying the owner has need of it.
This floored me during my bout of selfish inability this week. It is a perspective that I had not associated with the triumphal entry. I have always looked at things from the perspective of the disciples, the cheering crowds, I have even considered things from the perspective of the donkey, but never once did I look at it from the perspective of owners of the donkey.
Two random people come into their place of business, they come in as if they own the place, and when questioned they respond as if they do.
God is the true owner of all of creation. All that we are, all that we have is at our disposal because God has given us abilities, and placed us within a community to use those abilities. This is not a perspective I enjoy. I am the type of person that would like to think I have earned what I have, and that if I apply myself I can achieve great things. This is part of the American culture, a part that over the past few years, I have come to realize is not a very Christian perspective.
The things we have are a blessing from God. And if you claim to be a follower of Jesus, all that we have is his and should be used for his glory. Your strength, should be used to glorify God. Your intellect, degree, professional licenses although you worked hard to obtain it, are a blessing from God, and should be used for his glory. Your finances, or lack there of, are also a blessing from God, and should be used for his glory. Does this mean we should not enjoy the fruit of our labor, of course we can, but we should be mindful of the source and be willing to use all that is available to us to glorify the one from whom all blessing flow.
The Lord has need of it.
He needs us to use what we have to encourage those around us. He has need of it. This throws a huge wrench into the philosophies of this world, because all too often we want what is ours and are willing to force people to adapt to our demands. The person arguing at the customer service desk, or the president of a nation all demanding that we get what is rightfully ours. But it is not ours, the Lord has need of it. We are merely stewards of the talents he has entrusted to us. Are we willing to release our ownership to Him?
God owns, God is the sovereign ruler over all of creation. When Job was sitting in his despair God said to him, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements – surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” (Job 38:4-7). Who are we to lay claim? It is God who has the right, and by his grace he gives us liberty to steward it.
The Lord has need of it. This rang in my ears as I sat in contemplation. And then my eyes fell on something else within this passage I had not noticed before. “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
Did you catch it? It almost sounds like a Christmas carol, except instead of peace on earth it says Peace in heaven. This jubilation comes from Psalm 148 yet in the Psalm it says praise or hallelu-jah not peace. We think of praise in heaven, we think of heaven as being the place peace, yet here it seems as if peace is not yet assured.
This is something we often miss in our contemporary expressions of faith. We miss the supernatural. We think of the ancient cultures as being practitioners of superstitions and that they saw demons and angels everywhere. We like to think of them as being unenlightened, yet they built structures beyond what we give them credit for. Our ancient parents were not dumb, they just had a different perspective or understanding of the world around them. They wanted peace yet all they saw was war. They wanted prosperity, yet they suffered. We say they created religion to explain this, but maybe there really was something supernatural happening within the world. A cosmic battle waged between spiritual forces in the heavens over who could lay claim to creation.
This is seen throughout the pages of scripture, even within the verse I read from Job, “all the sons of God shouted for joy,” it said. We might not like the way that the translators handled that passage, but they did translate it accurately. We would rather see it as the angels shouted with joy, but the word in Hebrew is elohim, which means spiritual beings. God is an elohim, as are the angels, but the angels are not the same as God. In Hebrew tradition there were three events within Genesis that explain human suffering. The first was the fall in the Garden, the second was the events that lead to the flood, and the third was the tower of Babel. That third event the nations were divided among the sons of God, and the nations all had some divine overlord. Israel was the people God chose for himself.
But the battles waged on Earth between these nations, were part of a greater cosmic battle. The sons of God were fighting for the right to rule all creation. As the nations fought, the angels also battled in the heavens. As a nation fell so did the spiritual being set over that nation. It sounds fantastic and like superstition to us but this was the mindset of the ancients. This was the context of the hope of their messiah. They believed that the true king, the King who comes in the name of the Lord, would come to reverse curse that was brought about by those three falls of humanity. Three falls brought about by cosmic deceit and trickery. Falls caused by humanity seeking to fulfill their quest for wealth and power through an alliance with spiritual forces.
The Hebrew people desired a king that would reverse not only the bondage they had to Rome, but all wickedness and sin. One that would restore peace between God and humanity. “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
Jesus was proclaimed king but more than king of the Jews, he was being proclaimed king of humanity, and king of all creation. He was king of heaven and earth. And this scared the religious leaders. The people were crying out, that Jesus was king, that he was a king greater than the Emperor, and this was bound to cause a disturbance. They came to Jesus and pleaded with him to silence the crowds. “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” This term rebuke is a strong and violent word. It is more than telling them to quiet down. If you were to think of it today, it would be the police with a bullhorn clothed in riot gear, ready to open fire on anyone that spoke.
They were asking Jesus to tell his disciples to be quiet, to submit to authority, to cower before force. They were wanting the opposition to be silenced. This is the prequel of cancel culture. Which is and always has been oppression.
Jesus responds to the religious leaders saying, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” His answer is deeper than it appears on the surface. Many believe he is quoting from the prophet Habakkuk, which says:
Habakkuk 2:6–14 (ESV)
6 Shall not all these take up their taunt against him, with scoffing and riddles for him, and say, “Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own— for how long?— and loads himself with pledges!” 7 Will not your debtors suddenly arise, and those awake who will make you tremble? Then you will be spoil for them. 8 Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you, for the blood of man and violence to the earth, to cities and all who dwell in them. 9 “Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house, to set his nest on high, to be safe from the reach of harm! 10 You have devised shame for your house by cutting off many peoples; you have forfeited your life. 11 For the stone will cry out from the wall, and the beam from the woodwork respond. 12 “Woe to him who builds a town with blood and founds a city on iniquity! 13 Behold, is it not from the Lord of hosts that peoples labor merely for fire, and nations weary themselves for nothing? 14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
The stones will cry out from the walls, and the beam from the woodwork respond. “Woe to him who builds a town with blood and founds a city on iniquity.”
The past few, well years really, I have been examining my life and faith. The things I once believed, I have come to realize were often pale representations if not outright manipulations of God’s teaching. And this has humbled me. Who am I? What do I believe? Do I believe in the king that will reverse the curse brought about by the forces of evil, or will be silenced and submit to the authorities and powers around me?
Today we celebrate the King. The king of heaven and earth. The king that will bring peace and justice to all. Not just for one nation under God, but the entire world, because that is who the Messiah is. The one that will bring all nations back to God. Is this your Lord, if so the lord has need of you.
Previous Messages:
Ransomed to Love
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church April 19, 2026 Click here to join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili 1 Peter 1:17–23 (ESV) 17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time…
Born Again to a Living Hope
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church April 12, 2026 Click here to join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili 1 Peter 1:3–9 (ESV) 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born…
Broken Dreams Restored
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church April 05, 2026 Click here to join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili John 20:1–18 (ESV) 1 Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the…
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