THE HUMBLE DONKEY OF HOLY WEEK
By Rev. Dr. Arthur
Chang
THE
DONKEY
When fishes flew and forests walked
And figs grew upon
thorn,
Some moment when the moon was blood
Then surely I was born.
With monstrous head and sickening cry
And ears like errant
wings,
The devil’s walking parody
On all four-footed
things.
The tattered outlaw of the earth,
Of ancient crooked will;
Starve, scourge, deride me: I am dumb,
I keep my secret still.
Fools! For I also had my hour;
One far fierce hour and
sweet:
There was a shout about my ears,
And palms before my
feet.
On Monday of Holy Week, I woke up thinking about a
poem that had not crossed my mind since high school. That is a long time ago.
It is shown above. It took some time to get past the title, to retrieve the
poet’s name, to be able to recite the first verse. I even got into the second
verse. So here it is!
The Gospel writer, Matthew, laid out the commencement
of Holy Week as follows:
Jesus
Comes to Jerusalem as King
As they approached Jerusalem and came to
Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to
them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you
will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them
to me. If anyone says anything to you, say that the
Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.”
This took place to fulfill what was spoken
through the prophet:
“Say to Daughter Zion,
‘See, your king comes to you,
gentle and riding on a donkey,
and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’
”
The disciples went and did as Jesus had
instructed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their
cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on
the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.
The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,
“Hosanna to the Son of David!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of
the Lord!”
“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole
city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”
The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the
prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.” (Matthew 21:1-11)
Poets and mystics are enablers, bringing to our attention
vital reflections of stories, secular or sacred, that we would be inclined to miss.
Poet G. K. Chesterton’s parody of the oft-disrespected donkey is an example. The
poem features the donkey’s voice recognizing the priceless gift he has
received, a new sense of self eternally synchronized with Jesus’ triumphal
entry into Jerusalem.
Matthew’s Gospel tells of Jesus requesting the colt, a
young undisciplined donkey. Jesus riding
the undisciplined colt, tells us the Christ presence within each of us must
take charge of the body, the donkey, and ride it in the path toward achieving
our highest spiritual objective.
The Hebrew prophet, Zachariah, wrote about the donkey
as noted above. The king, he says, is gentle, riding a young donkey. While
orthodox Christian teaching will say, as Matthew suggests, that Jesus was
fulfilling the prophesy of Zachariah, religious scholars familiar with the Jewish Midrash writing style will recognize it here.
Whether one does or does not recognize this style of
sacred literature, all can appreciate the lesson of Holy Week that the humble
donkey, one’s body, will serve best under the mastery of the Christ presence
within each of us.
