Responses to Jesus III: Obedience

Has anyone ever asked you to steal a brand new car for them?  It’s never happened to me, but I’m not sure about the rest of you.

Jesus appears to do something roughly equivalent to his disciples shortly before his death, which will be the topic of today’s blog.

This week we’re looking at responses to Jesus, starting with his enemies (mocking, beating, killing), then his friends (abandoning, denying, betraying), and finally today looking a faithful response of obedience.  I’ve taken my 10-minute Palm Sunday sermon and milked it into three separate blog posts.  It’s still in terse, outline format.

• Obeying Jesus.
  1. But in the midst of this rather depressing narrative (mocking, denying, killing, etc), there is a bit of hope.
• Let’s back up to Palm Sunday, right before Jesus came into Jerusalem.
  1. Jesus commanded two of his disciples to go get a colt that had never been ridden (Luke 19:29-35).
  2. If someone told you to go to dealership, find a car that had never been driven, take it and bring it so your friend could drive it into Philadelphia, what would you call that?
     1. Most people would say “theft.”
     2. It appears that Jesus is telling his disciples to steal a colt (the animal, not the Dodge).
  3. Now, I assume Jesus returned the colt.
     1. Mark’s gospel informs us that the disciples promised to return it.
     2. But none of the gospels record the return of the rented Colt.
  4. Jesus’ errand here is a big ask.
     1. Go steal a colt from a stranger.
     2. I probably would have said, “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
  5. But Jesus’ knows exactly what is going to happen. He says…
     1. Go to a village with an unridden colt tied up.
     2. People will ask, “What are you doing?”
     3. You’ll give your line “The Lord needs it.”
     4. They’ll agree.
     5. You’ll do it.
  6. The two disciples did it.
     1. They responded to Jesus with obedience.
  7. Everything Jesus predicted about the colt came true, just as it did with the mocking, betraying, denying, and killing of Jesus.
     1. Jesus’ words come true.

• So, what can we learn from this Palm Sunday colt-stealing story?
  1. The words of Jesus are true.
  2. But there are times when we have to wait to see it.
  3. After his death, on Saturday, one final word of Jesus still needed to come true for the disciples.
     1. Jesus did come back to life.
  4. This story can give hope to the disciples even post-resurrection as they look back upon their epic failure, to a time when they were obedient and followed Jesus.
  5. And Jesus knew they would respond in faith and they ultimately did, which is why we’re here today.

• How do we respond to Jesus?
  1. Like the disciples who got the colt, we respond in faith because we know his word is true.  Even when it seems crazy.

Image from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Assisi-frescoes-entry-into-jerusalem-pietro_lorenzetti.jpg