For Wilshire Baptist Church
I’ve heard and read the Easter story so many times I probably don’t focus and listen as I should. But for some reason this year, one part of the story has bounced around in my head: the borrowed donkey.
We’re told in the gospels that before entering Jerusalem for Passover, Jesus told his disciples to go into the city and borrow a donkey for him to ride. Much has been written and preached about the incongruity and symbolism of the “King of Kings” parading into the city on a donkey, and a borrowed one at that. When it comes to four-legged equine-related animals, donkeys don’t rank too high. We don’t tune into the Kentucky Derby each May to watch donkeys plod around the track. The beloved companions of the Lone Ranger, Roy Rogers and Gene Autry weren’t donkeys. No, Silver, Trigger and Champion were lightning fast, smart, beautiful horses.
Of course, not all horses live up to that standard. I recently saw a picture for the first time in probably 50 years of my brother and I on the back of Mariah, the gentle horse our parents helped us buy in high school. She was named from the song in “Paint Your Wagon” where “they call the wind Mariah.” Our Mariah wasn’t as fast as the wind, but she was fine for a “starter” horse. And actually, it was my brother who rode and cared most for her. I was more of a bicycle kid and was pretty much just along for the ride. Still, I spent enough time around Mariah to learn a few things about horses.
I don’t know so much about donkeys. I think the first I knew about donkeys was the one pictured on a large sheet of paper at birthday parties for the “pin the tale on the donkey” blindfold game. And there was Brighty in the “Brighty of the Grand Canyon” novel and movie. I seem to recall crying in the theater when Brighty’s human companion was killed.
LeAnn and I used to enjoy walking through our neighborhood and seeing Burrito, a donkey in the urban pasture near us who hung out with the herd of exotic mouflon sheep. He was taller than the sheep and always was out there with the herd like some sort of chaperone. He apparently passed away several years ago and we miss seeing him now.
Donkeys are often played for laughs, like the Eddie Murphy-voiced animated Donkey in the “Shrek” movies, or the perpetually pessimistic Eeyore in the “Winnie-the-Pooh” stories. And they’ve been mischaracterized as stubborn, but the reality is they may be reluctant to obey sometimes due to their strong sense of self-preservation.
The truth is donkeys are sturdy, intelligent, reliable, loyal and sociable – all good traits for a traveling companion. In that regard, Jesus couldn’t have chosen a better friend for the ride into town.