EDITOR'S NOTE: In October 2021 I began a new venture writing a newspaper column titled "Finding Faith" for the Forum Communications Co. network of newspapers and websites. I was asked to contribute to the company's ongoing conversation about faith, lending a Lutheran and fairly ecumenical approach to the discussion. The column was published in several of the company's papers and websites, including The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead. This column originally appeared as a "Finding Faith" column on March 22, 2024.
By The Rev. Devlyn Brooks
I propose a new litmus test for any future elected leaders.
Simple: The one who gets up on a donkey and rides through the town square gets my vote!
Seriously, think about that! … This Sunday, the Western Christian church will celebrate Palm Sunday, the day in which Jesus, the Son of God, mounts a donkey and rides triumphantly into Jerusalem.
And that act of humility becomes his first advance against the armies of sin, evil and death in this world. No mounting of gallant war horses, no swords and shields, no Roman phalanxes trailing behind. None of the usual instruments of war that conquerors used in the first century to be seen!
Rather, this king for the ages, sat atop the lowly donkey, the butt of animal jokes for eons, and still was able to attract masses of adoring followers into the streets to welcome him. They shouted, “Hosana! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord -- the King of Israel!”
Thus begins Holy Week, the most important week of the Christian calendar: Jesus … on a donkey. It seems the stuff of a Saturday Night Live skit.
Throughout this week, Jesus will do and say many other things that distinguish him from earthly rulers as well. He will stand for peace, love, inclusion and forgiveness. He will demonstrate that a ruler is kind and generous and merciful. He will wash the feet of his disciples and break bread with one who has betrayed him.
Jesus, who possesses the power of divinity, could have toppled the Roman empire without so much as a wink, but rather he demonstrated his power and might through the most selfless act ever recorded: his own crucifixion.
This entire upcoming week looks like folly if judged through the lens of our American society. A seemingly weak king who accepts the punishment for his subjects’ wrongdoing and thus wins their salvation, but not before bowing down to serve his disciples in humility first. This certainly doesn’t describe contemporary wannabe rulers!
But the religious leaders, and Roman rulers, of Jesus’ day saw just how dangerous this rebel rabbi could be, and so they conspired to have him killed. After all, they just couldn’t have this rabble rouser upending millenia’s worth of social order and human institutions, now could they?
Palm Sunday: The day that the messiah will enter Jerusalem only to knowingly face certain death in mere days. A king who does not hide from the very people he comes to save, despite the fact that they will turn on him. His might demonstrated through his humility, love and sacrifice.
Preposterous! What kind of king is this, the world will ask! … The kind of king the world is ill-equipped to understand.
Happy Holy Week to all! … Amen.
Devlyn Brooks is an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and serves Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. He blogs about faith at findingfaithin.com, and can be reached at devlynbrooks@gmail.com.
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