I don’t know if I have ever told you the background story of my candidacy sermon for the job at Bradley Hills.  Those on the Pastoral Nominating Committee may remember this.  In the fall of 2008, as we were nearly nine months pregnant with Brendan, I was scheduled to preach my candidacy sermon at a neutral pulpit in Virginia.  It was their regular Sunday morning worship but there were to be members of our search committee in attendance.  I knew most BHPC folks would be attending the 8:30 service so got up early to get to Lewinsville.  I tried to cross Memorial Bridge from my home in downtown D.C., but there was a marathon race that weekend and I found the bridge closed, and additionally the path towards 395 blocked.  No matter, I had a little time and so drove over to Key Bridge.  However, a traffic accident had closed that bridge. 

Now I was in trouble.  It was ten minutes after 8 and I was going to be late for my candidacy sermon. a key part of the job interview.  I didn’t drive much in the District at that time and wasn’t accustomed to the beltway so soon found myself on 495 and then 270 heading north towards Frederick.  For a moment I thought about heading back to bed, that it wasn’t meant to be for me at Bradley Hills.  I had no GPS and only directions over bridges that were closed.   I said a prayer for direction.  I did have a phone and decided to call for help.  It was 8:15 now and I figured I would leave a message at Lewinsville, after all the interim pastor there would need to come up with a sermon to preach in 15 minutes.  To my delight someone answered the phone.  I said I was the preacher for the morning’s service and needed some help getting to the church.  Now it turns out it’s not that hard to get there from the beltway when there is little traffic like first thing on a Sunday.  So the person at Lewinsville stayed on the phone with me, I put it on speaker phone and she guided me down to the church. 

I put on my robe as I walked quickly through the parking lot and got to the sanctuary near the tail end of the opening hymn just in time to join a very relieved interim pastor at the back of the procession.  I scrapped my children’s sermon that day to talk about what to do when unexpected things happen.  And the rest is history.  But I would not have made it, indeed I might not be here today, unless I had gotten help on my journey.

We all know the stereotype that we men don’t ask for help when we are traveling.  One 2010 survey found that the average male drives an extra 276 miles every year as a result of being lost, much more than women do, costing on average $3000 in gas bills in the process.  The survey found that 26% of men wait at least half an hour before asking for directions, and 12 percent refuse to ask at all.

Works like Richard Francis’ 2005 book and Michael Morris’ 2000 article on Why Men Don’t Stop to Ask for Directions, debate the biological, evolutionary and social science reasons why men don’t ask for help.

Truth be told, I was calling the church that morning more to tell them I wasn’t going to make it than to ask for directions.  I was lucky to reach someone and receive help.

On the first Palm Sunday, Jesus asked for help in getting where he needed to go.  The familiar story, Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, appears in each Gospel and each has points of distinction.  John includes palm branches and a donkey, Matthew two horses, Luke a cry for joy and peace amidst Pharisees’ protests.

Mark explains that Jesus arrived in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday on a borrowed colt.  Douglas Hare of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary argues that what distinguishes Mark’s version of the events is his emphasis on the finding of the animal.[i]  Matthew’s text supports the borrowed colt focus too, though it is most pronounced in Mark.  Jesus tells his disciples to go on his behalf and ask for help in getting him into Jerusalem.  While John just states that Jesus found a donkey and began riding it, Mark spends considerable time describing how the disciples were told to, and did, locate a colt for Jesus, told the owner that Jesus needed it and responded to objections by assuring people that Jesus would soon return it.[ii] 

Why does Jesus ask for help to get into Jerusalem?  Why does Jesus ask for the colt?  Was he tired and needed help getting into Jerusalem? He had already almost walked 110 miles from Galilee, surely he could have walked the rest of the short way.  Could he have traveled by some other means?  The disciples might have found alternative transportation for him.  Could they have picked up a donkey on the way to be prepared?  Could they have purchased a colt?  Did they think about stealing one?  Could they have gotten some other animal?

Jesus entered Jerusalem in fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecy for how salvation would arrive.  As Matthew records most clearly, Zechariah wrote in the 6^th century BC:  “Rejoice, O daughter Zion!  Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”   Jesus wanted to demonstrate fulfillment of prophecy of entering as a king from the Mount of Olives on a colt.  Perhaps he wanted to demonstrate royal lineage through an ability to summon the colt.  To ride rather than walk as a regular pilgrim coming for the festival of Passover would have.  Jesus asked for a colt which had never been ridden and often a king’s colt would be only ridden by the king. 

The people watching Jesus enter would be familiar with Zechariah’s prophecy.  They also were familiar with Jesus’ acts on the way to Jerusalem.  Jesus had done amazing things on his way to Jerusalem.  Jesus’ reputation in Galilee helping the poor and commanding nature was well known.  His healing the sick and performing miracles on his way to Jerusalem preceded him.  People were abuzz with his recent raising of Lazarus from the grave.  What got the people originally excited about Jesus was how he had helped and healed and did amazing things.  Riding into Jerusalem on a colt was the icing on the cake. 

When they saw his Messianic procession the people put their cloaks on the ground as they had for kings centuries before.  They waived palm branches as they had for Simon Maccabees when he triumphantly entered Jerusalem.  They identified Jesus as being from the house of David fulfilling prophecy from 2 Samuel.  They shouted “Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in name of Lord, a familiar cheer from Psalm 118.

However, Jesus wants his people to do more than just cheer.  Its unlikely Jesus would have forgotten to get a colt until he got to Jerusalem as he tells his disciples exactly where to find one.  No, God had a plan and Mark and Matthew are clear that Jesus seemed intent on using a colt from Jerusalem.  He wanted help in getting into Jerusalem from the people he had come to save. 

This is what Jesus does.  He wants some skin in the game.  He wants his people to contribute something as he offers salvation.  Jesus comes into people’s lives asking them to participate in his plan for redemption.  

Jesus comes into our lives this holy week and asks if he can use our time, our resources, and our gifts to make the world a better place.  Indeed to make our lives deeper, richer, more meaningful.

I wonder what the man who loaned the colt did when he got it back?  That was one special colt, and his house had been chosen to help Jesus.  I am sure that was a faith renewing experience.

What if, when Jesus asked for help, the owner of the colt had said no?  He would have missed the opportunity for renewal.  Would the people have recognized Jesus anyway as the coming Messiah?  Probably.  His reputation proceeded him.  God could have done it all Godself without the involvement of the man with the colt.  The message of a holy week in which Christ instructs his disciples to follow his example by breaking bread and pouring a cup in remembrance of him, allows himself to be put to death by some of the very people who cheered him and then appears to humans three days later and tells them to spread the news, is that we have a role to play.   If Jesus is all in, he wants us all in too.

Renewal doesn’t happen if we assume someone else will do all the planning.  Or the asking.  Or the contributing to whatever project Christ has called us to.  Jesus calls us to offer what we have for his purposes.  He calls to you and to me.  He asks for a response.

The irony of course, as Kori points out, is that the response given by the people in Jerusalem could not be more fickle.  The cheers would turn to jeers as Jesus was put to death by the authorities with the support of many of these same people who cheered him and waved branches.  Like Jesus’ disciples, we must recognize that we too often fail to stay true to our Lord.  Like them, we experience the true meaning of Easter when recognize we too have a need for renewal.[iii]  That our world is broken.  Whether we are talking about rumors of war in Ukraine or poverty in America or our personal challenges.  This is a week of discomfort.  A week of sacrifice.  And to follow Jesus means doing difficult things for his sake.

What is Jesus asking you to contribute to the miracle of Easter?  Will you say yes to contributing to Jesus’ campaign to renew the world?  How will you further God’s purposes in the church?  Will you let Jesus borrow what you have tied up?  Will you follow your Lord, not only behind the colt into Jerusalem but all the way to the cross?  Jesus asks for help and we need to answer.   

Like the colt, Jesus comes to help carry our burdens this week.[iv]   Is there some memory or challenge that you bring into Holy Week?  If you give it to Jesus you might find it returned to you in a renewed way.  Are there ways we are called out of our comfort zone to be a part of a mission greater than ourselves?

William Sloane Coffin once wrote of Palm Sunday,  “Jesus knew the throne awaiting him was a cross. . . . yet, he loved people when they were least lovable. . . [v]

There is no such thing as just only a young colt or just a small contribution, a tiny prayer, an insignificant concern or an irrelevant gift.  God can do amazing things with what we offer to God with love.

All we need is to be willing to ask for and to accept help.  To ask God for direction in our lives.  To say yes to God so that what we have and are can be used and then returned to us renewed.

God loves us enough to put skin in the game and asks for our help.  Holy Week is our chance to answer.  Amen.