Giving to God: Mark 11:1-7

As the gospels move into the week of Jesus’ crucifixion, the week begins with a spectacular event where Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey. However, before this event can happen, Jesus must acquire a donkey. To do this, He sends two of His disciples on a special mission.

The first three gospels tell us this event. Reading from Mark’s gospel, chapter 11, and using the New Century Version, let’s discover what happened. Starting in verse 1, Mark tells us:

¹ As Jesus and his followers were coming closer to Jerusalem, they came to the towns of Bethphage and Bethany near the Mount of Olives. From there Jesus sent two of his followers ² and said to them, “Go to the town you can see there. When you enter it, you will quickly find a colt tied, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here to me. ³ If anyone asks you why you are doing this, tell him its Master needs the colt, and he will send it at once.”

⁴ The followers went into the town, found a colt tied in the street near the door of a house, and untied it. ⁵ Some people were standing there and asked, “What are you doing? Why are you untying that colt?” ⁶ The followers answered the way Jesus told them to answer, and the people let them take the colt.

⁷ They brought the colt to Jesus and put their coats on it, and Jesus sat on it.

This event is amazing in my mind. Jesus gives these two disciples a task to borrow a young donkey and had there not been anyone present, it would have looked like a theft. Even the answer Jesus tells the disciples to give if asked is a little cryptic, since the Master is very vague, though it’s possible, perhaps even probable that something is lost in translation in the way Jesus phrases this response.

Part of me wonders if this young donkey was being watched by someone while the owner was away on a long trip. This would allow for the response the disciples gave to make a little sense – since the donkey did not belong to the people who were watching it. But nothing in our English translation of this passage hints that this was the case.

From a simple reading of this event, the conclusion I have to reach is that the owner of the donkey, or at least the servants who were tasked with watching over the donkey, had the mindset that everything they had was God’s. The word used in this verse that has been translated as “Master” is in other translations of the Bible been translated as “Lord” – which in some cases could mean the rightful owner of an object, or it could mean God.

The word itself has the appearance of humility and service, because those who use it imply that they are obeying a higher authority and not just their own desires.

In order for the servants to let these two disciples take the animal, they would have needed to trust God and seen the donkey as God’s. While there is nothing in the gospels to imply this, it is also possible that they had recently dedicated the donkey to God – and now two disciples arrive saying that God has need for their animal.

If we didn’t know the story better, we might ask the question about why it was important for Jesus to have a donkey or donkey’s colt in the first place. If we read Matthew’s gospel, chapter 21, verse 5, he draws our attention onto the significance of the donkey when he quotes an Old Testament prophet who said:

⁵ “Tell the people of Jerusalem,
    ‘Your king is coming to you.
He is gentle and riding on a donkey,
    on the colt of a donkey.’”

The donkey was important because it was prophesied that Jesus would enter Jerusalem on a donkey, and specifically on the colt of a donkey. While other kings entered their capital cities on warhorses or strong animals, Jesus wrote into prophecy that He would ride into His city on the weakest of animals that could still be ridden as a symbol of His gentle leadership.

But even while the donkey’s colt is significant because of prophecy, I still am amazed at the donkey’s owners. In their actions, I see a challenge for all of us to not hold on too tightly to the things that God has entrusted us with. Even though Jesus was borrowing the colt for only a day, there is no record of the disciples paying money to lease or rent the animal for that period of time.

In our own lives, God may call us to give or loan something of ours to someone else who needs it. If, or when this happens, it is a mistake to believe the item is really ours. In reality, everything belongs to God, and that includes things, animals, and even people. By simply existing, you and I belong to God.

This means that if God asks to borrow something, or if He asks us to give something away, we can either say yes, or He can simply take it.

A simple example is with how my wife and I helped our daughter learn to throw trash away when she was very young. First, we would ask her to throw the trash away. Often this was the only prompting she needed. However, sometimes we started counting, and when we reached the number we had chosen to count to, we took the trash away from her and threw it away ourselves. If this happened, she was upset, but she had every chance of giving up the piece of trash herself.

Sometimes this is how God interacts with us. Sometimes we have a tight hold on something that God wants us to let go of. God can prompt us to let go of it, but if we choose to not let go, then life might begin to get tough until we choose to let it go, or God may simply take it away.

Just like our daughter, if God takes something we are holding onto away from us, we get upset. However, while we can dwell on our anger against God for taking that thing away, know that God has something in mind for that thing. The best path forward is to accept God knows something we don’t and to start fresh with what we still have.

Before closing out the episode, I want to acknowledge that sometimes bad things happen in our lives that God is not behind. Sometimes loved ones die or are taken from us and there is no way of rationalizing what happened as being part of God’s will. Sometimes natural disasters strike and thousands die for no apparent reason.

Death is not part of God’s perfect plan, but often He gets to work around the pain and death that sin has infected the world with. While God could stop sin in its tracks, in the age we are living in, He has chosen instead to walk with us through the trials and pain. Sometimes He will step in to fix things, but other times, He will simply walk alongside us and bring peace into our lives.

If you have faced loss that doesn’t make sense, or if you have experienced the pain of sin, know this truth: If you are walking with Jesus, you will outlive sin. By walking with Jesus, having placed your faith, hope, trust, and belief in Him, your life will be saved for eternity – and in the age that follows the one we are in, sin will be eliminated and life will again be perfect as God had intended it to be.

As we close out another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always open by challenging you to do, seek God first in your life and intentionally choose to walk with God and place your faith, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus. When sin attacks your life, lean into Jesus and know the truth that with Jesus, you will outlast sin!

Also, always pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn the truth that God wants to share with you personally. Studying the Bible is one of the best ways to grow your relationship with God and invite Him into your life.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or deviate away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!