“The Lord has Need of you!”

“And when he had said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. When he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of the disciples, saying, “Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say this: ‘The Lord has need of it.’” (Luke 19:28-31 ESV)

Oh my, we are starting that section of the Gospel that really stirs up my emotions. On the one hand, I’m heartbroken about what our Lord had to do. His triumphant entry into Jerusalem was just one week before he died on the cross for me. I hate that it was for my sins that Jesus had to die. But as we know from the very beginning, to quote a favorite Bible teacher of mine, “Where there is sin, there is death!” Because of my sin and disobedience to God, that sin had to be paid for. The options were pretty simple: Option 1: I could pay for my own sins by being separated from God for all of eternity. Option 2: Jesus, who knew no sin, would become sin and die on the cross as my substitute. Being my substitute is what breaks my heart. Jesus had never sinned; His entire life was dedicated to doing His Father’s will.

But God loved His creation so much that He didn’t want us separated from Him for all eternity. From the moment that sin entered the world in the Garden of Eden, God established a plan for our salvation. Remember Genesis 3:15, when God said to the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” He was talking about Jesus and how Jesus would destroy Satan and sin by dying on the cross.

That’s the one hand that breaks my heart: that my sin caused Jesus’ death. Now on the other hand, my heart swells with joy and love for Jesus, who did this for me! Oh yes, I know that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”, but if I were the only person ever to have lived, my Jesus would have died for me. That’s how precious each of us is to our Heavenly Father. So, today I’m going to choose joy and love for Jesus, and not grief and regret that it was my sins that put Him on the cross.

In verse 31, Jesus says that after He sent two of His disciples to go and secure the colt of a donkey on which no one had ever ridden and bring it to Him, all because ‘The Lord has need of it.’ Honestly, we don’t think much about this donkey’s colt as we approach this week and all the events that will be happening so quickly. If it were a movie, the donkey would be a prop we would never think about. But Jesus needed that specific donkey’s colt. You know that is what it’s like in our lives too. We spend much of our lives doing mundane tasks and doing what we as “donkeys” do. We go to work, take care of our families, worship, and pray to our risen Savior, and we don’t give much thought to the fact that our Jesus will “have need of us”. But He does!

Could Jesus have found another donkey’s colt to fulfill the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9, written some 500 years before Jess fulfilled that promise? “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”  Yes! Because nothing will prevent God’s will from being done. But God chose that specific donkey’s colt, on that specific day, in that specific town, so that His will would be done, and salvation would be brought to all people.

I call it the “Privilege of Participation” in God's blessings. We are all that donkey’s colt when we stop to think about it. God is preparing us by helping us live the life He has given us, so we can be a blessing to others. God didn’t leave us here on this earth after we were saved, just to enjoy the blessings He provides. He left us here to bring honor and glory to our Savior by blessing a specific person God has determined needs a specific blessing on a specific day, and by using me to do it. Could God choose someone else to use? Of course, God’s will and God’s blessings will not be stopped by our refusal to participate. God will do His will! But don’t you see, my friend, God gives us the Privilege to Participate in His blessings.

So, if you are just “hanging out” like the young colt, thinking God doesn’t want to use you, you need to be ready to be called into His service because our Lord “has need of you”.

Be ready for that tap on the shoulder from God that says, “I need you now.”

"Living in Grace is not about what I can do, but about what Jesus has already done!"