As animal go the donkey gets a bad rap…Think of donkey in Shrek…

But as we read in book of Isaiah 1:3 “An ox knows its owner, and a donkey its master’s manger but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.’ Jesus was born in a stable because his own people did not know him, but the humble donkey did recognize Jesus and keep him company in the stable.

We read in the Gospel of Mathew 21:5 ‘Tell Daughter Zion ‘Look your king is coming to you, gentle and mounted on a donkey, even on the colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’ Jesus came into Jerusalem seated on a donkey.

When Mary and Joseph went into Egypt. We see Mary seated on a donkey. We are told that ‘Jesus of Nazareth has need of it.’ Jesus need the humble hard working donkey. There is a cross on the back of every donkey. As if Jesus himself left an image of the cross on every donkey.’

An interesting fact from an article entitled ‘Why does a donkey have a cross?’ by Maggie Morris. She tells us this fun fact ‘It (the donkey’ is the only animal in the Bible other than the serpent to speak, and it plays a significant role in more than one Christian prophecy.’ We read in the book of Numbers 22: 28-31 ‘And the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, ‘What have I done to you, that you struck me these three times?’ ….’Am I not your donkey on which you have ridden all your life to this day? Than the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam.’

You see Balaam wanted to curse the Israelites but the Donkey knew that these were the chosen people of God. The lowly donkey had the eyes of faith. Even Samson was able to kill a thousand men with a fresh jawbone of a donkey. We read in Judges 15: 15-17 ‘He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, so he reached out and took it and killed a thousand men with it.’

We are told in Mathew 21 ‘Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them.’ The Lord needed the donkey..

Abraham had need of a donkey. We read in Genesis 22:3 ‘So Abraham got up early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took with him two of his young men and his son Issac.’ So the donkey was a there at the sacrifice of Issac, which prefigured the cross.

Solomon the son of David came into Jerusalem riding on David Donkey. We read in 1 King 1:33 ‘ he (David) said to them ‘ Take your lord’s servants with you and have Solomon my son mount my own mule and take him down to Gihon.’ Jesus the true son of David, the true Solomon comes into Jerusalem riding a donkey. Jesus was showing by the prophetic act that Jesus was the true son of David.

We are called to be children of God. But on this Passion Sunday we can only aspire to be like the humble, hard working Donkey. There is more to the donkey than meets the eye.