Skip to main content

Conversations on the way to the Cross 1: The Donkey


Judas Iscariot argues with the other disciples

"Well, I've never been so embarrassed in my whole life!"

"What's up, Judas?  You didn't enjoy all the cheering?"

"A donkey, that's what's up!  A flipping baby donkey!  What kind of animal is that for the saviour of Jerusalem to ride in on?  I told him I knew a guy with a good horse, but oh no, he sends me and Matthew off like a couple of farmhands to get a donkey.  It makes fools of all of us, that's what it does.  No one's going to take him seriously after this."

"Oh, give over.  The crowds loved it!  You heard them - hosanna to the Son of David, and all the rest of it.  And we were right in the middle of it!  I never thought a poor fisherman from Galilee would be able to say that!"

"Well, make the most of it, Andrew.  They might be cheering today, but crowds are fickle things, you'll see.  He should have seized the moment!  Ridden in, stormed the palace, started the revolution.  I told him if he waited, we'd get nowhere.  He wouldn't listen, would he?  Just gave me that funny kind look he has, as if I'm a little child.  And sent me off to get that ridiculous donkey."

"Ah, poor little Judas.  Is your pride hurt by having to lead a donkey about?  Were you born to better things?"

"Shut up, Peter!  This is nothing to do with pride.  Just if Jesus wants to be king, he ought to start acting like one.  That's what I think."

"Maybe he is.  It reminded me of that bit from Zechariah, you know?  How does it go?  'Rejoice, daughter of Zion!  Here comes your king, triumphant and victorious; humble, and riding on a donkey."  Something like that, anyway.  Surely fulfilling ancient prophecy is pretty good for a messiah?"

"Oh, Bartholomew the scholar.  Ancient prophecy's all very well, but it's not much use in the here and now, is it?  What we want is the new world Jesus was talking about, with us all on thrones and the Romans kicked out.  Isn't that what we're following him for?  Isn't it, James?  John?  You two were quick enough to try and bag yourselves the best seats for when Jesus is in charge."

"Hey, that was our mum, not us.  Anyway, you heard what Jesus said about that.  'The last will be first and the first will be last,' - which now I think about it, fits in pretty well with his king-riding-on-a-donkey act.  If you're looking for power and glory, Judas, I think you're following the wrong guy."

"Yes, and that's just what's so frustrating.  He could do anything, Jesus could. Anything!  He's got that spark, that... that.. charisma.  You've seen him!  He just has to crook a finger and people will do what he wants.  If anyone could save this wretched country he could - and I thought he was going to do it!  And then he sat on a donkey and threw it all away.  Just threw it all away."

Matthew 21: 1-11 

Other Conversations from the Cross

2: The Commotion
3: The Authority
4: The Anointing
5: The Betrayal
6: The Burial
7: The Precaution 
8: The Resurrection

Labels:

Comments

Susan Ewing said…
I love this, Martha! Ties so much together. Thanks or sharing it. And keep writing.��
9 April 2017 at 07:13
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Growing things

For those of you who are interested in my attempts at balcony gardening, I thought I'd update you a little. For those who aren't, don't skip this post. You may find something else of interest. Apart from the ever-present herbs, tomatoes and cayenne peppers are on the go this year. The peppers are really on the go - we went away for a week and came back to find them twice the size as when we left. Now they're producing fruit which is growing at a similarly rapid rate, though none has ripened to red yet. I realised I should have given you some kind of scale, so I just went out and measured. They're about 22 cm long, or 8 1/2 inches for you non-metric types. I may have to find out how to dry peppers if they all ripen at once. A couple of tomato plants are looking pretty healthy and beginning to flower. A few died; one, apparently, by being eaten whole by a bird, a trouble I've never had before. I had two seedlings left so used those as replacements, b...
2 comments
Read more

Hosting Thanksgiving

OK, I have to confess.  This will be a very boring Thanksgiving story.  Everything went right and it was a lovely day.  For an interesting story you need a few things going wrong.  I heard a couple of interesting stories this year - like the one about mis-measuring bourbon to go in the stuffing.  Apparently if you put far too much in, all the alcohol doesn't boil off.  Or the one about going to cook dinner at an Asian friend's house, and discovering at the last minute that she doesn't have any baking trays, and it's quite difficult to roast a turkey in a wok.  But as I said, we didn't have so much as a lumpy gravy panic. Where's my food??? We're working on it, baby! So what do you want to know?  Well, it was my first Thanksgiving dinner cooked on American soil.  Back when I was free and single and shared a house with lots of people who liked to eat, I got into the habit of celebrating the American feast for a few years, until the...
2 comments
Read more

On having an accent

Back in the olden days, when it was a major undertaking to get from, say, Bristol to London, or even Bristol to Weston-super-Mare, and so most people didn't bother, it is said that you could place people within 10 miles or so by their accent. Now that we've built motorways and everyone spends their days whizzing up and down them, you have to go a bit further to get your accent noticed, but moving 3700 miles from Bristol to Texas certainly does the trick. Of course, I don't really have an accent - I speak quite normally, thank you very much, but everyone else talks funny around here, so naturally I stand out as different. It's been a strange experience to be marked out the minute I open my mouth. About the second thing everyone says to me is, "You're not from around here" or, "Where are you from?" Even though we talk the same language (well, almost), the way I speak says I'm a newbie, a stranger, something exotic. Fortunately the thir...
1 comment
Read more