The donkey awakened, his mind still savoring the afterglow of the most exciting day of his life. Never before had he felt such a rush of pleasure and pride. He walked into town and found a group of people by the well. "I’ll show myself to them," he thought. But they didn’t notice him. They went on drawing their water and paid him no mind. "Throw your garments down," he said crossly. "Don’t you know who I am?" They just looked at him in amazement. Someone slapped him across the tail and ordered him to move. "Miserable heathens!" he muttered to himself. "I’ll just go to the market where the good people are. They will remember me."

But the same thing happened. No one paid any attention to the donkey as he strutted down the main street in front of the market place. "The palm branches! Where are the palm branches!" he shouted. "Yesterday, you threw palm branches!" Hurt and confused, the donkey returned home to his mother. "Foolish child," she said gently. "Don’t you realize that without Him, you are just an ordinary donkey?" (Our text for today is Philippians 2:5-11, which shows us that humility is an attitude established by Jesus and reflected by us. Read text.)

Today is Palm Sunday, and today we reflect upon our Savior’s triumphal procession into Jerusalem. A king was being hailed and honored! Palm branches were spread on the ground, people’s clothes were laid out for Him, and the people joined together in praising Him, "Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the King of Israel!" But look again at this scene. What was He riding on? What would a king ride on? A mighty war stallion? Was He being carried in by servants on a platform? No, He wasn’t. Jesus was riding in on a lowly donkey. The common transportation of servants. All the while, these people were hailing Him as King! There seems to be a contradiction here, doesn’t there?

Be as humble as the King! There also seems to be a contradiction with this statement. Kings aren’t known to be humble. And quite frankly, they aren’t. Nor are the leaders of this age. If the Prime Minister came to the LAC this morning, so you think that he would arrive in a rusty 1984 Honda Civic? I don’t think so. He would arrive in a procession of armed limousines with a police escort. Kings, leaders, presidents, and governors have never spared any expense in living lavish lifestyles that emphasize their wealth, position, and power.

But Jesus was no ordinary King! As we consider today’s text, we are reminded of our Savior, the Son of God, the most powerful King ever, riding into Jerusalem on this lowly donkey. So, is the main point of this lesson that we should be humble like Jesus was? Actually, no, the main point of this lesson we must begin with is that you and I have NOT been humble!! That is why Jesus had to humble Himself in the first place! That is why He had to make himself nothing, empty Himself of the full use of his divine power, become a human being, and be placed under the Law for us. That’s why He had to be humiliated by those who insulted Him, accused Him, arrested Him, tortured Him, and put Him to death on the cross!

He had to go through all this humiliation because you and I have not been humble. We were born with, and have lived with, pride and selfish attitudes. We care most about ourselves. On the outside, we try to make it look as if we care about others more, but deep down, every one of us cares the most about ourselves. Me. Myself. I. "How is this going to benefit me?" is the question we ask to help guide most of our decisions in life. We have been born selfish. We have been born with pride. We don’t like placing ourselves under anybody. It was just this attitude that brought Jesus, whose attitude is the opposite of this, to humble Himself for you and me.

Jesus, the very Son of the Living God, humbled Himself by becoming a human being. He put Himself under the Law that you and I have not obeyed so that He could obey it for us. He was perfectly humble and selfless, like you and I have failed to be. But then God gave us credit for that! And his ultimate act of humiliation took Jesus to a cross, where He suffered the horrible death we talked about last week. "Therefore," our text tells us, "God exalted Him to the highest place!" Therefore, God has forgiven you for all of your pride and selfishness. Because Jesus was humiliated, God exalted Him. Because Jesus was humiliated, God exalted YOU!

You could say that the donkey in our story humbly served Jesus. On that day, he did not put himself first. He put Jesus first. And therefore, the donkey was exalted! Look how exalted! No other donkey in the history of the world has had so great an honor, or had his story told throughout history, like that donkey! What an honorable service he provided for Jesus that day! But not for one moment was any one of those people honoring the donkey Jesus was riding on! The donkey’s humble service wasn’t great because attention went to him – no one was saying "Wow, Look at that donkey go!" The donkey was exalted for his service because he pointed everyone’s attention to Jesus! And a donkey could probably do that job better than a mighty war stallion or army of horses and attendants! Why? Simply, because a donkey, the common transportation of servants, was very capable of humble service. Nothing very great about him.

You and I are just ordinary donkeys. There is nothing very great about us. Our sin and failure to be perfect has humbled us before God. It would be silly for you and I to try to be like the donkey in the story, by thinking that we deserved anyone’s praise. We would do much better by "humbling ourselves" daily before God. Admit you are an unworthy sinner! Admit you need his grace, his undeserved love! Throw yourself at his mercy! And God, as He has promised, will exalt you! He has exalted you by forgiving your sins and making you his beloved child!

Therefore, serve Jesus in glad, willing, humble, selfless obedience! That is the same contradiction that Jesus modeled for us on Palm Sunday. Put yourself last. God will put you first. Not because you deserve it. Because He loves you! You are just an ordinary donkey. But with Jesus, you are a forgiven, loved, exalted child of God welcomed in heaven! Amen.

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