Are You Smarter Than an Ass or Box of Rocks?

 Today is Sunday but it's not Palm Sunday.  However, the children's church lesson for the day was on the Triumphal Entry of Jesus.

I had a plan on where I was going with the story and the video from The Biggest Story was good (I'd recommend it simply based on the colors and Michael Reeves' narration).  However, God changed my plans.  The adult helper, Darrell the Balloon Man Anderson, is superb with children and he made an interjection.  He told a brief story about how he used to get a unridden horse as a kid and how difficult it was to break in a new horse.  That story changed how I would end the Bible story and understand this story from Luke.

If you remember the story as told in Luke 19 you'll remember that Jesus rode a colt that had never been sat upon.  You'll also remember that the people shouted out, "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!"  And finally, you'll remember that the Pharisees disliked the whole thing that was going on and asked Jesus to tell His followers to shut up, to which Jesus replied: 

"I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out."

This story is many things and one of those things is a rebuke upon the Pharisees.  

The Pharisees were supposed to be learned.  They were supposed to be pious.  They were supposed to be ones who worshipped the Lord and followed Him to the max.  In this story they are the only ones not doing it.

Luke is telling us, in part, that the Pharisees were dumber than an ass.  The donkey understood Jesus' lordship and did what unbroken donkeys don't do.  This donkey, like Balaam's donkey, had a better understanding of who Jesus is than the experts of the Talmud.  This ass knew his Creator when he saw him, the Pharisees didn't.  Who was the real dumb ass?

This passages also tell us, in part, that the Pharisees were dumber than a box of rocks. The people praised Jesus as the coming King.  They shouted out royal praise to the King of kings.  The Pharisees missed Jesus' Kingship.  Jesus told them that if the crowd didn't shout the stones would cry out in praise.  The rocks knew their King when they saw Him, but the Pharisees who were steeped in Old Testament prophesy about the Davidic Messiah King didn't.  Who was dumber than a box of rocks?

Before your superiority complex comes raging in, we need to see what Luke is really saying.

Unless God opens our eyes to our Creator-King we are like the Pharisees.  We can have all the information and none of the understanding.  We can have all the words and not truly know the Word.  We, in our sinful nature, are all dumber than an ass and a box of rocks.

However, God can and will open the eyes of the blind to see.  God will let us see our King and Lord and Creator and shout: 

"Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!"

You aren't the reason you believe.  You and I would be stuck as stubborn asses who have less sense than a box of rocks if left to our own devices.  We needed saving more than we realized.  No, if you believe, you are one that God has removed blinders from so that you see what the donkey and stones saw and love it today.