Daily lesson for November 28, 2014

Today's daily lesson comes from Luke chapter 19 verses 29 through 31:

29 He sent two of the disciples, 30 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. 31 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say this: ‘The Lord has need of it.’”

Today's text is the prelude to what is called the Triumphal Entry of Jesus. Just before entering into the city of Jerusalem Jesus told his disciples where to find him an unbroken colt in order that a prophetic scripture might be fulfilled.

I often wonder about the colt's owner. Some have said perhaps what transpired was planned. Jesus had previously arranged that the colt would be there for Jesus' use on a particular day and had instructed the colt's owner in a password phrase -- "The Lord has need of it" -- to signal the appointed time.

But what if this were not arranged?  What if, instead, the colt's owner was asked and something inside of him told him it was what he needed to do? What if he was asked and his own spirit within him said yes.

A few years ago a friend called me from his law firm. "Parson, he said -- he always called me parson -- "I guess your sermons are really getting to me because a guy just walked into my office about to be evicted from his apartment. I don't know him from Adam; but I told him he can stay at my house.  I just felt like I was supposed to."

Sometimes the spirit within us tells us to do the most surprising and boldly generous things. It can tell us to do things we never would imagine doing except that we sense a call to do it. When it happens, when we hear the voice inside us saying, "Do it; just do it," I pray we say yes. For the Lord has need of it.