Jesus needs a donkey. If I were to use the more common vernacular for the word “donkey,” you might get your feathers ruffled. Nevertheless, these were Jesus’ words in Luke 19:31, when He gave His disciples instructions about getting a donkey for Jesus to ride when He came into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.
Jesus ruffled lots of feathers during Holy Week – indeed, all of Jerusalem seemed to be astir and on edge with His arrival. There are many reasons that Jerusalem was edgy with Jesus’ arrival. For starters, there was political tension because of the strained relationship between the Jewish leaders and the Roman occupation. Additionally, Jerusalem was tense when Jesus landed because the Jewish leaders felt threatened by His popularity and powerful influence. Jerusalem was also upended because Jesus went into the temple and turned it upside down, majorly disturbing their daily worship practices and routines.
Let’s also remember that Jesus did lots of healing and miracles in Jerusalem, which obviously ruffled feathers. He demonstrated compassion, power, transformation, and redemption in a city that struggled to see compassion in authentic demonstration and power as anything but hurtful. Let’s also consider that there wasn’t much evidence of transformation and redemption in Jerusalem when Jesus made His grand entry on Palm Sunday, so the upheaval He brought and demonstrated ruffled lots of feathers.
When I think about Jesus ruffling feathers, I wonder what that looks like in our modern living?
Similar to the Jewish traditions and structures in Jesus’ time, we also have our religious traditions, expectations, routines, piety, and standard behaviors. Some of this stuff is good and aligns authentically with Jesus’ words and behaviors related to love and transformation. I’m very much in agreement with being compassionate, gracious, steady, kind, and forgiving.
On the other side, I see Jesus ruffling feathers by challenging the religious norms of His day and our modern religious choices. Jesus confronted the hypocrisy of the religious leaders in His day by going into the heart of the religious piety and upending their daily norms. I say this because Jesus’ first action upon arriving in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday was to go to the temple and disrupt the status quo. He ruffled a lot of feathers when He made His grand entrance into Jerusalem.
What this means to us today is really important. It’s important because Jesus didn’t just follow the status quo and comply with the standard religious norms. He ruffled feathers and upset the applecart when He entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.
His actions and priorities force me to ask myself if I’m willing to let Jesus ruffle my feathers. I think about this because I’ve grown up in the church, and I’ve been a religious leader of sorts. Am I willing to let Jesus come into my life, into my theology, to renovate my thoughts, priorities, values, conversations, paradigms, behaviors, and choices? This is a really important question to ask, and I bring it to your attention as well because it might ruffle your feathers, maybe a little bit.
Some questions to think about that have some ruffle potential:
- Am I willing to choose compassion over criticism?
- Am I willing to reach out with genuine love to people who make me uncomfortable?
- Does my political posture conflict with Jesus’ teachings and demonstrations?
- Do I make myself available for Jesus to love me and to love others through me?
These are some important things to consider on the march toward Easter Sunday.
To be sure, Jesus didn’t tango with the religious leaders of His day. I see this play out when they confronted Him about his perspective and values. Jesus pushed back to them, demanding that they look in their hearts and consider their own crap. Jesus ruffled the feathers of religious people in His day, and I suspect that He would likely do the same today.
While I very much love Holy Week, Palm Sunday, and the events that culminate in Jesus’ resurrection, I want to ask you to consider letting Jesus ruffle your feathers. Perhaps Jesus would unravel some religious mindsets we might have to calibrate our priorities, perspectives, choices, and conversations for better alignment with genuine love. Let’s be willing to let Jesus ruffle our feathers.