By James E. Kerns

December 2005

 

Hannah was making cakes in the tiny, quiet house when suddenly its door burst open.

“Come see what Mara has done!” Jacob said excitedly.  He turned and limped away as Hannah shouted after him, “Did she have her foal?”

Jacob gave no answer.  It wasn’t often that she’d seen her husband excited.  Why should he be excited now?  It must be that Mara had foaled, but there had been many foals during their long marriage.  Why was Jacob excited now?  This would be Mara’s first foal, but she was no different from any of the other asses the family had owned through the years.

Hannah hurriedly wiped the dough and flour from her hands, stepped out into the spring sunshine, shut the door that Jacob had left open, and made her way to the enclosure and shed that served as Mara’s shelter.

As she let herself through the gate, she saw Jacob’s back as he knelt in the straw beside Mara.  Both of them were intent on an object in front of them which their bodies shielded from her view.  Hannah passed around Jacob and involuntarily gasped.

“Isn’t he beautiful?” Jacob said.  “Have you ever seen a prettier foal?”

“A white one!” Hannah exclaimed, with wonder in her voice.  “He’s pure white!  He looks like a light there in the straw.”

Sunshine was streaming through the open side of the shed, bathing the newborn in warmth.  His head wobbled from side to side, and his spindly legs shot out at odd angles as he struggled to find his equilibrium and learn how to control his never-before-used limbs.  His efforts to stand were further impeded by Mara as she dutifully and lovingly licked him with her tongue.  This was her first baby, but she knew instinctively how to care for him.  She was cleaning him, stimulating him to action, and bonding him to her all at once.  She was oblivious to the two people beside her.  All her attention was riveted on her baby.

Jacob’s and Hannah’s attention was likewise on the foal.  “This is a king’s colt,” Jacob said.  “A white colt is a symbol of royalty.  This is David’s colt!”

“There hasn’t been a king on David’s throne for six hundred years,” Hannah protested.

“There will be!  There will be!”  Jacob was nodding his head affirmatively as he continued to stare at the foal.  Remember what John said when we went to Bethabara to be baptized?  He said the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and that One was coming after him whose shoes he was not worthy to bear.  This colt is His.  This is the Lord’s colt.”

“Why would the Lord need a colt?”

“Because of Zechariah’s prophecy.  Zechariah said that the King would come ‘riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.’  He’s coming, Hannah.  I know it.  And He’ll come riding upon Mara’s colt.”

“But where is he?  Who is he, and when will he come?”

“It will be when the colt is big enough to carry a rider.  We’ll let no one ride him until then.  The Messiah will be the first.”

“But the colt won’t let him.  He won’t be trained.”

“The colt won’t be trained, but he’ll be gentle.  He’ll allow the Lord to ride him.  If necessary we might lead Mara before him.  The colt would follow Mara.”

“Who is the Messiah?  Where is He?”

“I think it’s Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.  I’ve heard much about him.  They say that he’s healing everyone who comes to him.  The blind see, the deaf hear, and he’s casting out devils.  Eli even says that he fed five thousand men with just five loaves of bread and two fish.  He was there.  He says the whole countryside left their villages and followed Jesus out into a desert place by the Sea of Galilee.  He made them all sit down on the green grass and taught them.  Eli said that he didn’t understand a lot of what was taught, but that it made his heart burn within him.  No one wanted to leave even though night was coming.”

“Oh, that he’d come soon!” Hannah exclaimed.  "Israel has looked for him to come for hundreds of years.  Could his coming really be in our day?  And why would he choose our colt?”

“I had a dream, Hannah.  In the synagogue they read prophecies about his coming, and I had a dream.  I saw the Messiah riding into Jerusalem on a white ass.  The white ass was following Mara.”

“How do you know it was Mara?”

“I was leading her, Hannah.  I was leading her.”

 

 

The months passed swiftly.  Passover was approaching.  Every day Jacob worked with the colt.  The white colt was very tractable, and created a sensation in the village.  Everyone knew about him.  Whenever Jacob had him out of the pen, men stopped to admire him and to run their hands over his glossy hide.  Jacob let them pet him, but firmly refused all requests to sit on or ride the snow-white colt.

It was on one such day that Mara and the colt were tied in front of the door of the house.  The door opened onto the street where two ways met.  Several men of the village stood nearby talking with Jacob when two strangers approached and began to untie the colt’s lead rope.

“Hey, what are you doing?” one of the village men shouted.

The stranger hesitated for only a moment, and then continued to untie the colt.  “The Lord has need of him,” he replied.

The village men sprang to stop the theft, but were restrained by Jacob’s voice.  “Let them be!”

“Let them be?” the men said incredulously.  “They’re taking your colt!”

“It is the Lord’s colt.  I’ve been waiting for this day,” he said to the village men.  And then to the two strangers he said, “Shall I lead the mother?  The colt will follow quietly if I do.”

 

 

 

 

Thus is how it might have been that this man became a behind-the-scenes, unnamed hero whose actions would live forever in holy writ as one who helped the Savior accomplish his mission on earth.  Certain it is that no ordinary man would have allowed his colt to be led away by strangers with no more explanation than what he received.

(Zech. 9:9)

(Matt. 21:1-11)

(Mark 11:1-10)

(Luke 19:29-40)

(John 12:12-16)