Links for today’s readings:
May 27 Read: Zechariah 9 Listen: (3:01) Read: Luke 18 Listen: (5:27)
Scripture Focus: Zechariah 9:8-9
8 But I will encamp at my temple
to guard it against marauding forces.
Never again will an oppressor overrun my people,
for now I am keeping watch.
9 Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!
Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you,
righteous and victorious,
lowly and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
Reflection: Victorious and Lowly
By Erin Newton
Touchdown dances and victory laps are our typical images of winners. The beauty queen gets a crown. Celebrities get red carpets and paparazzi. Athletes get medals, rings, or letterman jackets. Politicians get parties and banners and confetti. I hear the doctoral graduates in Finland get top hats and swords!
The walk of shame is usually a reference to bad judgment, fleeting impulses or rejection. Second and third place athletes get lesser medals, smaller trophies. Losing politicians are asked to concede. Those not finishing a race get labeled with “DNF” (did not finish).
To imagine a winner, a victor, in a self-imposed image of lowliness is antithetical to what we expect. Winners get center stage. Those entering with a lowly demeanor are usually the ones who are not the winners.
Zechariah 9 presents a picture of our God—both victorious and lowly.
We speak often of the lowliness of Christ, his humility and willingness to suffer for our sake. But the picture tends to shift after his crucifixion to an image of the mighty and powerful and risen Lord. We want to herald his victory over the grave, and we should be glad.
Yet our God holds both victory and lowliness together in himself. He is not just some winner who avoids bragging too much. He is a protector, keeping watch over his people, but he enters riding on a donkey, not a warhorse. He is not some giant, super-sized, Ultron type of deity crushing and snapping enemies out of existence. He chooses to be humble, not just as our example, but because he is.
It is mind-boggling.
We tend to refer to lowliness and humility as something Jesus “put on,” as if it was a foreign and lesser human quality, when in fact it is part of who our God is. My mind struggles to hold the two together without emphasizing one over the other—God is powerful and victorious; God is lowly and humble.
We are called to be like Christ and that means learning to embody both the victorious nature of Christ and his lowliness. Humility is something we learn to put on, but even as God works victories through us (power over sin, despair, hate), we must learn to keep “riding on a donkey” as our Lord did.
Humility should be a quality that defines us, knowing God will certainly be working victories in the meantime.
Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer
Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; let the whole earth tremble before him. — Psalm 96.9
– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle
Read more: The King We Want
I’ve sent a king, God says
He rode in on a donkey
My servants prophesied him
You rebels crucified him
Read more: Types of Blindness
Even those who already believe can be blinded…The disciples had blind spots and a tunnel vision focused only on political salvation.
