Who is the Lord?

As Jesus approached Jerusalem for what would be the final time, He sent His disciples ahead of Him into town to bring back a colt for Him to ride in on. He told them where they would find the colt and just to untie it and bring it to Him. If anyone asked what they were doing, He told them to say, "The Lord needs it." 

Which is cool, I guess, as long as you understand that "the Lord" means "Jesus." 

And there's no guarantee that everyone did. Whenever you see someone standing on the side of the road trying to figure out what all the hubbub is, someone tells them it's "Jesus of Nazareth." Jesus of Nazareth is here! Jesus of Nazareth is passing by! The blind men cry out, "Son of David!" And even when Jesus is riding that colt into the town, the persons throwing down palm leaves are yelling, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" Not, "Blessed is the Lord who comes!" 

So even the crowds aren't getting that "Jesus is the Lord." Not yet, anyway. 

In fact, to say that you were giving anything to the Lord in that time meant that you were taking it to the Temple as a sacrifice. Which is weird, since there was no ritual Old Testament sacrifice of a donkey...that I know of. But still, if you see someone untying your colt and saying, "The Lord needs it," the first thing that's popping into your head is that these weirdos are going to take your colt to the priest and sacrifice it on the altar. Your colt. Their sacrifice. Not a lot of colt owners are going to go for that. Not a lot of them are going to say, "Oh, yeah, sure. Go ahead."

Now, the disciples could have said, "my Lord needs it," which would reference whoever it was that they were serving as their Lord. That sort of thing would have happened all the time in a society where servanthood was common. But that's not what they said. They said, "the Lord needs it."

And then, they just showed back up with a colt. 

It's another one of those things that you really have to stop and think about how the people of the time would have heard it as it was playing out. Nobody would have heard, "Rabbi Jesus needs this colt." They couldn't have fathomed or understood what it meant to these men that "the Lord" needs it. Yet somehow, the disciples come back with it anyway, and Jesus fulfills yet another prophecy. 

It makes you wonder who owned that colt, what they knew, what was on their heart, what they thought was going on or was going to happen.

It makes you wonder what you'd do if you heard something that didn't make sense, except that you knew that it somehow came from God. Imagine a man untying your colt, and all he tells you is, "The Lord needs it." Even knowing who the Lord is, don't you have questions? Or would you just let it go? Would "the Lord needs it" be enough for you? 

Could it be?