“and said to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately.’”” Mark 11:2-3 ESV
Reflection: what do you own?
Ownership is a strange idea or thought. Because many things we clam we “own”, meaning that “belong” to us, we probably don’t have a claim to. We may say we own a car, yet many have a bank loan or a lease agreement for the car. It is actually the bank who holds the “title” of the car. If we think about owning a house, many pay a bank 20-30 years on that bank loan. Until the loan is paid, it is the bank who actually holds the “title and deed” of the house and property. So what happens when we pay off the loans? Do you “own” the car, the house and property? The question then is, who really “owns” the land your house is on? The people of Ukraine, or any other country which has been in a war, quickly discover that someone else can easily come and “claim” the car, the the property and even the house that you “thought” you owned, just by “taking” it. Claiming it.
This has happened all through history.
The very property you live on, may have been taken from someone else, who also thought they owned it. Who might have worked for it, even fought for it. So ownership is in a way more like we manage something for a while. And, if we extend that thought further, as disciples and followers of Jesus, it is an important reminder to us that everything really belongs to the Lord. “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein,” Psalm 24:1 ESV. In fact, if we go to the very beginning, we see man’s role “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.””Genesis 1:27-28 ESV. God gave us “dominion over” the earth and all that is in it. To steward it. But it is still the Lord’s.
In today’s focus verses, we are in a very beautiful way reminding of this fact. Mark writes of the beginning of the “passion week”, and His triumphal entrance into Jerusalem. And, we see this strange assertion of Jesus regarding the colt that He told His disciples to go and get, and the instructions on how to answer the “owner” of the colt, saying “The Lord has need of it”. This phrase is of authority. He is not asking for permission to take it. He is telling the steward of it that He needs to use it. And, then He goes on, saying “and will send it back here immediately.” The Lord wants the man who has been taking care of this animal to continue to do so. But it belongs to the Lord. It is by Him, to Him, and for Him. So we see here another picture of His beautiful nature. Although He owns the colt, He has given this man stewardship over it. To care for it.
MacLaren wrote “So, brethren, He still moves amongst us, asking for our surrender of ourselves and of our possessions to Him, and pledging Himself that we shall lose nothing by what we give to Him, but shall be infinitely gainers by our surrender. He still needs us. Ah! if He is ever to march in triumph through the world, and be hailed by the hosannas of all the tribes of the earth, it is requisite for that triumph that His children should surrender first themselves, and then all that they are, and all that they have, to Him. To us there comes the message, ‘The Lord hath need of you.’ Let us see that we answer as becomes us.”
So we are stewards of all the things we have in our possession. Our cars, houses, bank accounts, retirement savings, etc; it all belongs to the Lord. It doesn’t mean we need to just give it all away, if someone asks for it. The Lord has given it to us to manage wisely, for His glory. Not just indulge in the flesh, but to further His kingdom. But, even more importantly, He has also made us stewards of ourselves and our time. How do we steward what He has given us to care for?
