"Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here." Luke 19:30I am training up a young mare that has never been ridden. I have spent a few months working with her on the ground and am just now getting brave enough to even think about hopping on her back. She has a foal by her side so it has been a little slower process than I had hoped. When I read this account in Luke, the fact that this colt had never been ridden impressed me. I can imagine Jesus as the perfect horse whisperer. He requests a young colt, still beside his mother, one that has never been ridden.
"They brought it to Jesus, threw cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. As He went along, people spread their cloaks on the road." Luke 19:35-36
Have you ever watched The Road to the Horse.? The top trainers in the country each take an unbroke, never before ridden young horse and train them the best they can in one day while we watch. The first time those horses get a blanket thrown over their back they go off bucking and trying to get that thing off before it eats them. These are horses that have never been touched. It takes several hours to desensitize them to touch and having blankets thrown on them before even these top professional trainers think about hopping on.
Donkeys are no different, they buck, they kick, they bite, they need to be slowly and gently desensitized. So visualizing that these men just went up and threw their cloaks on an unbroke, never before ridden colt and Jesus got right up and on it. That is impressive. Jesus mounts up, he goes along as people spread their cloaks on the road. Have you ever tried to get your horses to walk over a tarp or any unnatural object on the ground. Get a little resistance? Maybe even a spook or refusal? Here Jesus just walks his donkey over all these cloaks thrown on the road on this colt's very first ride.
"Tell the people of Israel, See your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey." Matthew 21:5
To horses and donkeys, we are predators. It takes a lot of bonding time to get them to trust us and allow us to be the leader. Even more to let us climb on their backs and ride them. I love the fact that even the young donkey that had never been ridden trust our gentle and humble King so much he just let himself have a cloak thrown on his back and let Jesus climb on and ride off without a fit. It testifies, it screams out from the pages of Luke 19: 29-35 and Mark 11:1-7, that if the animals that don't in their nature trust humans do trust Jesus at first touch how much more can we trust him
. Our King comes to us, gentle and riding on a donkey, even a colt who has never been ridden before!!
