DETAILS…DETAILS

A Meditation by the Rev. Dr. James G. Kirk

Harundale Presbyterian Church

Glen Burnie, Maryland

April 4, 2004

Text: “The Lord needs it.” Luke 19: 31

First Reading: Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29

Second Reading: Philippians 2:5-11

One thing about visiting with Kids for Christ every week is we get to hear from all the young families in the church how things are going. It’s amazing to listen to the parents in the hallway while their children are in class. Their schedules are alarming! From the moment they arise in the morning it’s getting the children ready for school, getting them fed, getting them off to school, picking them up after school, getting them to their soccer practice, skating lessons, dance lessons, piano lessons, or karate lessons. Then it’s time to get home and get dinner on the table, get the homework done, and finally get them ready for bed. In the meantime there are doctor appointments to make, their own work schedule to keep on time and, if they’re lucky, have some time for themselves.

Details, details, details, our days are spent with a whole array of details, each of which must be kept in its place, remembered before we take the next steps, and not allowed to hinder our getting to whatever destination we have before us. Some people are good at details. They love the intricacy of figuring out what needs to be done to reach the goal. Others think all the details get in the way. They just want to get on with whatever needs to be done and, in their opinion, not “sweat the small stuff.”

Jesus was a detail person. He knew what he had to do. As soon as they got near Jerusalem he would send his disciples into the village. “Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it.’” He knew exactly what type of colt he wanted; he knew where the disciples would find it; he knew what its owners would say and coached his disciples on how they were to respond.

Those details weren’t just some arbitrary thoughts about how Jesus was going to get into Jerusalem. He was fulfilling Zechariah’s prophecy of the long awaited Messiah: “Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” (Zech. 9:9) “Jesus was determined to get every detail of his arrival into Jerusalem just right. And Luke was determined that we know every detail of the arrival of our new king.” (M. Craig Barnes, “It’s In the Details,” The Christian Century, March 23, 2004, page 17.)

Jesus was truly a detail person, but there were also a lot of details that Jesus ignored. For example, he ignored the detail of urgency. Jesus was never in a hurry. He always had time to heal someone or listen to someone’s story. Too often, we’re in too much of a hurry to be bothered with someone’s illness or really listen to what someone is trying to say to us. We think our time, our sense of urgency; our details have got to be more important than theirs. So, unlike Jesus we don’t ignore the detail of urgency.

Jesus ignored the detail of popularity. It seems as though he was always getting in trouble with the authorities. He wanted to heal on the Sabbath, for example. He also chose those who were considered outcasts or the down-trodden in society to associate with. He even dared the authorities to cast the first stone if they considered themselves sinless. Time and again, he reminded them that his business had to do with the details of God’s kingdom not theirs. We spend too much time today in wanting to be popular, wanting people to like what we do and the way we are rather than pointing them to a better way.

Jesus ignored the detail of tomorrow. Remember his words in the Sermon on the Mount? “Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to the span of your life?...So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” (Matt. 6:27, 34) Many of us are consumed by tomorrow’s details. The problem with that is things usually change by the time tomorrow comes so that the details we fretted over today don’t come to pass when tomorrow comes anyway. We’d do better, like Jesus says, not to worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own.

We’d also do better to quit trying to save ourselves by worrying about the details of our own urgency, our own popularity and our own tomorrows and begin to take seriously the details Jesus thought important. Jesus thought it was important to ride on that colt into Jerusalem. It forecast to the people who lined the street that he was the promised Messiah. It’s no wonder that they began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!” Jesus would usher in the dawn of a new age.

It would be an age with people’s sins forgiven. It would be an age where, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all are one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal. 3:28) It would be an age where as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, you are to “clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful…And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” (Colossians 3:12-17) Those are the details we should be about!

Thanks be to God

Amen