Asses

Look carefully! See the colt's black legs?

"The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them." Matthew 21:6-7

Nothing deep to ponder today.

But, if there are readers out there who can help me with this, I'd appreciate it!

This is the first time I noticed that Jesus sat on a donkey AND a colt. At least, that is the version Matthew tells. If this is the case, that must have been tricky business! I dare you not to laugh when you close your eyes and imagine this scenario.

This had me asking, "why?"  Is there some cultural or symbolic explanation for this? Curious, I googled  "why did Jesus sit on a donkey and colt?"  I found some interesting websites including one titled, "Jesus Had Two Asses." (I kid you not!)

Other websites take this text much too seriously - specifically those bloggers/writers who take the Bible literally. They are trying to explain WHY the Matthew text has Jesus on both the donkey and colt while the passages in Mark, Luke and John differ from that....Something about the fact that if a colt was taken then surely the mother of the animal would not be left behind - and so, the mother is taken along with the colt and is left unmentioned in the other gospels. Ah yes, the story of mothers - silent supporters of their offspring - barely worth mentioning except for the occasional reference from Academy Award winners!

Okay - so these websites didn't answer my question however there was one site which gave a grammatical explanation: Perhaps "them" refers to the garments, not the two animals.... Rats! I was hoping for something deeper!

I have already thought about this too much. It is a beautiful day and I am going to tend to my garden!