The Donkey

With monstrous head and sickening cry
   And ears like errant wings,
The devil’s walking parody
   On all four-footed things.

When fishes flew and forests walked
   And figs grew upon thorn,
Some moment when the moon was blood
   Then surely I was born.

The tattered outlaw of the earth,
   Of ancient crooked will;
Starve, scourge, deride me: I am dumb,
   I keep my secret still.

Fools! For I also had my hour;
   One far fierce hour and sweet:
There was a shout about my ears,
   And palms before my feet.

G. K. Chesterton (1874 -1936)

This is really a poem for Palm Sunday. It always intrigues me to have such a brief one-week contrast from being king with the populace to being crucified by the same.

This poem shows the king of Palm Sunday riding through the streets on a donkey. His kingship articulated in such an obscure way. This is such a contrast from the violent-tank approach of the military taking forced control of the land.

Unfortunately, the donkey is representative of the devil as a ploy. Jesus of course conquers the devil, or should we say sin, so perhaps it is apt that he rides on top. But I must say I feel a little sorry for this poor animal and the way his body features are described in the discredit.

And then on Easter Sunday Jesus becomes the Christian King of love. And again, he is the king of the populace by the cancellation of the debt of sin.

In summary, two very different ways in which he shows his kingship completely independent of guns, tanks, and missiles.

Gilbert Keith Chesterton was an English writer, Christian apologist, and literary critic renowned for his wit, paradoxes, and defense of faith and tradition. Author of influential works like Orthodoxy, The Everlasting Man, and the Father Brown detective stories, he championed Catholic thought, distributism, and common sense in public debates. Converting to Catholicism in 1922, his apologetics profoundly impacted Christian thinkers including C.S. Lewis.

apologetics – reasoned arguments or writings in justification typically a theory or religious doctrine: