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| The Ass and the Colt are the Old and the New Testament. Spiritual Meaning of the Various Features of the Story. Differences Between John's Narrative and that of the Other Evangelists.
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18.
The Ass and the Colt are the Old and the New Testament. Spiritual
Meaning of the Various Features of the Story. Differences Between
John’s Narrative and that of the Other Evangelists.
Now to see into the real truth of these matters is the
part of that true intelligence which is given to those who can
say,5067
“But we have the mind of Christ that
we may see those things which are freely given to us of God;” and
doubtless it is beyond our powers. For neither is the ruling
principle in our soul free from agitation, nor are our eyes such as
those of the fair bride of Christ should be, of which the bridegroom
says,5068
“Thy eyes are doves,”
signifying, perhaps, in a riddle, the observant power which dwells in
the spiritual, because the Holy Spirit came like a dove to our Lord and
to the lord in every one. Such as we are, however, we will not
delay, but will feel about the words of life which have been spoken to
us and strive to lay hold of that power in them which flows to him who
touches them in faith. Now Jesus is the word of God which goes
into the soul that is called Jerusalem, riding on the ass freed by the
disciples from its bonds. That is to say, on the simple language of the Old
Testament, interpreted by the two disciples who loose it: in the
first place him who applies what is written to the service of the soul
and shows the allegorical sense of it with reference to her, and in the
second place him who brings to light by the things which lie in shadow
the good and true things of the future. But He also rides on the
young colt, the New Testament; for in both alike we find the word of
truth which purifies us and drives away all those thoughts in us which
incline to selling and buying. But He does not come alone to
Jerusalem, the soul, nor only with a few companions; for many things
have to enter into us before the word of God which makes us perfect,
and as many things have to come after Him, all, however, hymning and
glorifying Him and placing under Him their ornaments and vestures, so
that the beasts He rides on may not touch the ground, when He who
descended out of heaven is seated on them. But that His bearers,
the old and the new words of Scripture, may be raised yet higher above
the ground, branches have to be cut down from the trees that they may
tread on reasonable expositions. But the multitudes which go
before and follow Him may also signify the angelic ministrations, some
of which prepare the way for Him in our souls, and help in their
adorning, while some come after His presence in us, of which we have
often spoken, so that we need not now adduce testimonies about
it. And perhaps it is not without reason that I have likened to
an ass the surrounding voices which conduct the Word Himself to the
soul; for it is a beast of burden, and many are the burdens, heavy the
loads, which are brought into view from the text, especially of the Old
Testament, as he can clearly see who observes what is done in this
connection on the part of the Jews. But the foal is not a beast
of burden in the same way as the ass. For though every lead of
the latter be heavy to those who have not in themselves the upbearing
and most lightening power of the Spirit, yet the new word is less heavy
than the old. I know some who interpret the tied-up ass as being
believers from the circumcision, who are freed from many bonds by those
who are truly and spiritually instructed in the word; and the foal they
take to be those from the Gentiles, who before they receive the word of
Jesus are free from any control and subject to no yoke in their
unbridled and pleasure-loving existence. The writers I am
speaking of do not say who those are that go before and who those
follow after; but there would be no absurdity in saying that those who
went before were like Moses and the prophets, and those who followed
after the holy Apostles. To what Jerusalem all these go in it is
now our business to enquire, and what is the house which has many
sellers and buyers to be driven out by the Son of God. And
perhaps the Jerusalem above to which the Lord is to ascend driving like
a charioteer those of the circumcision and the believers of the
Gentiles, while prophets and Apostles go before Him and follow after
Him (or is it the angels who minister to Him, for they too may be meant
by those who go before and those who follow), perhaps it is that city
which before He ascended to it contained the so-called5069
“spiritual hosts of wickedness in
heavenly places,” or the Canaanites and Hittites and Amorites and
the other enemies of the people of God, and in a word, the
foreigners. For in that region, too, it was possible for the
prophecy to be fulfilled which says,5070
“Your
country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire, your land,
strangers devour it in your presence.” For these are they
who defile and turn into a den of robbers, that is, of themselves the
heavenly house of the Father, the holy Jerusalem, the house of prayer;
having spurious money, and giving pence and small change, cheap
worthless coinage, to all who come to them. These are they who,
contending with the souls, take from them what is most precious,
robbing them of their better part to return to them what is worth
nothing. But the disciples go and find the ass tied and loose it,
for it cannot have Jesus on account of the covering that is laid upon
it by the law.5071
And the colt
is found with it, both having been lost till Jesus came; I mean,
namely, those of the circumcision and those of the Gentiles who
afterwards believed. But how these are sent back again after
Jesus has ascended to Jerusalem seated upon them, it is somewhat
dangerous to say; for there is something mystical about it, in
connection with the change of saints into angels. After that
change they will be sent back, in the age succeeding this one, like the
ministering spirits,5072
who are sent to do
service for the sake of them who will thereby inherit salvation.
But if the ass and the foal are the old and the new Scriptures, on
which the Word of God rides, it is easy to see how, after the Word has
appeared in them, they are sent
back and do not wait after the Word has entered Jerusalem among those
who have cast out all the thoughts of selling and buying. I
consider, too, that it is not without significance that the place where
the ass was found tied, and the foal, was a village, and a village
without a name. For in comparison with the great world in heaven,
the whole earth is a village where the ass is found tied and the colt,
and it is simply called “the village” without any other
designation being added to it. From Bethphage Matthew says the
disciples are sent out who are to fetch the ass and the colt; and
Bethphage is a priestly place, the name of which means “House of
Jaw-bones.” So much we have said, as our power allowed, on
the text of Matthew, reserving for a further opportunity, when we may
be permitted to take up the Gospel of Matthew by itself, a more
complete and accurate discussion of his statements. Mark and Luke
say that the two disciples, acting on their Master’s
instructions, found a foal tied, on which no one had ever sat, and that
they loosed it and brought it to the Lord. Mark adds that they
found the foal tied at the door, outside on the road. But who is
outside? Those of the Gentiles who were strangers5073
from the covenants, and aliens to the
promise of God; they are on the road, not resting under a roof or a
house, bound by their own sins, and to be loosed by the twofold
knowledge spoken of above, of the friends of Jesus. And the bonds
with which the foal was tied, and the sins committed against the
wholesome law and reproved by it,—for it is the gate of
life,—in respect of it, I say, they were not inside but outside
the door, for perhaps inside the door there cannot be any such bond of
wickedness. But there were some persons standing beside the
tied-up foal, as Mark says; those, I suppose, who had tied it; as Luke
records, it was the masters of the foal who said to the disciples, Why
loose ye the foal? For those lords who subjected and bound the
sinner are illegal masters and cannot look the true master in the face
when he frees the foal from its bonds. Thus when the disciples
say, “The Lord hath need of him,” these wicked masters have
nothing to say in reply. The disciples then bring the foal to
Jesus naked, and put their own dress on it, so that the Lord may sit on
the disciples’ garments which are on it, at His ease. What
is said further will not, in the light of Matthew’s statements,
present any difficulty; how5074
“They come to
Jerusalem, and entering into the temple He began to cast out them that
sold and bought in the temple,” or how5075
“When He drew nigh and beheld the city He wept over it; and
entering into the temple He began to cast out them that
sold.” For in some of those who have the temple in
themselves He casts out all that sell and buy in the temple; but in
others who do not quite obey the word of God, He only makes a beginning
of casting out the sellers and buyers. There is a third class
also besides these, in which He began to cast out the sellers only, and
not also the buyers. With John, on the contrary, they are all
cast out by the scourge woven of small cords, along with the sheep and
the oxen. It should be carefully considered whether it is
possible that the changes of the things described and the discrepancies
found in them can be satisfactorily solved by the anagogic
method. Each of the Evangelists ascribes to the Word different
modes of action, which produce in souls of different tempers not the
same effects but yet similar ones. The discrepancy we noticed in
respect of Jesus’ journeys to Jerusalem, which the Gospel now in
hand reports quite differently from the other three, as we have
expounded their words, cannot be made good in any other way. John
gives statements which are similar to those of the other three but not
the same; instead of branches cut from the trees or stubble brought
from the fields and strewed on the road he says they took branches of
palm trees. He says that much people had come to the feast, and
that these went out to meet Him, crying, “Blessed is He that
cometh in the name of the Lord,” and “Blessed is the King
of Israel.” He also says that it was Jesus Himself who
found the young ass on which Christ sat, and the phrase, young ass,
doubtless conveys some additional meaning, as the small animal afforded
a benefit not of men, nor through men, but through Jesus Christ.
John moreover does not, any more than the others, reproduce the
prophetic words exactly; instead of them he gives us “Fear not, O
daughter of Zion; behold thy King cometh sitting” (instead of
“mounted”) “on the foal of an ass” (for
“on an ass and a young foal”). The words “Fear
not, daughter of Zion,” are not in the prophet at all. But
as the prophetic utterance has been applied by all in this way, let us
see if there was not a necessity that the daughter of Zion should
rejoice greatly and that the greater than she, the daughter of Jerusalem,
should not only rejoice greatly but should also proclaim it when her
king was coming to her, just and bringing salvation, and meek, having
mounted an ass and a young colt. Whoever, then, receives Him will
no longer be afraid of those who are armed with the specious discourses
of the heterodox, those chariots of Ephraim said to be destroyed by the
Lord,5076
nor the horse, the vain thing for
safety,5077
that is the mad
desire which has accustomed itself to the things of sense and which is
injurious to many of those who desire to dwell in Jerusalem and to
attend to the sound word. It is also fitting to rejoice at the
destruction by Him who rides on the ass and the young foal of every
hostile dart, since the fiery darts of the enemy are no longer to
prevail over him who has received Jesus to his own temple. And
there will also be a multitude from the Gentiles with peace5078
at the Saviour’s coming to Jerusalem,
when He rules over the waters that He may bruise the head of the dragon
on the water,5079
and we shall tread
upon the waves of the sea and to the mouths of all the rivers on the
earth. Mark, however, writing about the foal,5080
reports the Lord to have said, “On
which never man sat;” and he seems to me to hint at the
circumstance that those who afterwards believed had never submitted to
the Word before Jesus’ coming to them. For of men, perhaps,
no one had ever sate on the foal, but of hearts or of powers alien to
the Word some had sate on it, since in the prophet Isaiah the wealth of
opposing powers is said to be borne on asses and camels.5081
“In the distress and the
affliction,” he writes, “the lion and the lion’s
whelp, whence also the offspring of flying asps, who carried their
riches on asses and camels.” The question occurs again, for
those who have no mind but for the bare words, if according to their
view the words, “on which never man sat,” are not quite
meaningless. For who but a man ever sits on a foal? So much
of our views.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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