Saying, Go ye into the village against you; in the which at your entering ye shall find a colt tied, whereon yet never man sat. Loose him and bring him to me. Luke 19:30
As my five year old grandson climbed out of the pool after a vigorous swim-team workout, I asked his coach if it was a little early to book the boy’s admission as a competitor in the 2025 Olympic Games. The coach grinned and admitted it’s a little early for that. At the same time, we both looked at Jonah and realized that there is no real reason to dismiss the possibility entirely. He is a strong, healthy boy, well in advance of his years in swimming ability, so there is every reason to believe that as he gets older and bigger that he will do as well as he wants in the pool. At this point, we can look ahead and see that there is potential there. Just like the Lord Jesus could see the potential in an untamed little donkey. And in us.
The Lord Jesus knew what He would do with the donkey. He was fully aware of the attention that the small beast would receive as he carried the King of Kings into Jerusalem. Jesus had only two requirements to make the donkey ready to be His mount for His entry to the city. The donkey needed to be loosed from the place where he was tied. And he needed to be brought to the Lord Jesus. The same two requirements apply to us if we are to realize our potential for our Lord. It did not matter to Jesus that the donkey was unbroken, or that it had no experience in crowds, or anything else. All that was needed was ‘loose him and bring him to Me’.
Before you and I can amount to anything in our spiritual life, there are things that we need to be loosed from. Like the donkey, we need to be untied from our old haunts and companions. The things of the world that meant so much to us in our former days need to be cast aside if we are to make any progress. We also need to be untied from our own ideas and opinions, inasmuch as they clash with the truths of the Word of God. And we need to be untied from our fears and self-imposed limitations. We can be whatever our Lord will make of us, if only we will allow him to do so.
And that brings us to the second requirement for realizing our spiritual potential. As we read the Gospels, we find a number of people who were brought to the Lord Jesus, and the encounter caused a dramatic change in them. Whether it is a man whose sins are forgiven when his friends drop him through a roof, or a blind man who cries for mercy from the Son of David, or a demoniac delivered, or any of dozens more, no life is left unchanged by an encounter with Christ. The potential that is unleashed from such an encounter cannot be imagined, only experienced.
If being loosened from our past opens up a way to achieve our full potential, an encounter with our Lord produces the power to achieve that potential. -Jim MacIntosh