Road to the Cross: Meditations for Easterনমুনা

Secret Disciples

Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied. (Luke 19:30)

Imagine I said to you, “Go to the town up ahead, and you will find there, parked at the side of the road, a Dodge Colt automobile. The key is in the ignition. Bring the car back here to me. And if the owners ask what you are doing, just tell them that I need it.” Wouldn’t you ask a few questions? Whose car is this? Are they expecting me? How will they know that you sent me? But the disciples go off on this strange errand with no questions at all.

Whose colt is this? Who are these unnamed owners who so readily give up their own transportation so that Jesus can ride? Jesus had many public followers. But we suspect Jesus also had secret disciples, a network of believers who loved and supported him privately, quietly. People like Joseph of Arimathea, “who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews” (John 19:38).

Sometimes, on the road to Jerusalem, we meet people who, for fear of persecution, or for reasons more complicated than we can imagine, feel that they must hide their faith.

Thank God for public Christians. But not all the heroes of the faith are known to the public. Some people don’t dare to wave a palm branch when Jesus passes by. But on the inside they are shouting, “Hosanna in the highest!” 

Prayer: Lord, help me to be the best disciple I can be.