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Part I– Seeing the Story from the Shadows
When the Curtain Begins to Tear
Why the hidden heroes of the cross and empty tomb matterA Week That Changed Everything
Timeline and setting of the crucifixion and resurrection stories
Part II– Hidden Heroes on the Road to the Cross
The Donkey’s Owner
Lending ordinary things to an extraordinary King
Introduction
You already know this story.
You’ve heard about the Upper Room and the Garden. You’ve watched Pilate wash his hands, seen Peter weep bitterly, stood beside Mary at the foot of the cross. You can almost feel the cool air of the early morning when the stone is rolled away and the risen Christ calls Mary Magdalene by name.
These scenes have shaped our prayers, our worship, our imagination of what God is like. But if you linger in the story long enough, you begin to notice the faces at the edge of the frame.
A nameless man carrying a water jar through crowded streets.
A governor’s wife who wakes from a disturbing dream and sends a note: “Have nothing to do with that righteous man.”
A thief on a neighboring cross, who has wasted almost everything—and uses his last breaths to whisper, “Remember me.”
Most of them don’t get much airtime in sermons. They are not the “main characters.” They speak one sentence, or none at all. They walk across the stage for a verse or two and then disappear.
And yet, the Holy Spirit saw fit to write them into Scripture.
This book is my attempt to linger with them—to listen for what their quiet, hidden lives reveal about Jesus, and about us.
Why “Hidden Heroes?”
Calling them “heroes” does not mean they did everything right. Many of them were confused, late, afraid, conflicted, or caught in the middle of events they could not control. Some were on the “wrong side” of the story at first. A few never even speak to Jesus.
But in each of these lives, something crucial happens at the very point where our story intersects with His:
The man drafted to carry a stranger’s cross discovers he is walking closer to the Messiah than he ever imagined.
The women who can only stand and watch become the ones who know exactly where His body is laid and so are first to understand what it means when the tomb is empty.
The centurion who thought he had seen it all realizes he has just witnessed something holy.
Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, who followed in secret, find courage at last when it looks like courage can’t change anything.
They are “hidden heroes” not because they are flawless, but because their small, imperfect responses to Jesus show us something big and beautiful: What matters most is not how prominent you are, or how polished your story is, but how you respond when Jesus passes through your life.
For most of us, discipleship does not look like leading a movement or writing a gospel. It looks more like:
Doing a simple job on an ordinary day, only to find God has woven our route into His purposes.
Offering a gift others call wasteful, and hearing Jesus call it beautiful.
Standing near someone else’s suffering when we can’t fix it.
Admitting we were wrong, even if it’s late.
Letting our hearts be moved when we would rather go numb.
In that sense, every reader of this book has at least one hidden hero whose story is already quietly echoing your own.
What This Book Is—and Isn’t
This book focuses on Holy Week, the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, told through the eyes of the people who usually stand in the shadows of the story.
It will not try to retell every detail. You won’t find a complete harmony of the gospels here. Peter, Pilate, Judas, Mary the mother of Jesus, and the other “major characters” still matter deeply—but they are not the center of this unique journey. Instead, we will walk beside the so-called “supporting cast,” the ones who often slip past our attention when we read quickly:
The owner of a donkey
The women at the cross and at the tomb
Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus
The Emmaus travelers, Thomas, and others at the edge of the empty tomb story
Each chapter is built around one of these lives. You’ll notice a pattern.
We begin with an opening reflection that starts right where you live—in hospital waiting rooms, staff meetings, long drives home, family conversations—because the same issues that surface in them surface in the Passion story: regret, fear, confusion, courage, doubt, late obedience, costly love.
Then we step into the text itself, looking at what the gospels actually say about each person. We explore the scene, the context, and the “moment” where their story intersects with Jesus’ journey to the cross or out of the tomb.
From there, we ask two main questions:
What does this hidden life reveal about Jesus?
The real star of every chapter is still Christ. These supporting characters are like facets in a diamond, helping us see His justice, mercy, sovereignty, tenderness, and courage in fresh angles.What does this hidden life reveal about us?
Their struggles are our struggles. Their mistakes are uncomfortably familiar. Their responses—good and bad—can comfort, confront, and guide us as we follow Jesus in our own time and place.
Along the way, each chapter ends with space to “bring it home”—questions for reflection or conversation, and a closing prayer you can make your own.
This is not meant to be a scholarly commentary, though we will pay careful attention to the text. It is also not meant to be a sentimental retelling that smooths out all the rough edges. My hope is that it will be an honest journey: grounded in Scripture, attentive to the real human beings in the story, and honest about the real human beings we are.
How to Use This Book
You can read these chapters straight through, the way you might read any book, and follow the flow from Palm Sunday to the empty tomb.
You can use this in a “book club” format where you discuss the details of each hidden hero and learn from other fellow travelers in this hero’s journey. Each chapter section is numbered for easy reference during a group discussion.
You can also use them devotionally:
as a Lenten or Holy Week companion,
as a small-group study,
or as a way to slow down and sit with familiar passages from a slightly different angle.
Read with a Bible open. Let the Scripture itself have the first and last word. If a particular character’s story tugs at you more than the others, don’t rush past it. Sit with it. Ask the Spirit what He wants to show you there.
You may find that certain chapters resonate more in certain seasons of your life:
When you’re carrying burdens you never chose, Simon of Cyrene may feel like a friend.
When you are haunted by late regret, Joseph and Nicodemus may offer unexpected comfort.
When you are hurt by people who claim to follow Jesus, Malchus might have something to say.
When you feel like your only ministry is “being there,” the Galilean women at a distance may validate that calling.
When you fear you’ve waited too long to turn back toward God, the penitent thief will be waiting beside you.
Let these stories meet you where you live now—not where you think you should be.
A Word to the “Hidden Ones”
If there is a thread that ties all these chapters together, it is this: the God who saved the world through the cross and the empty tomb loves to work through people who are not in the spotlight.
He sees servants and soldiers, caregivers and questioners, people with mixed motives and shaky courage. He sees the ones who show up late, or quiet, or unsure. He sees the ones who feel like they are always at the edge of the room, the back of the crowd, the outskirts of the story.
You may feel like that in your own life of faith:
You’re not the preacher, the worship leader, the “super Christian.”
You are the one in the nursery, the sound booth, or the kitchen.
You are the one sitting beside a hospital bed, the one sending quiet texts, the one praying in the night for people who will never know.
If that’s you, I hope this book will feel like home. Because if the Passion and Resurrection story teaches us anything, it is that Jesus does some of His most beautiful work in the lives of people who assumed they were background characters.
There are no extras in the kingdom of God.
As you read, my prayer is that you will see three things more clearly:
Jesus Himself– more compelling, more tender, more just, more mysterious and merciful than you remembered.
The hidden heroes of Scripture– not as distant figures, but as fellow travelers whose stories still matter.
Your own place in God’s story– not as an afterthought, but as a beloved, called, seen disciple whose small acts of faithfulness are woven into something much larger than you can see.
The cross and the empty tomb are not just events we remember. They are the landscape we walk in every day. Somewhere along that road, you will find yourself in the reflection of a donkey’s owner, a centurion, a grieving woman, a fearful council member, a repentant thief.
When you do, listen closely.
The same Jesus who met them in their moment stands ready to meet you in yours.
Part I – Seeing the Story from the Shadows
Chapter 1: When the Curtain Begins to Tear
Why the Hidden Heroes of the Cross and Empty Tomb Matter
1. Opening Story: The People You Never See
If you stay long enough after a church service or a play, you notice something: when the crowd goes home, the real workers come out.
Someone is stacking chairs. Someone is coiling cables. Someone is wiping fingerprints off glass doors or scrubbing a mysterious stain out of the carpet. They aren’t on the stage. Their names aren’t printed in the program. Most people will never know they were there. But if they hadn’t done what they did, the “main event” would have fallen apart.
The story of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection is like that.
We know the names printed in bold: Jesus. Peter. Judas. Pilate. Mary Magdalene. But in the shadows of those scenes are people whose obedience, questions, courage, and even failures quietly shaped the story we know so well.
This book is about them—the ones we usually walk past on our way to the “main” characters. The ones who show up briefly, often unnamed, and then disappear… but not before God weaves their small, ordinary choices into His great saving work.
2. Scripture Window: A Tearing Curtain and a Watching Centurion
“Behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom. The earth quaked and the rocks were split… Now the centurion and those who were with him… said, ‘Truly this was the Son of God.’” (Matthew 27:51, 54)
At the very center of the crucifixion story, two things happen almost at once:
In the temple, a heavy curtain tears from top to bottom—God’s own sign that the distance between Himself and His people is being torn open.
At Golgotha, a hardened Roman centurion, who has seen countless men die, suddenly sees this death differently and confesses, “Truly this was the Son of God.”
One sign happens in the holiest place on earth. The other sign comes from a nameless Gentile soldier.
The torn curtain shouts from heaven. The centurion whispers from the margins.
Both matter.
Hidden heroes live in that space—where God quietly tears curtains and opens eyes, and where ordinary people on the edges suddenly see what’s really happening.
3. The Curtain and the Edges of the Story
When we read the passion and resurrection narratives, we tend to stand in the middle of the stage.
We follow Jesus’ last supper with the Twelve.
We trail behind Him into Gethsemane.
We watch His trial before Pilate.
We run to the empty tomb with Peter and John.
But if we step back a bit, we start to notice the edges of the scene:
An unnamed donkey’s owner who lets his animal be taken “because the Lord needs it.”
A woman with an alabaster jar who spends a year’s wages in one extravagant moment of love.
A man carrying a water jar whose simple obedience leads the disciples to the Upper Room.
Women who watch from a distance, refusing to leave when most of the men run.
None of them deliver a sermon at Pentecost.
None of them write a New Testament letter.
But without them, the story would look very different.
The torn curtain is more than a dramatic event; it’s a symbol of what God is doing everywhere in this story. He is pulling back the fabric we thought separated “important people” from “unimportant people,” “holy places” from “common places,” “central characters” from “background characters.”
The curtain begins to tear—and suddenly we realize the people on the edges were never really on the edges.
4. Who Are the “Hidden Heroes”?
When we talk about Hidden Heroes of Holy Week, we’re not talking about:
Sinless saints who always got it right
Spiritual celebrities with perfect faith
People who knew they were making history
We’re talking about people who:
Acted in obscurity– Their names, if given at all, are easy to miss.
Carried small assignments– A jar of water. A borrowed room. A moment of courage.
Wrestled with fear or confusion– Doubters, outsiders, servants, soldiers.
Intersected with Jesus at crucial moments– A single decision, a short conversation, a brief encounter that God quietly wove into the great saving story.
They are unassuming and almost invisible because we don’t always notice them.
They are heroes because God does.
Hidden heroes are not the center of the story—Jesus is. But they show us how ordinary lives line up with an extraordinary Savior in ways that matter far more than they ever realized.
5. Why the Hidden Heroes Matter Now
Why spend a whole book on these shadow-side characters? Because most of us live there.
Most disciples will never:
Preach to thousands,
Write a book of the Bible,
Or have a church named after them.
But most of us will:
Raise a child, care for a spouse, or sit with a dying friend.
Serve behind the scenes at church when no one is watching.
Say a small, costly “yes” to Jesus when it would be easier to say “no.”
· Offer what little we have and quietly wonder if it really matters.
The hidden heroes of Holy Week tell us at least three crucial truths:
1. God sees what others miss.
The gospel writers were not careless. If they mentioned someone—even briefly—it’s because the Holy Spirit wanted them in the story.
2. There are no background roles in the kingdom.
Every act of obedience, every tear, every question, every simple resource offered—God can stitch into a saving story.
3. Jesus does His greatest work surrounded by ordinary people.
He hangs on the cross between criminals.
He is buried by two hesitant, secret disciples.
He rises and first reveals Himself not to rulers, but to grieving women and doubting men.
If God chose those people to stand that close to the most important moments in history, maybe our obscure lives are closer to holy ground than we think.
6. Becoming a Hidden Hero
This book will walk through Holy Week and beyond, one hidden hero at a time. As we journey, you’ll notice some patterns—qualities shared by many of them.
Hidden heroes:
Offer what they have.
A room. A jar. A donkey. A tomb. A strong back beneath a cross.Obey when they don’t understand.
“Go into the city… you’ll see a man with a water jar…”
“Tell the owner, ‘The Lord needs it.’”Stay near Jesus when others pull away.
Women at the cross, disciples on the road to Emmaus, doubters who still keep showing up.Let Jesus redefine them.
A thief becomes a citizen of paradise.
A centurion becomes a confessor of Christ.
A fearful secret disciple steps into public courage.
As you read, I invite you not just to learn about these hidden heroes, but to recognize yourself in them.
Maybe you’re like Simon of Cyrene, feeling forced into a burden you didn’t choose.
Maybe you’re like Pilate’s wife, sensing something spiritually significant that others ignore.
Maybe you’re like the women at the tomb, faithful but heartbroken, doing “spice-bearing” work for a Lord you think you’ve lost.
In each chapter, we’ll ask:
What does this hidden hero show us about Jesus, and what does it reveal about the quiet ways we can join His story today?
7. Questions for Reflection and Conversation
When you think of the crucifixion and resurrection, which major characters come to mind first? Which minor characters have you rarely noticed?
Do you tend to think of your own life as “center stage” or “background”? How has that shaped your sense of calling or worth?
Can you remember a time when a small, almost invisible act by someone made a huge difference in your life? How might God use similar acts through you?
Where in your current season do you feel “hidden”—unseen, uncelebrated, or overlooked? What might it mean to see that place as holy ground?
8. Closing Prayer
Jesus,
You wrote the story of salvation surrounded by people the world barely noticed.
Tear the curtains in my own heart—the ones that say only big; public moments matter.
Open my eyes to the sacred weight of small obediences.
Teach me to live as a hidden hero in Your hands, content to be unseen as long as You are known. – Amen
Chapter 2: A Week That Changed Everything
Timeline and setting of the crucifixion and resurrection stories
1. Opening Story: “It All Happened So Fast…”
Ask anyone who has lived through a crisis or a miracle, and they’ll often say the same thing:
“It all happened so fast.”
Later, when they tell the story, they slow it down. They replay the conversations, the phone calls, the tiny decisions that led to the moment when everything changed. What felt like a blur in real time becomes a series of scenes when they look back: this room, that person, this sentence, that turning point.
Holy Week is like that.
In our churches, we often move from palm branches to an empty tomb in a matter of minutes. One Sunday we shout “Hosanna!” and the very next Sunday we proclaim, “He is risen!” In between, we might pause briefly at the cross on Good Friday—but the week itself can feel like a blur: triumph, tension, betrayal, trials, crucifixion, silence, surprise.
If you had asked the disciples to describe that week as it happened, many of them might have said, “It all happened so fast.” But when the gospel writers look back, they slow everything down.
They take us day by day, scene by scene, into:
Crowded streets and quiet upper rooms
Noisy courtyards and silent gardens
Public showdowns and private conversations
And as the camera lingers, we start to notice what we missed when it was all a blur—hidden heroes stepping into and out of the frame, sometimes for only a verse or two, yet standing very close to the saving work of God.
This chapter is our way of slowing the week down. We won’t retell every detail. But we will sketch the locations, trace the days, and point out where the “background” people quietly walk onto the stage.
2. Scripture Window: The Center of the Week
“For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.” (1 Corinthians 15:3–4)
Paul gives us the heart of the week in three short movements:
Christ died
He was buried
He was raised
The gospels stretch those three lines across several days and several locations. They slow the story down, not to add drama, but to help us see how God works through places, times, and ordinary people.
As we walk through this overview, pay attention to who is standing just outside the spotlight.
3. The Map: Where This Week Unfolds
Before we trace the days, picture the places:
Jerusalem– A city swollen with Passover pilgrims from all over the known world, buzzing with religious expectation and political tension. Every street is crowded; every conversation feels charged.
The Temple Mount– The beating religious heart of Israel, where sacrifices are offered, prayers are spoken, and power struggles simmer. Here Jesus teaches, confronts leaders, heals the broken, and overturns tables.
Bethany and the Mount of Olives– Home base for Jesus during this week, just outside the city. He eats with friends in Bethany, spends nights on the Mount of Olives, and weeps over Jerusalem from its slopes.
The Upper Room– A borrowed space somewhere inside the city, prepared by unnamed hands, where Jesus shares Passover with His disciples, washes their feet, and speaks at length about love, the Spirit, and what is coming.
Gethsemane– A garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives, where Jesus wrestles in prayer, His disciples fall asleep, and a crowd arrives with lanterns, swords, and a kiss of betrayal.
The High Priest’s Courtyard– A chilly night space lit by a charcoal fire, where Peter warms himself, a servant girl asks unsettling questions, and fear pushes a friend into denial.
Pilate’s Headquarters– Where Roman authority and Jewish leaders face off; where truth stands before power; where a governor tries to wash his hands of responsibility he cannot escape.
Golgotha (“The Place of a Skull”)– Outside the city walls, the place of public execution where Rome does its brutal work and where, in apparent defeat, the Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world.
A Nearby Garden with a New Tomb– Owned by a wealthy council member, offered by a secret disciple; a place of hurried burial on Friday and quiet waiting on Saturday.
The Empty Tomb– Guarded by soldiers, visited by women at dawn, entered by breathless disciples, and finally recognized as the doorway of a new creation.
The Road to Emmaus– A dusty path away from Jerusalem, where two discouraged disciples walk with a stranger who opens the Scriptures and breaks bread.
These locations are the “stage.” Our hidden heroes slip in and out of these spaces—often unnamed, always important.
4. The Week, Day by Day (with Hidden Heroes in the Wings)
Scholars differ on some of the exact details, but a widely accepted outline of the week looks something like this. Notice the hidden heroes in each scene.
Sunday– The King on a Borrowed Donkey
Jesus enters Jerusalem riding on a young donkey.
Hidden Hero: the donkey’s owner, who lets his animal go simply because the disciples say, “The Lord needs it.”
Crowds wave branches and shout “Hosanna!”
Children cry out in the temple courts, receiving Jesus’ praise and the leaders’ scorn.
The week begins with borrowed transportation and the voices of little ones.
Monday– Tables Turned and Eyes Watching
Jesus returns to the temple and overturns the tables of money changers.
The courts are crowded: priests, merchants, worshipers, tired travelers, curious onlookers.
Sick and broken people come near; children cry out in the temple again.
Hidden heroes here are mostly unnamed: the ones healed that day, the children who keep singing when adults want them quiet, the quiet observers who see both corruption and courage up close.
Tuesday– Questions, Traps, and Long Conversations
This is a long day of teaching and confrontation.
Religious leaders question Jesus about authority, taxes, resurrection, and the greatest commandment.
Jesus tells parables about tenants, weddings, and watchfulness.
He warns about hypocrisy and speaks of coming judgment and future hope.
In the background:
A nameless scribe is commended for being “not far from the kingdom.”
A poor widow drops two small coins into the temple treasury—a hidden hero whose quiet generosity becomes a timeless example.
People in the crowd listen, weigh, and whisper, not knowing how close they stand to the turning point of history.
Wednesday– Plots, Perfume, and Quiet Decisions
This day is sometimes called “Silent Wednesday,” but Scripture shows us that important decisions are being made.
Religious leaders plot to arrest Jesus “by stealth.”
In Bethany, a woman breaks an alabaster jar and pours expensive perfume on Jesus.
She becomes one of the great hidden heroes of the week:
She sees what others do not—that Jesus is worthy of extravagant love and that His death is near.
Others criticize; Jesus defends her and promises that wherever the gospel is preached, her act will be remembered.
Meanwhile, Judas quietly agrees to betray Jesus for money.
Not every decisive act this week is heroic. Some are tragic.
Thursday– A Borrowed Room and a Basin of Water
Preparations are made for the Passover meal.
Hidden Hero: a man carrying a water jar, whose simple obedience leads the disciples to the right house.
An unnamed homeowner offers an upper room—another quiet act of hospitality that becomes the setting for the Last Supper.
In that room:
Jesus washes His disciples’ feet, including the feet of the one who will betray Him.
He breaks bread and shares the cup, reinterpreting Passover around His own body and blood.
He speaks of love, the coming Holy Spirit, and the grief and joy to come.
Later, in Gethsemane:
Jesus prays in agony while His friends struggle to stay awake.
A crowd arrives with torches and weapons.
Hidden hero: a servant named Malchus, whose ear is cut off by a frightened disciple and healed by the very man he came to arrest.
Friday– Crosses, Crowds, and a Centurion’s Confession
This is the day of crucifixion.
Jesus is dragged from hearing to hearing: the high priest, the council, Pilate, Herod, back to Pilate.
Hidden hero: Pilate’s wife, disturbed by a dream, sends a message, “Have nothing to do with that righteous man.”
A criminal named Barabbas is released instead of Jesus.
On the road to Golgotha:
Hidden hero: Simon of Cyrene, pulled from the crowd to carry the cross. What feels forced may become the moment that changes his family forever.
At the cross:
Soldiers gamble for clothing and mock the condemned.
Two criminals hang on either side of Jesus; one turns to Him in a last-minute plea and receives a promise of paradise.
Women stand at a distance, watching, refusing to leave.
When Jesus dies:
The temple curtain tears from top to bottom.
The earth shakes.
Hidden hero: a Roman centurion, who has watched many men die, suddenly sees this death differently and confesses, “Truly this was the Son of God.”
Friday Evening and Saturday– A Tomb, Spices, and Silence
As Sabbath approaches:
Hidden hero: Joseph of Arimathea, a respected council member, courageously asks for Jesus’ body.
Hidden hero: Nicodemus, who once came to Jesus at night, brings a large mixture of myrrh and aloes.
Together they wrap the body and place it in a new tomb in a garden.
Women watch to see where He is laid. Spices are prepared. A stone is rolled in place. A guard is posted.
Saturday is quiet on the surface—Sabbath rest, closed shops, hushed homes.
But God is not idle. The story is turning under the silence.
Sunday– Spices, Startled Hearts, and an Empty Tomb
At dawn on the first day of the week:
Women carrying spices come to finish what they began at the burial.
Hidden heroes: these spice-bearing women, first at the tomb, first to hear the news, first commissioned to tell the others.
They find the stone rolled away and hear the angels’ announcement: “He is not here, but is risen.”
Soon after:
Mary Magdalene, overwhelmed with grief, mistakes the risen Jesus for the gardener—until He speaks her name.
Two discouraged disciples on the road to Emmaus meet a stranger who opens the Scriptures and later breaks bread with them. They run back to Jerusalem with burning hearts and a new story.
Thomas, absent from the first gathering and insistent on evidence, becomes a late but vital witness whose honest doubt leads to one of the clearest confessions of faith: “My Lord and my God.”
By the end of this week, the religious and political powers think they have finished with Jesus. But God has only just begun to call hidden heroes out of the shadows.
5. Why the Timeline and Setting Matter for Hidden Heroes
Seeing this week in slow motion helps us notice a few things.
• God weaves small people into big days.
A donkey’s owner, a man with a water jar, a servant with a wounded ear—each appears at a hinge moment in the story. They never preach a sermon. They never lead a movement. Yet Scripture remembers them, because God used their ordinary lives at extraordinary moments.
• Holy moments often look ordinary at the time.
Carrying a jar, lending a room, buying spices, standing guard—none of these feel particularly “spiritual.” They are everyday tasks in crowded cities and quiet homes. Yet they all end up standing very close to the saving work of God. We often recognize holy ground only in hindsight.
• Place and time shape courage.
The same Jerusalem that cheers on Sunday is hostile by Friday. The same courtyard that warms Peter by its fire also exposes his fear. Hidden heroes are not superhuman; they are people trying to navigate crowded streets, tense courts, and silent Sabbaths with faith and faltering hearts.
• God works in public and in secret at the same time.
While leaders plot and crowds shout, God is moving in dreams, in private conversations, in back rooms, in gardens, in borrowed spaces. Hidden heroes often stand in those quieter places—where history is turning and they don’t yet know it.
Taken together, the timeline and the setting remind us: In every generation, God still writes His story into ordinary weeks, ordinary places, and ordinary lives.
6. Questions for Reflection and Conversation
When you picture Holy Week, which day or scene do you feel most connected to right now—and why?
In this week’s outline, which hidden hero intrigues you the most? What about their situation feels familiar in your own life?
Where do you spend most of your time—home, work, church, commute, online spaces? How might those become your “Upper Room,” “Gethsemane,” or “Emmaus Road”?
If someone slowed down this week of your life and told it like a gospel story, what small act of faithfulness might God choose to mention?
7. Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus,
You entered a crowded city and a crowded week, and every street, room, and garden became holy ground.
Teach me to see my own days the same way. In my ordinary places, among ordinary people, open my eyes to the quiet work You are doing and the small part You invite me to play.
Lead me, step by step, through this week with You, that I may become a faithful witness in the shadows. – Amen
Part II – Hidden Heroes on the Road to the Cross
Chapter 3: The Donkey’s Owner
Lending Ordinary Things to an Extraordinary King
1. Opening Story: “Can I Borrow Your Truck?”
If you own a truck, you also own half the neighborhood’s moving company.
“Hey, could I borrow your truck this Saturday?”
“It’s just a quick run across town.”
“We’ll bring it right back.”
There’s a little risk in every yes.
What if they scratch it?
What if they’re late?
What if they’re harder on it than you would be?
Most of the time, we still say yes. Why?
Because people matter more than things.
Because we’ve all needed help ourselves.
Because relationships are more valuable than paint jobs and tailgates.
Now imagine a knock at your door and two strangers say, “We’re taking your car. The Lord needs it.”
No contract. No background story. No promise of when—or if—you’ll see it again.
Somewhere just outside Jerusalem, an ordinary owner of an ordinary animal faces that kind of moment. Strangers begin untying his young donkey—a valuable piece of his family’s livelihood. They offer one simple explanation: “The Lord needs it.” And for reasons he may not fully understand; he lets them go.
That quiet, everyday yes becomes part of Jesus’ final, deliberate ride into Jerusalem as Israel’s King. The crowds will wave branches and shout “Hosanna,” but none of that happens without a small decision made by a person whose name we will never know.
This is the story of the donkey’s owner—a hidden hero who shows us what it looks like to hold our ordinary resources with open hands when Jesus says, “I need that.”
2. Scripture Window: “The Lord Needs It”
When they came near to Bethsphage and Bethany, at the mountain that is called Olivet, he sent two of his disciples, saying, ‘Go your way into the village on the other side, in which, as you enter, you will find a colt tied, which no man has ever sat upon. Untie it and bring it. If anyone asks you, “Why are you untying it?” say to him: “The Lord needs it.”’ …As they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, ‘Why are you untying the colt?’ They said, ‘The Lord needs it.’ Then they brought it to Jesus… (Luke 19:29–35a)
In a story full of shouting crowds and waving branches, the camera quietly pauses on a small exchange:
A tied colt
Some puzzled owners
A simple explanation: “The Lord needs it.”
An unrecorded response that must have been yes, because the next line is: “Then they brought it to Jesus.”
We never learn the owners’ names. We never see their faces. We only see their decision.
Hidden-hero work often looks exactly like this: a brief interruption, a confusing request, a quiet yes.
3. The Scene: A Village, a Colt, and a King
It’s the beginning of the week we now call Holy Week.
Jerusalem is swollen with Passover pilgrims. Tents and lodgings are packed. The air hums with prayer, song, and political tension. Everyone is hoping God will do something big; many are hoping God will do something political.
Just outside the city, near the Mount of Olives, sit two villages: Bethany and Bethsphage—places where Jesus has friends, history, and hospitality. From there, He is about to make a deliberate, symbolic entry into Jerusalem, fulfilling a prophecy Israel has cherished for centuries:
Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion!
Shout, daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your King comes to you!
He is righteous, and having salvation;
lowly, and riding on a donkey,
even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
(Zechariah 9:9 WEB)
Kings normally rode war horses.
Jesus chooses a young donkey—a humble beast of burden, not a war machine.
There’s only one practical problem: Jesus doesn’t own a donkey.
To fulfill this prophecy and make the statement He intends to make, He will borrow one.
So, He sends two disciples: “You’ll find a colt tied… Untie it and bring it. If anyone asks, ‘Why are you untying the colt?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it.’”
Some readers imagine this was prearranged; others see it as a display of Jesus’ prophetic knowledge. Either way, real people watch strangers untying their animal. Real people feel the jolt of, “Hey, that’s ours.” Real people have to decide whether to hold tight or let go.
This isn’t a disposable item. In that culture, livestock equals wealth. A colt means transportation, work, income, status, future. You don’t casually hand it over...
Unless you believe the One who needs it is worth everything.
4. The Hidden Hero’s Moment: Letting Go
Luke writes, “its owners said… ‘Why are you untying the colt?’”
Owners—plural. Maybe a family. Maybe siblings. Maybe a household.
The disciples answer with the one sentence Jesus gave them: “The Lord needs it.” That’s all.
No detailed explanation.
No return-by date.
No “we’ll replace it if anything happens.”
Luke doesn’t narrate an argument, a bargaining session, or a suspicious delay. He simply moves on: “Then they brought it to Jesus…”
Between “The Lord needs it” and “Then they brought it to Jesus” lies a decision that changed the shape of the day.
The owners could have said:
“The Lord can’t have it; we need it.”
“If He needs a colt, He can buy one Himself.”
“Who are you, anyway? Show me some ID.”
Instead, they let go.
We don’t know whether they had heard Jesus teach, or saw a miracle, or only knew rumors. We don’t know if they were skeptics, half-convinced, or fully devoted. We only know this: When the Lord’s need bumped into their property, they opened their hands.
That is hidden-hero obedience.
5. Theology from a Borrowed Donkey
This tiny story quietly teaches us some big truths about Jesus and about ourselves.
a. The King Who Chooses to “Need”
Jesus is the One through whom all things were made. He could have created a colt on the spot if He wished.
Instead, He chooses to place Himself in a position of need—depending on something ordinary from ordinary people. That’s not a one-time quirk; it’s a pattern:
He eats Passover in a borrowed upper room.
He preaches from borrowed boats.
He multiplies borrowed bread and fish.
He is buried in a borrowed tomb.
Again and again, the Lord of all creation limits Himself in such a way that He works with what people already have rather than around them.
He doesn’t just want to do things for His people; He delights to do things with them, through them, and using what they are willing to release.
b. Stewardship: Everything Is “On Loan” Anyway
From heaven’s perspective, the donkey already belongs to the Lord.
The earth is Yahweh’s, with its fullness;
the world, and those who dwell therein.
(Psalm 24:1 WEB)
God could have simply claimed it. Instead, He honors the owners as stewards. He lets them participate in His plan by making a choice:
Will I cling to this animal as my possession?
Or will I recognize that I’m holding it on behalf of Someone greater?
When the disciples say, “The Lord needs it,” they are not making a spiritualized cash grab. They are naming a deeper truth: What you ‘own’ is already part of a larger story.
c. Prophecy and Partnership
Jesus is fulfilling Zechariah’s prophecy.
The King is coming to Zion, gentle and riding on a donkey. He could have done that in a dozen miraculous ways. Instead, He weaves a family’s willingness into the fulfillment of Scripture.
Prophecy isn’t only God showing off His foreknowledge.
It is God inviting ordinary people into the script He has already written. The donkey’s owners walk into a prophetic moment without fanfare. There’s no verse that says, “Blessed are these faithful stewards.” Yet every Palm Sunday, when believers picture Jesus riding into Jerusalem, those unnamed owners are standing somewhere in the background, having simply said yes.
6. What the Donkey’s Owner Teaches Us
This hidden hero whispers some gentle but challenging truths to us.
a. Your “Small Stuff” May Be Carrying Great Weight
To the owners, the colt is:
Transportation
Work animal
Asset
To Jesus, the colt is:
A prophetic sign
A living picture of the kind of King He is
The way He will publicly enter Jerusalem as Messiah
What feels small or purely practical to you may be the very thing Jesus wants to use for a much larger purpose.
A spare room can become an upper room.
A simple meal can become a moment of holy hospitality.
A daily commute can become a place of intercession.
A quiet gift can unlock ministry for someone else.
You rarely see the full weight your “small stuff” is carrying.
b. You Often Hear the Call Before You Have the Details
“The Lord needs it” is not an explanation; it’s an invitation.
The owners do not know:
How long Jesus will use the colt
How far He will ride
What will happen in Jerusalem
What this moment will mean for history
Obedience often begins with unclear logistics but a clear sense: Jesus is asking for this.
Hidden heroes don’t wait for complete explanations. They move on the clarity they do have: The Lord needs this from me right now.
c. Letting Go Is Part of Following
To say yes, the owners have to accept at least three losses:
Loss of control– The colt is no longer in their yard.
Loss of security– There’s no guarantee they’ll see it again.
Loss of schedule– Whatever they had planned for that day just changed.
Letting go is rarely painless. But when what you release ends up carrying Jesus more visibly into the world, the loss becomes a kind of joy.
d. You May Never Know the Outcome This Side of Heaven
We are not told:
Whether the owners watched the procession
Whether they heard the crowds shout “Hosanna!”
Whether they recognized their colt under the Messiah
Whether they later became followers of Jesus after the resurrection
They may have died never realizing how often their small yes would be re-told in Christian memory.
Hidden heroes frequently obey without seeing the full fruit.
But God sees.
God remembers.
God weaves every yes into His story.
7. Bringing It Home: “The Lord Needs It” in Your Life
What might “The Lord needs it” sound like in your world?
It probably won’t involve a young donkey and palm branches. It might sound more like:
“The Lord needs this extra hour of your evening to call someone who’s lonely.”
“The Lord needs your spare room to shelter someone in transition.”
“The Lord needs your listening ear in this hospital room.”
“The Lord needs your skill with spreadsheets for a ministry that’s drowning in disorganization.”
“The Lord needs your savings to fuel a mission you may never personally visit.”
You and I will never be asked to hand over livestock for Messiah’s ride into Jerusalem. But we will be asked, again and again, to hold our time, money, gifts, and plans as available instead of untouchable.
So, the question is not only, “Do I believe in Jesus?” It is also, “Can Jesus interrupt how I use what I have?”
Somewhere in your life right now, the Spirit may be nudging: “Loosen your grip on that. The Lord needs it.”
You may not know the full story on the other side of your yes. You don’t need to. The donkey’s owner didn’t. It was enough to know who was asking.
8. Questions for Reflection and Conversation
When you picture the donkey’s owners watching strangers untie their colt, what emotions rise in you—suspicion, curiosity, fear, trust? Why?
What are some “colts” in your life—ordinary resources, skills, spaces, or schedules—that feel obviously “yours”? How might God be inviting you to hold them more loosely?
Can you recall a time when saying yes to a small, inconvenient request ended up mattering more than you expected? What did you learn about God from that experience?
Is there an area right now where you sense the Spirit whispering, “The Lord needs it”—your time, attention, finances, or comfort? What would it look like to respond like the donkey’s owner?
Read Luke 19:28–40 slowly. Where do you see humility in Jesus, and where do you see courage? How might those two traits work together in your own discipleship?
9. Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus,
You are the King who chose to ride a borrowed colt. You are not ashamed to need what little I have.
Today, if You whisper, “The Lord needs it,” give me the courage to open my hands. Loosen my grip on plans, possessions, and comfort. Let even the ordinary things in my life become a way for You to ride more clearly into the world around me.
Make me faithful in small, hidden obediences—content that You see what others never will. – Amen