A Review of The Donkey who carried a King by R.C. Sproul

This is another of Sproul’s clever stories within a story, the wisdom coming from the family patriarch, the grandfather who seeks to address Reilly, his grandson, who is upset because he was the last child picked to play sports at school

Sproul creates Davey, a young donkey, as Reilly’s parallel character who has never been chosen to do anything. Davey learns the story of the infamous donkey, the great unnamed hero who carried Balaam on his journey to speak against God’s people, hundreds of years earlier. Balaam’s donkey sees an angel, halts in the road, and rebukes his master for whipping him. “What have I done to you that you have hit me?” he turns his head and asks. Balaam realizes that God stopped the donkey to forbid him to prophesy against Israel. Now, that’s a famous donkey.

Then Davey learns the fictitious story about the donkey who carried Jesus and his family back to Bethlehem after they fled Egypt. Finally, Davey who has never been chosen for any job, is chosen to carry King Jesus into Jerusalem. Afterward, his pride takes over and he doesn’t want to do ordinary tasks. His bad attitude continues until he sees bruised and beaten Jesus carrying his cross before he is crucified. At this, Davey becomes a kindly, servant donkey full of remorse for the dying king he had carried into Jerusalem. The story ends with why Jesus carried the cross and carried our sins, and why He died in our place and was resurrected.

At this juncture the story stumbles. Reilly tells his grandfather that he will choose to serve God and do whatever he is asked to do, which fits with Davey’s change of heart, but does not address the problem at the beginning of the story. If the story began with Reilly moping or refusing to do an unwanted task, it would fit, but that is not Reilly’s problem. Reilly feels ashamed when he is chosen last for athletic games. Wise children will see that the ending doesn’t correlate to the beginning.

What if Reilly had said, “I see now that God knows my situation. Someday I’ll be picked to do something else, but for now, this isn’t going to change. I will wait for his timing.” That’s not a very fulfilling answer to his problem. Reilly will likely continue to be humiliated but he will remember that Jesus was also treated poorly. That fits the story. We may not want to tell young children to endure shame if there is something that can be changed about the situation, but an ending such as this would cohere.

I wish Sproul had ended the book with something like this: “There is only one man who can carry the weight of our sorrows, the weight of our sins. And that is Jesus. He is the perfect burden-bearer. From the sadness we feel when we are excluded, to the great sorrow of being separated from God by our sin, Jesus is the perfect and only true burden bearer.” In this way, Reilly’s problem and the donkey’s story would cohere and proclaim the Gospel.

If you buy this book, I suggest that you either change the problem in the beginning of the book or change the ending. Easier yet, simply read the story of the donkey which is excellent and can stand on its own four feet.