Jesus is not a duck

The Allegory of the Duck

Say you have a lake and you really want some ducks. Ducks are you're favorite animal. You love quacks, you love waddles, you love the line of baby ducks following mama duck around. Ducks are awesome.

You check google reviews and place an online order with the company that sells aquatic birds for a duck. You start saving bread crumbs and telling your friends "Duck!" When they fall to the floor, you explain something is not flying at their head. A real duck, the quacking kind, is on the way to your house!

Finally FedEx rings your doorbell. You bounce up and down with excitement. You tear open the box, and sure enough, inside there is a beautiful, white bird. You release the bird beside the water and watch it walk. It doesn't waddle quite the way you would expect a duck to waddle. When it gets into the water, it seems to glide across the surface, no churning of little duck feet. Then you hear it, not a quack, but a honk. That's no duck! It's a swan!

You love ducks, not swans. You were expecting and waiting for a duck, not a swan. Waddles and quacks, not glides and honks. You are upset, and immediately you call customer service.

"Oh sir, I'm so sorry," customer service says. "You see, you wanted a duck, but you really need a swan. It's better suited for your latitude and the ph balance of the lake. And you personally might benefit from being around this beautiful creature. You might do well to glide rather than waddle".

You are furious! "I don't need a swan. I know what I need, who are you to tell me what I need. I love ducks, my mama loved ducks, my grandfather loved ducks. Not swans. A swan would be for my benefit, that is crazy!"

You start making calls to the better business bureau and even the state government. Your senator actually responds "this is outrageous. . .false and misleading advertising. . .this company must be punished and the swan must go.

In the meantime a strange things are happening on the lake. A motley group of twelve animals are following the swan everywhere it goes. As best you can tell there are two turtles, two brim, a catfish, a rat, a water snake, a beaver, a crane, a hawk, a crow, and a bat. It is the strangest group of animals you have ever seen. You wanted a duck, not a swan. And definitely not pests like a rat and a beaver. The swan and his friends must go.

One Saturday morning there is a knock on your door. It is the senator, dressed in camouflage. Behind him are an angry crowd with nets, sticks, and even guns. "The swan and his friends must go" they chant.

"Thanks for coming," you say, "but I don't want anyone to get hurt. I just want a duck and not a swan".

The crowd roars "the swan must die!!"

"Is that ethical?" you reply.

The senator answers, "don't you worry, we'll handle it. We'll even take him alive. . .unless he gets dangerous. We don't tolerate danger and disturbances in these parts. The the swan must go".

Just the the same rat which had been following the swan scurries across your porch. He pauses for just a moment, making sure the crowd notices him. The senator and crowd chase after the rat, whooping and hollering toward the lake. You try not to watch or feel guilty about what will happen. You just wanted a duck, not a swan. You love ducks.

What sort of Messiah did the Jews expect? A literal King - an anointed one - who ruled Jerusalem and temple worship.  He would establish the political and earthly power of Israel forever.  

Why would they have a problem with Jesus?

Let's play Duck, Duck, Swan - what would the hypothetical duck messiah do and what did swan Jesus do?  

"So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" Jesus answered, "Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?" Pilate answered, "Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?" Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world." Then Pilate said to him, "So you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice." (John 18:33-37 ESV)

The duck would most certainly have a worldly kingdom.  The Jews wanted him to displace the Romans and re-establish the kingdom of Israel.  The swan's kingdom is the kingdom of heaven.

The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!" And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written,
"Fear not, daughter of Zion;
behold, your king is coming,
sitting on a donkey's colt!"
So the Pharisees said to one another, "You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him." (John 12:12-15, 19 ESV)

Duck or swan? A duck would ride a war horse, a swan would ride a donkey. The messiah, both duck and swan would be wildly popular.

"This man said, 'I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to rebuild it in three days.'" And the high priest stood up and said, "Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you?" But Jesus remained silent. And the high priest said to him, "I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God." Jesus said to him, "You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven." Then the high priest tore his robes and said, "He has uttered blasphemy. What further witnesses do we need? You have now heard his blasphemy. What is your judgment?" They answered, "He deserves death." Then they spit in his face and struck him. And some slapped him, saying, "Prophesy to us, you Christ! Who is it that struck you?" (Matthew 26:61-68 ESV)

What would the duck do? He would establish the temple forever, certainly not tear it down. The swan would destroy the temple and rebuild it - he really means that he would be destroyed and raise himself from the dead.

One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?" But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away. And he said to them, "Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?" And they could not reply to these things. (Luke 14:1-6 ESV)

Ducks would not break the law. And they would probably not accuse the religious leaders of breaking the law.  The swan appears to break the law, but instead of keeping the law, he fulfills it.  

And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, "This is Jesus, the King of the Jews." Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, "You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross." So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, "He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, 'I am the Son of God.'" And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way. (Matthew 27:37-44 ESV)

A duck would certainly not die or be mocked. The duck was coming to establish an eternal kingdom. Dying on the cross is a swannish.

So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the Council and said, "What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation." But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all. Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish." (John 11:47-50 ESV)

Performing miracles and signs - duck and swan would both do this. But the duck's miracles would be military and political like the kings of the old testament.  The swan performs miracles of compassion, service, and supernatural power.

The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, "Take these things away; do not make my Father's house a house of trade." His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for your house will consume me." So the Jews said to him, "What sign do you show us for doing these things?" Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." The Jews then said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?" (John 2:13-20 ESV)

Ducks don't mess with the temple and how worship happens. The duck cares about king stuff but the swan cares about priestly and worship related things. We know that Jesus was referring to himself as the temple - worship is not made possible by a building - true worship is made possible by the living God. "And I saw no temple in the city (in heaven) for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb".(Revelation 21:22 ESV).

And Jesus called them to him and said to them, "You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant,
and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Mark 10:42-45 ESV).

A duck would be served, like a king or ruler. A swan would serve and lay down his life.

The Jews answered him, "Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?" Jesus answered, "I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge. Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death." The Jews said to him, "Now we know that you have a demon! Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, 'If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.' Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?" Jesus answered, "If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, 'He is our God.'
But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad." So the Jews said to him, "You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?" Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am." So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple. (John 8:48-59 ESV)

Claiming to be more important than Abraham - duck or swan?
The messiah would be a good Jew. A duck would never claim to be the "I am". Abraham is the grandfather of faith, no Jew would claim to be more important than him.  The swan is either a blasphemer or he is God.

Takeaway - Jesus was unexpected when he came to earth. What if he came today - would we recognize him?  What would he look like, say and do?  What sort of messiah are we looking for?