Skip to main content

Palm Sunday

This week is the start and culmination of some of the most important acts in the history of Christian faith.  On a Sunday some 2,000+ years ago, Jesus and his disciples were traveling into Jerusalem.  Think of the mindset of Jesus during this journey.  He knows his Father's will so he is full aware of what will be taking place over the next week so the man aspect of Jesus has to be somewhat stressed and troubled with that kind of weight on him.

As they approached Jerusalem, he sent two of his disciples to the next village up, most likely Bethphage, and instructed them on where they would find a foal of a donkey tied up.  They were to untie the donkey and bring it back to him and if it questioned by anyone were to respond "The Lord has need of it."  Mark's account of the story tells us that this is in fact what happened.  Bystanders are standing around as two strangers just walk up and proceed to untie a foal, possibly one of theirs or belonging to a neighbor.  Yet when met with the disciples' response that it was for the Lord they allowed them to go freely. 

As Jesus rode into Jerusalem atop the donkey, the prophecy of Zechariah from some 450-500 years earlier was fulfilled; "Behold, your King is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden."  The disciples laid their cloaks on the donkey for Jesus to sit.  And as they travelled along the road, many people in the crowd laid their cloaks on the ground, while others cut palm branches and laid them along the road. 

The crowd was continually growing and becoming more excited.  They were shouting "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" and "Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!"  Some members of the crowd had been witnesses of Jesus' miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead and they were telling other members of the crowds of the story.  This excitement over Jesus began to agitate the Pharisees and they asked Jesus to rebuke his disciples.  Jesus responded to them that if the people were quiet, even the stones would cry out his praise. 

As Jesus entered Jerusalem he looked at all that was going on and was so troubled by what he saw that he wept over the city.  Then he and the disciples retired for the night to Bethany. 


Thoughts:
- Jesus prepared the disciples for the confrontation they would face when going to get the foal.  He prepares us today as well.  God has filled all believers with the Holy Spirit and given us His Word to study daily to be prepared for whatever we may face.  He also knows the trials we will face and will give us special training and preparation that is necessary.  So don't sweat the difficult things you're going through, they may be the training that will benefit you even greater later on in life. 

- The crowd was so missing the point of who Jesus really was that they would go from crying out "Hosanna!" on Sunday to "crucify him" by the end of the week.  They dreaming of him as a military Messaih and putting their own personal desires on him.  Are we doing that today?  Who is Jesus for you?  Someone to take care of your needs and wants?  Or is He Lord and Master who we serve because He gave up his life for us?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

2020 is Hindsight...Finally!

Wow, what a year! 2020 could literally be an entire decade, maybe more, of history, change, and lessons rolled up into these twelve months. While many aspects of 2020 were kind of sucky and we would like to forget them, it will certainly be a year to remember. And it will be enlightening when this year is looked back on in 10, 25, or 50 years to be discussed. I wonder if we'll seem like geniuses or idiots? Probably both to some extent! While there is so much that I could consider and analyze about this year, I'll try to break some of it down into four dimensions - Physical, Spiritual, Mental, and Social/Emotional. These are events and happenings from my world and perspective and I'm trying to be open in sharing and would love to hear from others on events you found most transforming. Physical When COVID cause gyms to close, that messed me up. Our town and state were late to be hit with severe cases and therefore later than many across the country to close up shop. I'm n...

Worship > Fellowship

I believe that worship, true worship of God, is more important than fellowship with other believers.  Now I'm not saying that fellowship and relationships aren't important.  But I am saying that if I'm not worshiping God, if I'm not right with him, then my other relationships can't be right.  My fellowship and worship with him is more important than my relationship with my wife, my son, family, friends, my church, and my community.  Think about it.  How can I love my wife like Christ loved the church if I don't love Christ?  I wouldn't know how to love without knowing him.  Why should she submit to me if I'm not worth submitting to?  And yes I do believes wives should submit, but I also believe that won't be an issue as long as she's submitting to a godly husband.  (Ephesians 5:22-25) Our love for others must flow from our love and worship of God.  1 John 4:19-21 reads, "We love because he first loved us.  If anyone says,...

Do You Need Revival?

"Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in You?" - Psalm 85:6 The thoughts below were in my devotional this morning by Dr. Lee Sheppard: "So how can we know if we need revival in our lives?  Well, we need revival when our salvation has lost its joy, when our sin does not break our heart, and when we make little to no effort to witness to the lost.  We need revival when worship becomes boring, when we are at odds with believers and see no need for reconciliation, and when we fail to believe God for the impossible.  We need revival when we have to be begged to give and serve in church and when we would rather make money than give money.  We need revival when we have to be entertained to be drawn to church and when we are indifferent to the fact that there are 2.5 billion people on the planet who have never heard the name of Jesus.  We need revival when we don't regularly see the supernatural evidence of God's power and when ...