Palm Sunday is the day Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey and her colt. It would be the last time He would enter it a free man. The next time He would be paraded through Jerusalem would be as a convicted criminal, bloodied, torn, hated. He must have known this on that day as the crowds thronged around Him, strewing the path with tree branches, singing 'Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord! Hosanna in the Highest!"
I wonder what His disciples thought that day. They had entered Jerusalem with their Master with some trepidation because they had last left it in an uproar: Jesus had nearly been stoned to death because He had taught, "I am the Son of God" (John 10:22-39). The sense of impending danger was so strong that Thomas the Twin had said to the other disciples, "let us also go, that we may die with Him"when Jesus announced plans to return to Bethany, which was only 2 miles away from Jerusalem (according to John 11:18).
Perhaps they felt that their fears had been unfounded while the crowds sang and celebrated joyfully at Jesus' arrival on the donkey. On Palm Sunday, He entered Jerusalem as its King, fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah (Zech 9:9):
Tell the daughter of Zion, behold your King is coming to you, lowly and sitting on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.
About a week later, He would stagger through its streets carrying a heavy Cross as their King, and He would die to His last breath as their King, convicted by the declaration above His head: "THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS". He was sacrificed in their place as a mute, willing sacrifice for the jeering crowds who spat and cried, "Crucify Him!"
He had come to Earth for this very reason: to bring them back to the root principles He had instated in the fledgling years of the Israeli nation as they wandered in the desert; to call them back to Himself and away from the man-made foolish additions to the Mosaic statutes that the religious leaders of the day called The Law; He came to pay the punishment for their sin, the sins of their forefathers, and for the generations to come so that they could enter His presence as beloved children, not terrified subjects.
He wanted His family to be near to Him -- so, although He knew that they would not understand, He had come anyway. They would laud Him, and then they would crucify Him, but He came anyway.
All throughout His ministry, many Jews had asked Him, "Are you the Christ? If you are, tell us plainly." So He did - but they did not accept it, and killed Him for it. To this day, many Jews today still reject Jesus as their Messiah but it does not change the fact that He is.
The Bible speaks of a time when all Israel shall be saved (Rom 11:25-27). Their time is coming soon because His death and resurrection for the very people He had first come to was not in vain. He had come for them first as His chosen people, then to the rest of the world because that had always been His plan. Soon, their eyes will be opened and they will find Him. And so, His prediction, "the first will be last, and the last will be first" will again be witnessed on a whole new level.
Let us remember the pain of His heart, and yet the joy that He was waiting to experience on the other side of the Cross as we realise that He knew what would happen, but came for us anyway. Let us not be weary in well doing in the light of Jesus' meekness and great sacrifice in comparison to our own, then live our lives for Him so that the world may know He lives.
Happy Palm Sunday!
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