There are moments of this study, and each study we do, that hang so big and so heavy I find it hard to breathe. This is one of them. As we enter into the narrative of what we call Palm Sunday we encounter Jesus in a very profound way.
It is funny, because Palm Sunday growing up was met with spring colored dresses, palms handed to us at the door and little crosses made from palm leaves during children's church on the way out. It became festive. We became part of the crowd shouting "Hosanna!" Looking back and looking not too far back it strikes me how although part of this, it misses the mark at times.
This very same crowd was the one that would be present at Jesus hearing a week later. The same ones shouting hosanna in one breathe shout crucify him with another. Even the disciples who led Jesus on the colt would flee and deny and betray.
Yet Jesus, enters, the anointed one. The one set to break the curse. The perfect propitiation of our sins. And as he rides towards Jerusalem we are told a few things. The people praised him for his works, the Pharisees fussed over it, and Jesus wept over Jerusalem.
When the Pharisees demanded that Jesus silence the people, his response was incredible. He says that the very stones would cry out if the people did not. We are told in Romans 8:22 that all of creation groans waiting for redemption. Jesus is the sustainer of all things. He upholds the universe by the word of his power. He, being Christ. The King had come.
Jesus then goes into the temple and cleanses it. I find myself reflecting what in my heart and what in my thoughts on worship and what I do at church and for church and within church needs to be cleansed today?
Sinclair Ferguson writes on page 90, "He was the Messiah, the Anointed One. He remains so. As prophet he continues to speak God's word to us through Scripture. As priest he has offered himself as a sacrifice to cleanse us from the guilt of sin and now in our lives. Yes, indeed, "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!"
Amen.
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