11A Worship - Palm Sunday

What Christians celebrate as Palm Sunday begins a week like no other. Jesus, whom the Bible, Christian faith, and hundreds of millions worldwide, believe to be God in human flesh (the miracle of Christmas) entered into Jerusalem (the heart of God’s people, Israel). 

Expectations were high. For three years Jesus traveled the back roads, and main roads, of the nation preaching a message like no other. As He walked and taught, He healed physical, spiritual and emotional brokenness. He confronted self-serving pastors and Bible teachers, calling them hypocrites.

Frustrations were high. The people of Israel, like other conquered nations of the Roman Empire, endured abuse, humiliation, the presence of the Emperor’s army, and the crushing burden of taxes. The people longed for a savior, a victor, someone to rally the nation, lead a rebellion, throw off the burden of their oppressors.

Frustration and expectation met when Jesus rode into the city. Would Jesus seize this moment, galvanize the nation, rally the troops, and give the people what they wanted? He wouldn’t. He would give them much more than they wanted, and exactly what they needed. But first the shouts of excitement would become shouts for blood, His blood. The joy and hope of many that first Palm Sunday would lead to great sorrow, great darkness, great pain, great injustice, and the greatest display of love this world had ever seen or will ever see. A final Thursday meal, betrayal, a kangaroo court, an astute politician, a sentence of death, an execution by crucifixion, a burial, and then the grand miracle of Easter. That is the week ahead of us. That is the promise of God for each of us. This is where our frustration is answered way beyond our greatest expectations.