Palm Sunday

When the Lord was in the world Judea was a province of Rome, and the Jewish people hated being under their rule.  They remembered the good old days when they ruled their own kingdom.  There were prophecies that a Messiah or saviour would someday come that sounded especially sweet while they suffered under the heavy handed rule of Rome.

John the Baptist got a lot of attention when he started baptizing in the Jordan, and he even identified Jesus as the Messiah that the people were waiting for.  But the Lord wanted to show people that, although He was a king, He was a new and different kind of king.  So He got on a donkey, which was the sign of a king (today it would be a big black limo) and rode through the gates into Jerusalem.  The people recognized the symbolism and greeted Him as a king, putting branches and garments on the road (their way of putting out the red carpet).

They expected Him to go to the palace to confront Herod and the Romans.  Instead, to show them where His kingdom really was, He went to the temple where He confronted the moneychangers and forced them out.  By doing so He showed them that He was the king of heaven, not just some little country on earth.  Unfortunately, that was not the kind of king they wanted.

Jim Cooper

Pastor, Olivet Church