John 12:12–19 (ESV) – The Triumphal Entry
The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written,
“Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!”
His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him. The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.”
The story of Palm Sunday has always been a bit haunting to me. Jesus coming into the city of Jerusalem on a donkey, as people wave their palms and cry out to be saved. At first glance it looks like a parade, and it is and was supposed to. The conquering king coming to the royal city to save his people. They laud and adore him, and he is the hero of the story. If after the parade their had been a banquet where he was the guest of honor, no one would’ve batted an eye.
Palm Sunday looks and feels like when I first heard about Jesus. He’s the Son of God, a really big deal, and He should be welcomed into your life and celebrated. He’s humbly riding through the streets, along with His best friends smiling, waving, and stirring up emotions of hope and positivity. Palm Sunday SEEMS like it is and should be a celebration. At least from our side…
Because on the other side of the equation, is a man who gave up Heaven to come to earth for a purpose He is now about to most fully embrace. Riding in on that donkey is a Savior, who knows that these same people who cheer for Him now, will be the ones mocking, spitting and calling for his death in just five short days. Accepting their praises now, is the same Son of God who will hear their taunts and jeers as his bloodied and shattered body hangs from pieces of a tree that He created. How could their faces and their voices not have haunted Him then?
For Jesus, Palm Sunday looks and feels like when Jesus first thought about creating you and me. In the end, it would all be worth it – but it was going to get messy in the middle. All the love, worship and adoration, wouldn’t be able to outdo the fact that someone was going to have to settle our debt of sin – and He knew it was going to have to be Him.
And yet, still He created us.
Still He became one of us.
Still, He climbed on the back of that donkey and rode into the city.
Time after time, even when we do not, He chooses us.
Perhaps nowhere else in scripture is that more real to me then when we read (see) the story of Jesus, riding through Jerusalem. A conquering hero, yes. But not of what they would’ve thought and not the one they thought they wanted. Still, He was the One they needed. And the One we need, still today.
