The Holy One calls to me this morning. The day and season brings a look back to the time of our Lord's crucifixion death and resurrection life. Today on the calendar of earth time is Palm Sunday. This is the commemoration of the day Jesus entered Jerusalem on the colt of a donkey, which to the people of the day, symbolized the arrival of a Gentle King.
The Holy One speaks into my thoughts, "The people are reacting to Me the same way today. There is worship when they think of Me as kingly authority, but when My ways cross purpose with their expectations, they yell, "crucify Him".
Conviction hits my mind like a bucket of ice water on all the warm fuzzy thoughts of today. I am stunned to hear such a sad indictment from the One who is worthy of all praise, honor and worship. The sobriety of His words ring true for all of us in this life and expose the times when our faith, like that of Peter, refuses to accept The Lord's mysterious ways.
Palm Sunday, as the Church has come to recall the day Jesus entered Jerusalem on the back of a donkey's colt, is in the week before the crucifixion, death and Glorious Resurrection of our Lord, Jesus the Christ.
In Matt 21, Jesus instructed His Disciples to fetch Him the donkey colt as the Prophetic Word revealing His Kingly Status had to be fulfilled. Matt 21: 4, "This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the Prophet". Zechariah wrote this prophecy of the coming King, in the book that bears his name:
Zechariah 9:9, "Rejoice greatly O Daughter of Zion. Shout "Daughter of Jerusalem! See your King comes to you, righteous and having Salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey."
Zechariah 9:11 depicts the blood shed by our Savior as the sign of God's covenant with the people.
Jesus' reputation as a miracle worker was in part the reason for the worship. Wasn't this the crowd who had eaten from the miraculous supply of bread and fish, seen Him open the eyes of the blind, heal the limbs of a paralytic, deliver the demon possessed and heard, if not witnessed the man, Lazarus come out of his tomb?
Worship of this Holy Man grew out of what they had seen Him do. He had set their lives onto a whole new trajectory and course of hope; for an end of the bondage to Rome, not to mention the hope that somehow their sicknesses and diseases and even concept of the Holy could be healed and set right.
Jesus' message resonated with the poor, the sick, and the dis-advantaged in Israeli society, especially those who were denied entry in the club of the religious elite. Interestingly the atmosphere of worship and hope changed drastically in the days following that triumphant entry into Jerusalem.
Tensions rose among the people for there were those in power who liked things the way they had been for centuries. Their motivation came due to the control and position they held in the hierarchy of Jewish society and life.
Little did they know that the plan to eliminate the God-Man would ultimately release His authority out and move that sacred placed called the "Holiest of Holies" they had tightly guarded under the law, into temples not made by human hands.
The thought of losing their grip on the people enraged those comfortable in the religious power structure of the day. God's plan for equal access by all and based on a personal decision any could make and be received, was an alien concept and disconcerting for those who had invested in a structure and code of religious performance.
Much is to be gleaned from the conditions then and taken as a warning to the Church today. The personal application to my flesh battle brings me to question and repentance. Lord, am I one of those who will worship You on a pleasant day of Your miraculous ways and then betray our relationship the next, when pain marks the pathway of this temporal experience called life? Will my loyalty hold past what You do for me and rest on Who You are to me?
How does the Church that You are the Head of react to the power of the Holy One as the people share in it's government? Not in isolated concentrated authority but in liberally poured out equal distribution of the Holiness and authority of the Holy Spirit via the gifts given to the least of Your Body?
For me, this Palm Sunday is an opportunity to bring praise and worship to my King, but also to realize and prepare for the possibility that I might be tempted to betray Him when His ways do not conform to mine.
Palm Sunday marks the beginning of a great divide. The coronation of a king to some, the plot to destroy a power not their own to others. Jesus gave warning that His life and Being would bring such division and a sword. He said He did not come to bring peace but a sword. He said that "sword" would divide and truly it does.
Interesting how the life of One who brought so much hope and healing to the world could be so threatening to those who have their own agenda to serve. He spoke of Himself and the sword He would bring, only to warn us of the reality of the division that His Being can and will bring into the world of men.
Oddly enough, the celebration of Palm Sunday is a reminder to me of that sword and the division it will cause, in the lead-up to Good Friday and then His Glorious and Bodily Resurrection. But more to the point of His counsel today, it is a time to think about what side of the great divide we are on.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
The Holy One speaks into my thoughts, "The people are reacting to Me the same way today. There is worship when they think of Me as kingly authority, but when My ways cross purpose with their expectations, they yell, "crucify Him".
Conviction hits my mind like a bucket of ice water on all the warm fuzzy thoughts of today. I am stunned to hear such a sad indictment from the One who is worthy of all praise, honor and worship. The sobriety of His words ring true for all of us in this life and expose the times when our faith, like that of Peter, refuses to accept The Lord's mysterious ways.
Palm Sunday, as the Church has come to recall the day Jesus entered Jerusalem on the back of a donkey's colt, is in the week before the crucifixion, death and Glorious Resurrection of our Lord, Jesus the Christ.
In Matt 21, Jesus instructed His Disciples to fetch Him the donkey colt as the Prophetic Word revealing His Kingly Status had to be fulfilled. Matt 21: 4, "This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the Prophet". Zechariah wrote this prophecy of the coming King, in the book that bears his name:
Zechariah 9:9, "Rejoice greatly O Daughter of Zion. Shout "Daughter of Jerusalem! See your King comes to you, righteous and having Salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey."
Zechariah 9:11 depicts the blood shed by our Savior as the sign of God's covenant with the people.
Jesus' reputation as a miracle worker was in part the reason for the worship. Wasn't this the crowd who had eaten from the miraculous supply of bread and fish, seen Him open the eyes of the blind, heal the limbs of a paralytic, deliver the demon possessed and heard, if not witnessed the man, Lazarus come out of his tomb?
Worship of this Holy Man grew out of what they had seen Him do. He had set their lives onto a whole new trajectory and course of hope; for an end of the bondage to Rome, not to mention the hope that somehow their sicknesses and diseases and even concept of the Holy could be healed and set right.
Jesus' message resonated with the poor, the sick, and the dis-advantaged in Israeli society, especially those who were denied entry in the club of the religious elite. Interestingly the atmosphere of worship and hope changed drastically in the days following that triumphant entry into Jerusalem.
Tensions rose among the people for there were those in power who liked things the way they had been for centuries. Their motivation came due to the control and position they held in the hierarchy of Jewish society and life.
Little did they know that the plan to eliminate the God-Man would ultimately release His authority out and move that sacred placed called the "Holiest of Holies" they had tightly guarded under the law, into temples not made by human hands.
The thought of losing their grip on the people enraged those comfortable in the religious power structure of the day. God's plan for equal access by all and based on a personal decision any could make and be received, was an alien concept and disconcerting for those who had invested in a structure and code of religious performance.
Much is to be gleaned from the conditions then and taken as a warning to the Church today. The personal application to my flesh battle brings me to question and repentance. Lord, am I one of those who will worship You on a pleasant day of Your miraculous ways and then betray our relationship the next, when pain marks the pathway of this temporal experience called life? Will my loyalty hold past what You do for me and rest on Who You are to me?
How does the Church that You are the Head of react to the power of the Holy One as the people share in it's government? Not in isolated concentrated authority but in liberally poured out equal distribution of the Holiness and authority of the Holy Spirit via the gifts given to the least of Your Body?
For me, this Palm Sunday is an opportunity to bring praise and worship to my King, but also to realize and prepare for the possibility that I might be tempted to betray Him when His ways do not conform to mine.
Palm Sunday marks the beginning of a great divide. The coronation of a king to some, the plot to destroy a power not their own to others. Jesus gave warning that His life and Being would bring such division and a sword. He said He did not come to bring peace but a sword. He said that "sword" would divide and truly it does.
Interesting how the life of One who brought so much hope and healing to the world could be so threatening to those who have their own agenda to serve. He spoke of Himself and the sword He would bring, only to warn us of the reality of the division that His Being can and will bring into the world of men.
Oddly enough, the celebration of Palm Sunday is a reminder to me of that sword and the division it will cause, in the lead-up to Good Friday and then His Glorious and Bodily Resurrection. But more to the point of His counsel today, it is a time to think about what side of the great divide we are on.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
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