Holy Week: Palm Sunday Irony - Denise Pass
Inspirational Thought of the Day:
Sometimes salvation comes in a way we least expect.
Scriptures:
Zechariah 9:9, 11
“Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. 11 As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit.”
Hebrews 13:20-21
“Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep. 21 equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
Isaiah 46:16
“See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me.”
Exodus 24:8
“Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.”
Happy Palm Sunday! I confess I have missed blogging and look forward to blogging each day this week after taking an unannounced spring break. 🙂
I brought a liturgical element into our worship service this morning, palm branches for Palm Sunday. Ok, let’s be real. The palm branches ended up being limpy leaves, not branches. But burdening my heart was a desire to help the worshipers at my church get a sense of the awe the people must have felt, waving palm branches as Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey. 500 flimsy leaves did not quite capture that emotion for me.
Nonetheless, I pressed on in Scripture and chose songs that would hopefully evoke the rich symbolism of these leaves representing victory. What victory were these people hailing? Though they thought He was coming to conquer world governments, instead He captured our hearts and ultimately achieved victory over death.
Christ’s entrance was a fulfillment of the prophesy spoken 500 years earlier by Zechariah. How amazing that God would communicate to His people how He would come into the world. He did not want them to miss it. Even though they could not understand fully God’s purpose in coming to them at the time, the groundwork of God’s covenant promises laid a path toward this salvation.
The blood covenant could not be paid by an animal or an ordinary person. God had to bear the transgression of His people, Himself. This Savior, their King – came humbly – riding on a donkey. This manner of salvation appears so foolish to man – that a King would come riding in on a borrowed donkey – to die – rather than in a majestic array of splendor as a hero riding in to demonstrate incredible power.
He owns everything, yet He borrowed a donkey. He lacks for nothing, yet He chose to lack. He is All Powerful, yet God chose to come in weakness. This does not make sense until we see that He became weakness, infirmity and sin and chose the place of suffering to bear it all in our place. He did not save us while He himself sat in a lap of luxury. He spared no expense or detail, but simply rode in humbly.
These same fickle people who praised Him passionately as He entered Jerusalem, begging Him to save them now (Hosanna), would kill their Savior by week’s end. Christ’s mission might have seemed like a failure, but the very people He came to save brought about their salvation unknowingly, by condemning Christ to His death. The wordplay is hard to miss in the Scriptures above. God inscribed His people on His palms and His people waved palm branches to their Savior. Ultimately it would be nails driven into his palms (wrists) that would forever set His people free.
Lord, thank You for Your salvation, offered freely to sinners. Thank you for showing us how to live and for providing for a debt we could never pay.
