Sunday is the beginning of Holy Week with the Triumphal Entry of Jesus on Palm Sunday. The details of Palm Sunday definitely stand out from just about anything else in the New Testament. Jesus rides on a donkey with people singing, laying down their coats and palm branches for the donkey to walk on. The pathway is described in detail and Jesus is celebrated rather than condemned. The crowd that celebrated Jesus on Palm Sunday would chant “Crucify him! Crucify him!” in just a few short days. It is natural to ask what is happening on Palm Sunday? 

The Old Testament is rich with prophecies concerning Jesus and the work He came to do. This passage is the fulfillment of a lot of those prophecies.  The Jews of that day were looking for a Warrior King like David to fight their nationalistic battles for them. Jesus comes to offer himself as King, just not the kind of King they were looking for. The fact that Jesus rode on a donkey conveys the type of Kingdom he would offer the people; a Kingdom of peace. 

Palm Sunday is one of the happiest days in all the gospel narratives but it is an echo of the saddest day in all of the Old Testament; the day God’s Glory departed the temple. It is not a coincidence Jesus traveled the same path back to the Temple that the Spirit followed when it departed in the Old Testament. On Palm Sunday Jesus offers his Glory that would at first be rejected by the people, only to be ultimately fulfilled in the Glory of the Cross. It is through the cross that Jesus offers to be the King of our lives, inviting us to enter His eternal kingdom and Glorify Him. Join us Sunday for The Return of the King.