Holy Week: Palm Sunday

When Jesus enters Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday, he enters with a horde of people with massive expectations. Jesus had been traveling throughout the entire region sharing the Good News about God, healing many, and performing miraculous signs. Everywhere Jesus went the crowds went with him, and they kept getting bigger and bigger. By the time Jesus comes to Jerusalem during Holy Week people had begun to figure out the Jesus was the Son of God, and the long awaited and promised Messiah. Jesus reinforces this belief by riding into town on a colt that had never been ridden to fulfill an ancient prophesy about the Messiah:

Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem!Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he,humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
(Zechariah 9:9)

Jesus rides into town and is received as a king and as a son of David, with all the expectations of the messiah: political, social, and military liberation. The people were excited, enthused, and ready for their lives to change. It won’t take long however for those Palm Sunday expectations to be dashed as Jesus travels to the cross in a matter of days. The people expected libration from the Roman invaders, and the renewal of the reign of King David. What they got instead was spiritual liberation and renewal from the Kingdom of God. Many of the same people who hailed Jesus on Palm Sunday as their Messiah and king, called for his crucifixion and death on Good Friday. Jesus didn’t come to be popular and fulfill the expectations of the people, he came to fulfill God’s mission.

Questions
-As you consider the popularity, praise, and projected expectations heaped upon Jesus, what expectations do you have for God? Are they realistic or unrealistic?
-How do your expectations of God either prepare you or hinder you from fulfilling God’s expectations of you?
-What does it mean to have Jesus as our king and messiah? How can we balance our healthy expectations of God’s role in our lives, with being obedient to God’s will?

Prayer: Lord, help me rejoice and give thanks for Jesus being the king of my life. Lord, help me submit my will to you so that I might begin asking your expectations of me, rather than demanding my expectations of you, in Jesus’ name, AMEN.