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This
Sunday is Palm Sunday, so named because the crowds waved palm branches
as Jesus rode into Jerusalem just before the crucifixion. Today palm
branches are a sign of peace, but in the first century waving palm
branches was more like waving a battle flag. The crowd removed their
cloaks and laid them before the donkey Jesus was riding on. In effect
they were saying, “We give ourselves to you, even to the point that you
can ride over us if necessary.” Such actions were only given to kings
and rulers. Palm Sunday was, in affect, an effort by the crowd to crown
Jesus as their earthly king.
The
Bible tells us that the religious leaders of Jesus’ day tried to
convince him to quiet the crowd. While they did not appreciate the
attention he was getting from the crowd, they were probably more
concerned about the attention the crowd might get from the Romans. The
Passover, which was only days away, was the Jewish equivalent of our
Fourth of July – the day they celebrated their Exodus from Egypt
hundreds of years earlier. Often at Passover time self-proclaimed
prophets would appear, claiming to be the promised messiah who would
free the Israelites once again. The Romans would then move in,
slaughtering hundreds and effectively ending any opposition to their
rule.
But
the Palm Sunday crowd likely saw in Jesus a new hope. Only days before,
he had raised Lazarus from the dead. They had seen him feed the
multitude and drive out demons. Surely this Miracle Worker could do
what no one else could do. Surely he could rid them of the hated
Romans.
The
day after Jesus reached Jerusalem, he did what must have seemed to the
crowd to be a most unusual thing. Instead of driving out the Romans, he
went to the temple and drove out the Jewish merchants. Perhaps that is
when the crowd began to turn on him. They were not interested in
spiritual purity, but rather in earthly conquest. They wanted a
victorious king; they were not looking for a humble Savior.
A
few days later, as Jesus stood before Pilate, beaten and bloodied, the
same crowd that wanted to crown him king demanded that he be crucified.
What had happened? When they could not get what they wanted, they
didn’t want Jesus at all.
Many
people are like that today. They want God to do for them whatever they
want. They pray for health, for success, for good relationships, and
for cheerful times. They think God exists to make them happy. Just as
the Palm Sunday crowd tried to force Jesus to become a king after their
own liking, many people today try to twist God into a genie who is
always on call to do their biding or to bail them out of trouble. And
when they don’t get what they want, they blame God for their own
problems.
What
they fail to realize is that God doesn’t see things like we do. Jesus
did not come to give us wealth, health, and earthly success, but instead
to draw us all to him, not for a moment, but for an eternity.
The
Palm Sunday crowd missed Easter, the greatest event of all times,
because they didn’t get what they wanted. They missed eternal peace
because they were upset that Jesus did not drive out the Romans and give
them a few years of earthly peace. Forty years later, many of their
children rebelled against the Romans and were slaughtered. One can only
imagine what would have happened if they had rallied around Jesus, not
as an earthly king, but instead as their heavenly Savior.
Many
people today suffer so much because of their own bad choices. Like the
Palm Sunday crowd, they are ready to follow Jesus, but only if they get
what they want. Because they don’t get what they want, they turn
against God and never do find his good plans for their lives. This
Easter might be a good time to return to church, not to get what they
want, but instead to discover God for themselves.
Paul Jetter, Upper Valley Community Church |
