Palm Sunday

On Palm Sunday, we celebrate Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem. John 12:12-13 tells us that large crowds of people went out to meet Jesus waving palm branches and crying out “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” We know many people, including his closest disciples thought Jesus had come to deliver them from the Romans. It's likely this crowd was thinking the same thing as they hailed Jesus as a triumphant king. 

The crowd may have not recognized how the Kingdom of God had come into their midst, but I believe they knew they needed salvation. Not just deliverance from the Romans, but from the oppression of sin and separation from God. They were crying out for freedom and expressing a deep longing for restoration. There are many examples of this seeking for salvation in the Gospels. The night Nicodemus came to Jesus, the way the crowds of people came to John by the Jordan river to repent and be baptized, the way the one leper out of 10 came back to express gratitude, and the way the Centurian came to Jesus on behalf of his servant who needed healing. 

We too will always encounter the crowds who don't get why we have come to share the good news of the Gospel, but we must sow those seeds in faith none the less. Then all may hear and those who will come with an open heart will receive all that God has for them.

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