Lenten and Easter Devotional: Palm Sunday Mar 26th, 2018   [viewed 7 times]

(Photo Credit: Llerrah.com)

In Matthew 21:1-17 we find the account of what Jesus did on this day. The time has come for the end of Jesus’ life on the earth and for Him to prepare to give His life for all of the world, bringing redemption into reality for us all.

He obviously has made preparation as He instructs two of His disciples to go and get the colt of the donkey which He must ride into Jerusalem. As Matthew tells us, Jesus did this to fulfill the prophecy from the Old Testament. Jesus is demonstrating the great humility of His character and the means by which He is submitting Himself to the Father’s will.

This story should speak to all of us but particularly to anyone in leadership who desires to follow Jesus. I see the opposite in today’s Christian world. I see too many Christian leaders who desire to “come into our midst” with pride and pomp wanting the best seats and the praise of the people to feed their own egos rather than seeking to humble themselves before the people.

The people so desirous of a Messiah that would set them free from Rome’s control and to meet their every desire meet Jesus on the road and begin to praise Him and lay palm branches on the road for Him to ride on. It is interesting that their superficial praise would turn into screams for His blood to be shed in just 4 days! So often when Jesus doesn’t do what we want Him to especially for us how quickly we turn away from Him and our praise can turn into complaints, doubts, or even disbelief!

Jesus immediately goes into the temple and is moved to righteous anger as He sees what the religious leaders have done. They have turned the court of the women and of the Gentiles into a marketplace to fulfill their own religious ideas and desires to make money and meet their own needs.

This place in the temple was specially designed for women and gentiles to worship and experience God. It was the place for the outcasts of Israel as well as everyone in the world to find the true God but the religious leaders only cared about their own agendas. Jesus turns the tables over and creates a huge uproar to cleanse this area.

Jesus then spends the entire day healing the sick, the blind, and the lame. He is doing what this court was intended for: the hurt and the outcast to come to God and experience His reality! The praise of many of the people who are ministered to begins to rise up and the religious leaders are so angry they want to kill Jesus right there on the spot.

Jesus tells them that these praises are genuine and these people are declaring the total defeat of the Devil and it is only the beginning of what is yet to come over the next few days! This is so significant because now it is clear that the Devil is defeated and Jesus Christ is Lord!! The hatred and opposition towards Jesus is now moving to a flaming fire in the hearts of the leaders and the Devil Himself, Jesus must die!

Holy Week as we call it is fully set in motion. The death of Jesus is now a certainty, but not the Devil’s plan.

(Dr. Paul Evans is the founder of Grace Christian Worldwide Ministries, gcfworldwide.org)