'Sunday Night'

'Palm Sunday' : The Triumphal Entry (As promised earlier...)

References:
Matthew Chapter 21 : 1-11, Mark Chapter 11 : 1-11, Luke Chapter 19 : 28-44, John Chapter 12 : 12-19.

Basically the story starts after Jesus and his disciples go through some journeys healing the sick, performing miracles and a variety of events and circumstances, after which they approached the city of Jerusalem. Jesus sent 2 of his followers to a village which was nearby to look for a donkey. His instructions were so detailed that it offered the exact geography ("You can't miss it!") and description of the donkey (it had her colt by her and was tied up). The disciple were confronted by the owners, asking them why were they untying the colt ("Eh, what in the world are you doing?"), the disciples answered that Jesus needed it ("Relax man..."). The donkey was used to fulfill part of a prophesy (the foretelling of an event in the future) which was made:

"Say to the daughter of Zion, 'See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey' " - Zech. 9:9

Some of you might be wondering what in the world is Jesus doing riding on a donkey?, Shouldn't a more majestic animal be used instead?...well, part of it lies in this: He always used the 'underdog' approach to make a point, e.g. He helped the poor and the needy, He healed the ones which society had shunned, and he aquainted himself with the outcasts etc. He was very much the anti-hero (which i'm a big fan of, ;-).

After that they brought the donkey and the colt to Jesus and placed their cloaks on them, after which Jesus sat on them. As all of this was happening, the crowd at the gates of Jerusalem were all busy and excited, spreading their cloaks on the road and also cutting branches from the trees (this is where the palms come in!) to spread on the road. Joining Jesus and his disciples, they were shouting:

"Hosanna* to the Son of David!" (* a word associated with praising)
"Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!"
"Hosanna* in the highest"

Supposedly the ones who were cheering Jesus and his entourage, were the ones who were all very familiar with his exploits (they witnessed his miracle of raising a man from the dead: Lazarus) and reputation (most probably he was a superstar/ celebrity to an extent), or heard about it through friends / relatives / big ears ;-). Ok, those were the ones who knew to a certain extent, there were also those who were totally 'blur cased' /didn't know anything. Yeah if i were one of them basically i would be going...."Who lar, who is that?", while running out to the gathering. Well, the ones who knew did help out by giving the answers, "This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee" (geographical locations).

Mentioned in the books of Luke and John are the Pharisees' (religious leaders, most of which saw Jesus in a bad light) reaction:

1. They asked Jesus to calm his disciples and the crowd (A sign of jealousy?)
2. Some of them who saw the crowd's enthusiasm in welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem went, "This is all rubbish man, look at how the whole world has gone nuts for him!" (Confirmed sign of jealousy)

Mentioned in the book of Luke, was Jesus' reaction:

As he approached the Jerusalem and saw it, he wept over it and said, "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace- but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an enbankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on everyside. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognise the time of God's coming to you."

Jesus knew that he had to do it. No one else could. He had to save everyone. Every single one.

As i said in the previous post, this celebration of Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week, and events observed within this week in the Christian calender will slowly grow dark, from the arrest and frame-up of Jesus, to his torture and finally his crucifixion and death on the cross. However, Truth shines through on Easter, where all the reason and hope of believing in Jesus is realised ;-), where Christ resurrects from the dead.

* All words in green come from my thoughts and opinions, ones in light grey, the Holy Bible.


Goodnight.