Mark 11:1-11
Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week, and this is a week with a lot of radical changes. Judging by the way it begun we could have never guessed how it ended. On the first day of the week Jesus entered Jerusalem to die. He was ready to glorify the name of his father. But the religious leaders were also ready. Ready to get rid of him. They had a plan; the conspiracy was ready. John 11:45-50 describe it like this. Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen the things Jesus did, believed in Him. 46 But some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them the things Jesus did. 47 Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, “What shall we do? For this Man works many signs. 48 If we let Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation.”
49 And one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all, 50 nor do you consider that it is necessary for usthat one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish.” 51 Now this he did not say on his own authority; but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation.
Jesus was going to Jerusalem to die for the forgiveness of the sins; he was going to be the bridge to connect the creation with its creator; he was going to pay the debt caused by our transgressions; he went into Jerusalem with you and me on his mind and in his heart. When he got to the city, He had a good welcoming. A welcoming that any political leader could envy. With such a welcoming we would have never expected all the cruelty of Friday. Sunday’s crowd shout Hosanna and Friday’s crowd cried out crucify him.
Do you remember when Peter confessed Jesus as the Messiah and Jesus told his disciples that it was necessary for him to die, and Peter took him alone and asked him not to say that? Jesus told Peter: Satan get behind me. Satan means, “an adversary, one who resists.” Someone opposing someone’s plan. In this case Peter was standing in the way of Jesus and his mission. He was being Satan. Now that Jesus is entering into Jerusalem to die, once again he is before another “Peter” which is the crowd. This time the crowd is telling Jesus “you will not die, instead you will be our king, you will rule, and we will rule with you, you will help us to destroy our enemies.
The way Jesus told the crowd “get behind me” was by not entering Jerusalem riding a horse, but a donkey. By doing this Jesus was implying, he was not a military leader; he was not there to conquer this city. When Jesus made the decision to ride a donkey, he fulfills Zechariah’s prophesy: Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.
10 I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem; the battle bow shall be cut off.
He shall speak peace to the nations; his dominion shall be ‘from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth.
Once again Jesus’ ministry is misunderstood; once again men want to use Jesus’ ministry as a tool to build their own plans and their own kingdoms. Those who received Jesus with palms wanted to destroy Romans who ruled over them; they wanted to take revenge; they wanted Jesus to destroy Romans because they were tired of being servants, they wanted to be masters; they were tired of obeying, they wanted to give orders. But the changes they wanted would not bring any changes at all. They would only change persons and positions. When they realized that Jesus was not willing to do what they wanted, they changed the “Hosannas” and they cried out “crucify him.”
When they saw Jesus entering on a donkey, they saw the fulfillment of the prophesy; they saw their king. However, that was only one part of Zachariah’s prophesy, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey.”They forgot all about the second part, he is just, I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem; the battle bow shall be cut off and He shall speak peace to the nations. Jesus entered Jerusalem to bring peace, not to create a war.
We know than Jesus had the power to overthrow the Roman Empire, but he did not. He did not because he had and still has the wisdom to understand than social changes not necessarily bring changes to the world. Under worldly governments there will always be rich and poor; people who have a lot and people who have nothing, because these governments are fruit of human desires and interests.
Jesus knew than the only way to change this world was not by conquering cities but by conquering hearts; the only way to bring change into this world was by changing human beings. Human beings and not governments can change this world the way God wants, and the only one who can prepare humans to do that is God with the power of the Holy Spirit living inside of us.
John chapter 7:37-39 says: On the last day of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, “Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! 38 Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’” 39 (When he said, “living water,” he was speaking of the Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him. But the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet entered into his glory.)
When we believed in Jesus, life flows from our inside, life flows out of our mouth thru our words; Jesus’ life is revealed through our deeds. When we allow Jesus to enter in our hearts, our perspective changes. If we have, we share. If we are in a high position, we do not take advantage of others. We remember God called us here to serve. If we are poor, we do not try to change our condition by force, but by trusting our heavenly father and master, and by acknowledging than he is our provider; by acknowledging that there is a body of Christ and we are part of it, and that they are our spiritual family and will not let us alone.
Jesus entering into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday must be our example to follow. He did not enter Jerusalem with his own agenda; He did not enter thinking to defend his interest or his life, if that would have been the case, he would not have died. But he entered into Jerusalem with God, with you and me on his mind and in his heart. He did not enter Jerusalem for selfish or personal motives; he did it to put an end to the circle of violence between Jews and Romans; between Jews and Greeks. He entered Jerusalem tocut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem and to cut off the battle bow. He entered Jerusalem to speak peace to the nations.
The greatest celebration in Palm Sunday should not be Jesus triumphant entering to Jerusalem, but Jesus’ triumphant entering into our hearts. Because to conquer a city is an easy task compared with the task of conquering a heart. To do the first one, all we need is arms, which Romans had a lot, Jesus could have called his Father and he could have sent him a heavenly army. However, to do the latter, we need love, and Jesus has a lot of it. With his love not only did he conquer Jerusalem, but history and the whole entire world, but most importantly, he conquered our hearts.