johnmdemarco posted on April 17, 2011 19:25
The King rode on the foal of a donkey into town, on the day when the Passover lambs were traditionally selected for a sacrifice to take place on the following Friday.
The Roman-oppressed Jews cheered him on, believing he was the foretold messiah who would liberate them and usher in a new era that would be even greater than the Davidic kingdom. They shouted “Hosanna,” a political statement as much as a spiritual proclamation, and waved the nationalist symbol known as the palm branch.
But Jesus, as Bible teacher Ray Vanderlaan observes from Luke 19:41-44, had already wept openly over the city of Jerusalem before his celebrated entry. He wept because its occupants were looking for liberation and peace in the wrong places, and Jesus knew they would suffer greatly as a result.
When my Sunday school class watched a Vanderlaan video and discussed these points today, I was struck by a question that was posed:
How does Jesus cry for me?
When does he see me looking for liberation, peace, acceptance, passion and so forth in the wrong places, stumbling again and again? And when will I more fully yield to his nature within me, and celebrate his kingship not in material terms but in transformative, mind, body and spirit dynamics that truly empower me to live like him?
This is Holy Week. By Friday, the King will be the selected sacrifice.
Across the next seven days, Jesus will have the world’s attention more than most times of the year. Will he have more of our hearts as well, by the time Easter dinner is served?