The week before Easter we celebrate Palm Sunday. In Luke 19 we learn that as Jesus returned to Jerusalem on a lowly donkey, people lined the road waving palm branches and throwing their cloaks in front of the colt upon which he rode.
“Long live the King.” I can almost hear their cry. The shouts of the crowd were joyful as they praised God. Why? They were convinced Jesus fulfilled the prophecy in Zechariah 9:9 – “See your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a colt.”
But there was a problem. The people were thanking God for giving them a king, a national leader who would restore their nation and free them from Rome’s control. They were blind to his real mission, to bring God’s forgiveness and salvation for all mankind.
When the people shouted all the more, the Pharisees told Jesus to keep His followers quiet, and He said that if they remained silent, the stones would cry out. Not because Jesus was setting up a powerful political kingdom, but a spiritual one which is still available to all mankind today.
So this Palm Sunday, let’s cry out and praise His holy name because He marched into Jerusalem two thousand years ago, not as a human who’d rescue the Jewish people, but God whom we can worship today and for all eternity.