Of course, in the popular mind, this is Palm Sunday. People like to recall this moment of external triumph. Jesus rides into Jerusalem to fulfill a prophecy from Zechariah 9. By coming to King David’s city on a donkey, Jesus is making a Messianic claim. He is coming in humility and peace to begin His rule. And despite their confused ideas about the nature of Christ, many praise Him. Jesus is the Christ and receives the praise that He deserves. Like the ancient crowd, we tend to get caught up in the enthusiasm of the moment.
Unfortunately, many people who praised Jesus that day did not really understand Him. They did not sense what sort of king He was. So by the end of the week, many who praised Jesus turned on Him. Some would go from shouting “hosanna” to shouting “crucify him.” Even His closest disciples would flee in confusion and fear.
On that first Palm Sunday, Jesus was asking for spiritual and moral commitment, but the crowds were looking for other things. They were blinded by their physical, material, and worldly aspirations. Jesus Christ came to redeem people from their sins. He came to offer His life to deliver them from the power of evil. He came to conquer death, to rise again, to establish the kingdom of heaven, and to offer eternal life in God’s presence.
But most people, even would-be disciples, misunderstood. They were looking for Him to bring them temporal or worldly blessings. They mainly wanted things such as wealth, power, free food, healing, health, material comfort, external happiness, etc. And when they started to realize that He wasn’t that kind of king, their responses to Him started to change.
Many were confused or disappointed. And some were downright fickle and mean. They turned hostile. When He didn’t live up to their mistaken worldly ideals, they rejected Him and falsely accused Him.
Modern people, even many who say that they are Christians, are much like those first-century crowds. Many human beings continue to have poor understandings of redemption. We still look for false messiahs. We still misunderstand what kind of Messiah, what kind of king, Jesus is. We still try to make Him fit our personal preferences.
People still tend to focus on the material, physical and worldly aspects of Christ’s divine kingship. Yes, He knows that we are body and soul, and He cares about all aspects of human life. He asks His followers to care as well. He wants us to live in general safety and health with reasonable food, shelter, medical care, rest, and so on. But such matters are not His primary or ultimate concern for human beings. He is not a worldly king. He does not preach some sort of distorted prosperity or social gospel.
Instead, Christ’s main concerns are spiritual. He does care for our earthly lives, but He focuses more on our spiritual and eternal lives. He knows that there will always be earthly problems. He sees that there will always be crosses to bear in this world. And He wants people to respond to those crosses in ways that lead to resurrection and eternal life spent with Him, His heavenly Father, and the Holy Spirit.
Our priorities should be spiritual and moral. Beginning with faith in Jesus as the Savior of our eternal souls, we respond in love- for God and for our neighbors. Many things can be included in these faithful responses. We do good deeds to the extent that we are physically and materially able. We support the church and charitable institutions. We study Scripture. But above all we love God, and we express that love spiritually in worship and in prayer.
Our love of God is also expressed by love for our neighbors, and not just in generally polite words or kind actions. We also love our neighbors by pointing them to Jesus Christ who alone can give their lives the deepest meaning and save their souls.
So during this Holy Week, let us seek to appreciate the kind of king that Jesus really is. Jesus Christ is a spiritual king who comes in humility and peace to establish His rule in our hearts, minds, and souls. He is a king who asks us to keep following Him even when the hymns of praise fade. He is a king who asks for our loyalty as He and we walk the way of the cross.
Jesus Christ certainly deserves our praise, our “hosannas.” He deserves praise more than anyone else. But the praise He wants is not just for the big events and celebrations. He wants our praise and our loyalty even on ordinary dull days. And He even asks for our praise and our loyalty on days, like Good Friday, when the honor and cheers of the crowd turn into rejection and jeers.
Palm Sunday has a dual aspect. It is a somber reminder of human blindness, disloyalty, and evil. It is also a joyful reminder that Jesus Christ is a spiritual king whose love, grace, and glory transcend human frailty. Even in the midst of suffering and death, even in a pandemic, the love and the grace of Christ Jesus continue undefeated. He triumphs through His cross and through all our little crosses.
To Him, with the Father and Holy Spirit, be all praise now and evermore! Amen.
