Chapter Forty Four - "Palm Sunday, A Reflection"

As I write this, you find me in Devon at the start of my Easter week off. The sun is beaming through my window, and a cool breeze is gently causing the curtain to flutter. The birds are singing and all is calm; a welcome change of scene from London! I had, by the way, hoped to write my first entry of 2014 a lot sooner than this, however, the demands of work and the subsequent need of an occasional lazy evening have precluded me from writing before now.

Yesterday was Palm Sunday, a day which I find tends to get overshadowed by Easter Sunday, but is equally poignant and noteworthy, as it marks Jesus' arrival into Jerusalem as a humble servant King, characterised by His riding on a donkey.

Over the course of the day I was able to hear the Easter message three times - a simple morning service, a later service of evening prayer, and in between the two, an Easter edition of Songs of Praise. As such, I found myself beginning to appreciate and better understand the truths of this part of the gospel message, and I wanted to use this blog as a forum to share the things that particularly stood out for me.


1) The Cross was always part of God's plan

As I sat in the wooden pew, listening as our vicar conducted the evening service, we were directed to Psalm 22, which we read together. Bearing in mind that this was written by David, long before the events of the New Testament, I was struck afresh by the following verses, so specific, and so in tune with what Jesus experienced in those final hours.

Dogs surround me, a pack of villains encircles me; they pierce my hands and my feet. (Psalm 22v16)

They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment. (Psalm 22v18)

Surely these verses demonstrate God's divine authorship of the Bible! It is amazing to think that even whilst on the Cross, Jesus had the words of this psalm in His mind, so that prophecies would be fulfilled. As such, the Cross was always God's plan to deal with our rebelliousness, from before the creation of the world, as testified that the Old Testament writers and the New Testament writers are in such agreement - both being guided by the same God.


2) The Cross was unexpected

We often hear about Jesus riding in on the donkey, with people lining the streets cheering. But do we take time to think why they were cheering? As I heard this passage read again and again, I began to realise that the people were only cheering because they had misunderstood who Jesus was, and what He had come to do. They thought that Jesus had come to overthrow the Romans, but in actual fact He came to suffer and die - unusual for a King. It is staggering to think that Jesus passed all these people, knowing that they would turn against him in the end, and that even His own disciples would deny knowing Him. Yet he went to die - willingly - for people such as these.


'You aren't one of this man's disciples too, are you?' she asked Peter. He replied 'I am not.' (John 18v17)

We can include ourselves with the crowd here, as we have all, at one point, rejected God's rule over our lives, preferring to live our own way. The following verse from Romans sums up my feelings about this truth.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5v8)



3) The Cross was the place of victory


One more thing that I came to appreciate as I heard the Easter story read out, was that the Cross was the place of victory. The final enemy, death (that great separator, which affects us all) was defeated. As Christians, we are called to take up our own crosses, as Jesus did. In essence this means living our lives for Jesus, not ourselves. A literal picture of taking up our own crosses can be seen in the words of the robber who was crucified next to Jesus - even at that time, when all hope seemed lost, as he asked Jesus to remember him, he was welcomed in to heaven. As Jesus hung on that cross, and it looked to everyone around as if death had won, the way to eternal life was opened. What completion and finality there is to Jesus' words -

'It is finished.' (John 19v30)

This victory over death was proven by the fact that Jesus rose from the dead three days later, and is a truth we will celebrate at the end of this week, on Easter Sunday.

Our sermon on Sunday evening was very simple. We heard the account of Jesus' last week, read out from John 18 and 19, and were encouraged to let God speak to us through the words, letting the Bible do the teaching directly.

Maybe take some time to read those two chapters yourself, and let God make the words more real to you this year. May God bless you as you remember these truths; what a gift He has given us!