April 13, 2025 (Traditional Date of Recognizing Palm Sunday)

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“If you turn your foot from breaking the Sabbath, from doing as you please on My holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight, and the LORD’s holy day honorable, if you honor it by not going your own way or seeking your own pleasure or speaking idle words, then you will delight yourself in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the land and feed you with the heritage of your father Jacob.” (Isaiah 58.13-14)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD TO US:

As Jesus entered Jerusalem on the first day of the week of Passover, the anticipation of the crowd was anticipated. The disciples were elated to see such recognition of Jesus by the people. The people were elated because of what they perceived Jesus to be according to their agenda. The agendas of the disciples and the crowd were differing. That difference was overshadowed by the agenda which Jesus had accepted from His Father. If you were just listening to the cries of “Hosanna,” saw the coats and robes laid out on the road, children and adults waving palm fronds in the air and caught the eyes of the Temple leadership as well as the Roman guards, you would easily be confused as to what was really happening. The disciples saw the coming of the Christ to purge Israel of the burden of her sins and the consequences of it: subjugation by politics of the Roman Empire and that of the “religion” of the High Priest in conjunction with the Sadducees and Pharisees. The crowd saw the one coming like King David to purge the country of its parenthetical giants (the same as mentioned before) from a purely military and political aspect. This was their understanding of Messiah who would be “prophet, priest and king” except without much emphasis on “prophet and priest.”

Such an attitude reflected the days before David became king, even before he was anointed by Samuel to be Israel’s second king. In the story of Saul, as we have studied previously, it was the failure of the sons of the judges, prophets and priests to maintain a holy and righteous demeanor which caused the people to turn their eyes to the need for a king just like the nations around them had. Strange, isn’t it, that they would believe that God was more real to a king than to prophets, priests and judges? They were coming out of a common lineage and background. If one sector of leadership was correct in that generation, then why would any other sector be any different. Truth of the matter was that Saul met that defeated persona, David had an affair with a general’s wive and had him killed to cover up the indiscretion and Solomon made alliances with nations to complete the building of the temple and seek to ensure peace in the Middle East. Those alliances came by way of marriage agreements so that Solomon had many wives and concubines of all races, creeds and religions. We would see some winning stories such as that under King Josiah who lead a temple reform or Ezra and Nehemiah who safeguarded the rebuilding of the Temple following the Babylonian exile. Regardless, a king of the people will often reflect the very constituency from out of which they rose. Still, all eyes remembered Israel’s “greatest” king. His name was David. The effect, affect and impact of his reign was to endure forever. It was in this light that Jesus was seen, or anticipated, by Jews far and wide. Well, for the most part, as those who curried power and favor for themselves certainly had no intention of releasing it to a “King of the Jews.”

And so it is that once again we cross the liturgical calendar on our march to Resurrection Sunday. We enter into the Passion Week of Christ first with the awareness of Passover as a sign of God’s favor to deliver Israel from its Egyptian captors in the days of Moses. Remembering how the Spirit of God moved across the “face of the deep” in Egypt as it did in the days of when “the heavens and the earth were created” was and should remain moving. The greatest difference between those two events looks like this. In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, what existed was nothing that could be recognized and distinguishable. It was a deep darkness over which “the Spirit of God” hovered. God spoke, the Spirit obeyed and chaos was turned into order, darkness was overcome by pure light and the process of life was invoked. On the day of what would be known as the first Passover bringing to a conclusion the battle between God and Pharaoh which was revealed in nine plagues foreshadowing a tenth, the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the “deep darkness” of Egypt. Instead of giving life, however, the Holy Spirit inhaled and drew the breath of life out of the first born of all Egypt from the highest to the lowest and all livestock. It actually was not God’s determined command, but one which Pharaoh himself decided. The repeat of the edict of his father to minimize the growing population of Hebrews by killing the first born of all descendants of Jacob was turned back on Egypt. Pharaoh refused to repent and submit to the One True God of all and the order was then “repented,” turned around on Egypt.

This remembrance of God’s deliverance by His own will is what we must not confuse during our “Easter” celebration. To minimize the historical and theological impact of Jesus’ “triumphant entry” into Jerusalem cheapens the act of mercy, grace and servitude which was exhibited on our behalf. Jesus came not with a mistaken identity nor a misappropriated mission. He came as the Son of God, the Lamb of God who came to take away the sting of death which sin inflicts upon the living. Will we not experience the pain and anguish of death in our lives or in those whom we love? No, we will experience it just not as an end to life but as its call to faith trusting in God’s redemption and plan for deliverance from evil. What is that evil? The evil is that which would steal away the soul of humanity and blind it to the word of God which has already been given to protect it from temptation and everlasting death. Further, we dare not misrepresent the name of He who has given Himself to death taking our penalty upon Himself. He came first to save us from our sins and from ourselves. He will return as King of kings, Lord of lords, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace whose Kingdom shall know no end. He will be the Mighty Warrior who will quell the rebellion of the Enemy and silence the threat forever. He will set at liberty those who choose to walk by faith and not by sight, whose agenda is that which is God-appropriate and not appropriating God’s will as their own. Mighty ones of God, lest we forget, let us remember and confirm this good news: Jesus is Messiah.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness which we know is folly but righteous works which declare Your glory and further witness the truth that can set all who believe free from death. So may we live by the name of Jesus our Christ. AMEN.