Day 34 of 40 days to Resurrection day
Today’s suggestion:
Read about Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem.
(Matthew 21:1-13, Mark 11:1-19, Luke 19:28-48, John 12:1-19)
Entering Jerusalem by Harry Anderson (1906-1996)
The story is familiar. I’ve heard it since I was a tot in Sunday school. The flannel graph figure of Jesus sitting on a donkey moves along through the streets of Jerusalem while people wave palm branches and lay down their outer cloaks. They are shouting “Hosanna” and “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” He accepts their praise, even welcomes it and says the rocks will cry out if the people are silenced.
It is His day.
All four Gospel writers narrow their lenses on the last days of Jesus’ earthly life. They spend chapters talking about a week of activities. There is consistency in their view of what occurred yet they each have their own slant, their own perspective. It’s as if they want us to sit up and pay attention. As if they shout “This is important!”
But why is it important, other than the fact that it fulfills yet another prophecy about Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah?. Zechariah said the king would come riding on a donkey. He would be righteous, victorious and humble. Jesus was all of that and more.
There is something else.
Hundreds of years before, Moses had instructed the people to talk a lamb. On the tenth day of the first month of a new year. Set it apart. Examine it for imperfections. Keep it until the fourteenth day. Then kill it. It is the Passover lamb.
Jesus made His grand entrance into Jerusalem on the tenth day of the month. He was about to make all things new. He would give all those who believe a new beginning. And so He was set apart. Examined for imperfections. Presented to the people on the 10th day as the sacrificial Lamb. And on the fourteenth day of the month, just days later, He was killed.
God’s Passover Lamb.
He is the One we have been waiting for. Give Him praise. Shout Hosanna. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!
Peggy's Journal 