Well, it’s Palm Sunday! The day we celebrate that glorious ride that Jesus took into Jerusalem amidst the proclamation of His followers. Let's take a look at God's Holy Word!
Luke 19:29-40 says,
“As [Jesus] approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples, saying to them,
“Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it.’
“Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as He had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, ‘Why are you untying the colt?’
They replied, ‘The Lord needs it.’
“They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. As He went along, people spread their cloaks on the road.
“When He came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:
“Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
“Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, rebuke Your disciples!”
“I tell you,” He replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”
Can you imagine the excitement? (Read these random verses about Palm Sunday)
Matthew 21:10 (AMP)
“And when [Jesus] entered Jerusalem, all the city became agitated (trembling with excitement) and said, Who is this?”
Mark 14:1
“Now the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were scheming to arrest Jesus secretly and kill Him.”
John 11:55-56 (NLT)
“It was now almost time for the Jewish Passover celebration, and many people from all over the country arrived in Jerusalem several days early so they could go through the purification ceremony before Passover began.
“They kept looking for Jesus, but as they stood around in the Temple, they said to each other, ‘What do you think? He won’t come for Passover, will He?’”
Try to imagine what a powder keg Jerusalem was!
- Jesus is coming to Jerusalem with a crowd of people who have seen many great miracles! They have even seen Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead! They are placing their cloaks and palm braches on the roadway for Jesus to ride over as a sign of devotion and admiration! He MUST be the long awaited Messiah!
- You’ve got the Jewish leaders who are along this procession trying to suppress the proclamation of Jesus as the Messiah. They see this as heresy or at least a threat to their status and power.
- You’ve got the Jewish court which is attempting to find a way to secretly arrest Jesus and put Him to death.
- You’ve got the people in Jerusalem who are seeing this great disturbance coming into the city and they are wondering who this is.
- You’ve got the ever present insurrectionists who want to overthrow the Roman and get them out of Israel.
- Finally, you’ve got Pilate who knows that he needs to keep a tight grip on
There are a lot of dynamics going on here! But what about Jesus? What was He feeling? Was He exulting in the admiration and worship of His followers as He approached Jerusalem for the Passover festival?
Luke 19:41-44 says,
“As [Jesus] approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it and said, ‘If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace - but now it is hidden from your eyes.
“The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side.
“They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”
Let’s read this again and take a careful look! Jesus is talking TO the city, as if it were a person.
Luke 19:41-44 says,
“As [Jesus] approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it and said, ‘If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace - but now it is hidden from your eyes.
“The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side.
“They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”
Jesus is looking about 40 years into the future to the time of the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in which it is estimated that over 1,000,000 people died.
Josephus the Jewish historian writes of the siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD:
“Throughout the city people were dying of hunger in large numbers, and enduring unspeakable sufferings. In every house the merest hint of food sparked violence, and close relatives fell to blows, snatching from one another the pitiful supports of life. No respect was paid even to the dying; the ruffians [anti-Roman zealots] searched them, in case they were concealing food somewhere in their clothes, or just pretending to be near death. Gaping with hunger, like mad dogs, lawless gangs went staggering and reeling through the streets, battering upon the doors like drunkards, and so bewildered that they broke into the same house two or three times in an hour. Need drove the starving to gnaw at anything. Refuse which even animals would reject was collected and turned into food. In the end they were eating belts and shoes, and the leather stripped off their shields. Tufts of withered grass were devoured, and sold in little bundles for four drachmas.”
What a terrible time. What cruelty. It is reported that over one million died in that siege. Reports of women roasting and eating their own nursing babies. Unthinkable horrors!
Was Jesus seeing this before His eyes as He wept over Jerusalem?
We are created in the image of God. And even though we have emotions, sometimes we forget that God has emotions, too.
What is everyone’s favorite Bible verse if they don’t like Scripture memorization? - John 11:35 - “Jesus wept.”
God can be pleased, in the sense of satisfaction.
Genesis 1:31a
“God saw all that He had made, and it was very good.”
You know that feeling of a job well done? A time when you have really applied all of your capacity into accomplishing a task and it turned out excellently? Especially if it was something done to glorify the Lord and as a fragrant offering to Him? What a delicious feeling!
God can be disappointed.
Genesis 6:5-6 says,
“The LORD saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.
“The LORD regretted that He had made human beings on the earth, and His heart was deeply troubled.”
God had made mankind for fellowship! We read in Genesis 3 that the Lord, the Creator of all, had come to walk in the Garden of Eden and was expecting to see Adam and Eve but they were hiding and now in Genesis 6 humanity has no thoughts of God at all! And He is sorry that He created man.
God can know pleasure and rejoicing and delight.
1 Chronicles 29:17 says,
“I know, my God, that You test the heart and are pleased with integrity.”
When we walk faithfully with God He is pleased with our integrity, He delights and finds pleasure in our uprightness. He rejoices when He finds integrity in our hearts.
And that pleasure, delight and rejoicing is a two way street! Hallelujah!
God can feel hatred!
Deuteronomy 16:21-22
“Do not set up any wooden Asherah pole beside the altar you build to the LORD your God, and do not erect a sacred stone, for these the LORD your God hates.”
God hates idols and He hates it when He sets them up either literally or in our hearts.
You see, when we are emotional we know that God is emotional as well. We see the same emotions that we have in Him because we are made in His image.
That does not mean that we always use these emotions properly but He does give us examples of the proper usage of these emotions in His Holy Word!
So, back to Jesus entering Jerusalem, once again we read in
Luke 19:41-44,
“As [Jesus] approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it and said, ‘If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace - but now it is hidden from your eyes.
“The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side.
“They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”
We also see that Jesus said in Matthew 23:37,
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.”
God sent faithful prophets to Israel over and over and over and over and yet this is the result. The Son of the Living God Himself is going to Jerusalem where He will be killed and there is celebration and evil plotting and confusion and nationalism going on and in the middle of all this Jesus is weeping over Jerusalem.
Over thousands of years prophet after prophet had been sent. On the rare occasion the word of the Lord would be obeyed but sooner or later the chosen people of Israel would fall again into idolatry or legalism and God would be rejected.
On this Palm Sunday we need to remember that in addition to the emotions of satisfaction, sorrow, rejoicing, hatred and the other emotions that God has enjoyed and endured because of us His great emotion is love, and, it’s even more than an emotion but a character trait.
John 3:16 says,
“For God so love the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”
God sent His son even after all of the prophets had been ignored or killed. Prophet after prophet sent to Jerusalem but they would not listen or obey.
How about you? How many times has the Holy Spirit called to you to leave the ways of this world? How many times have you heard that Jesus came to earth and died on a cross so that you might have eternal life but rejected the invitation?
Jesus wants to gather you under His mighty wings for protection. He already gave His life for you. Are you going to be like Israel who rejected her Savior? The results will be the same. Destruction!
Why not come to God today?
There were other times when the nation of Israel seemed to be following the Lord for awhile but they faded away and the Lord needed to send another prophet to try to call them back.
Is that you today? Have you responded to the call of Christ to come to Him for salvation but over the weeks, months or years your love for Him has cooled off or died out completely?
Perhaps you have not gone back to your former way of a life of sin. Perhaps you’re still looking and acting like a Christian but your only going through the motions. Why not come back today?
There is no true peace or joy outside of a daily, loving walk with Jesus. With Him as your God and you as His child.
