Well, It’s another Sunday morning. “They were looking for Jesus and saying to one another as they stood in the temple, ‘What do you think? That he will not come to the feast at all?’ Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, he should let them know, so that they might arrest him.” John 11:56-57 (ESV)
I can’t stop thinking of the huge amount of stress Jesus must have been feeling, knowing all of what was to come and to walk straight into the middle of it. When I had done wrong the idea of what was to come was stressful to the point of shaking, and I knew it was three swats and we were done, Jesus knew he would be beaten, rejected, crucified and would die. The only sinless person on earth, and he would die for all the sins up to that point and all that were yet to come. See, not only did Jesus walk straight at it, He made it known He was coming by all of His works along the way. He was healing and converting people and making waves for the Pharisees.
See, after He raised Lazarus from the dead, Jesus and His Disciples left Bethany and made their way to the edge of Galilee, then they went east to Perea, and then back south to Jericho, it was a short distance from there to Jerusalem. When He reached Jericho He healed Blind Bartimaeus’s sight and one other blind man. He went to the house of a tax collector named Zacchaeus, who He converted and Zacchaeus began giving back the tax money he had taken. The news of this spread among the Jewish people who were going to Jerusalem for the Feast of Passover. Then Jesus and the Disciples headed south, back to Bethany, about two miles south of Jerusalem.
When Jesus and the Disciples arrived back at Bethany, they went to the house of Simon the leper were they were served a wonderful meal by Martha. When the meal was over, Martha’s sister Mary anointed Jesus with a pound of expensive spikenard, a fragrant ointment used to anoint a body for burial. Jesus said that she was anointing Him for His burial the next Friday afternoon.
The next day was Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath. Jesus remained quietly at Bethany on Saturday. On Sunday (which is now called “Palm Sunday”) there were thousands of pilgrims in the city for the great Jewish feast of Passover. Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a little donkey. The people spread palm branches on the road so His donkey’s feet would not have to touch the ground. He was coming into Jerusalem on a donkey the same as King David and King Solomon did. He was openly proclaiming Himself as the Messiah, the King of Israel, by doing this. The people cried out, “Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel,” as He passed by the crowds gathered at the sides of the road We can read this in John 12:13 (ESV) it says, So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!”.
Next he made his way into Jerusalem, Mark 11:11(ESV) tells us this, And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve. During this last week in Jerusalem, Jesus and the Disciples seem to have returned each evening to Bethany, to spend the night, either with Simon the leper, or, more probably, with Martha, Mary, and their brother Lazarus.
Jesus had made some very bold moves, to the point of giving up his life so that we could all be saved. He walk this earth spreading the good news of our Father in Heaven and laid it all on the line for us sinners. He had made sure, up to this point, that the Pharisees were aware of where he was and what he was doing. Jesus was doing what we should be doing each day, He was spreading His love for each and everyone of us, and sharing the word if our Father. It’s not hard to do. You just need to step up and do it. I am asking you to do that very thing this week. Know this is true also, God truly loves each and every one of you, and so do I.
