Palm Sunday

Hebrews 12:2 NIV84 - Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Today is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week: the Week of our Lord’s Passion.  The importance of the events of that first Sacred Week 2000 years ago is impossible to overstate.  Christ entered Jerusalem amid the shouts of “Hosanna!”

What must it have been like for the Savior that day?  As he listened to the shouts of celebration from those who would in a matter of days scream for his life to be taken, when the crowd became a mob; did he question the value of dying for such a people as this?  When the cynics challenged him and the religious leaders tried to trap him by misusing the very Scriptures that He had breathed into existence, did he wonder if such arrogant ignorance should have the opportunity to be redeemed?

As the week unfolded and he washed the feet of the man who would betray him with a kiss, did he regret the investment of loving grace that he had expended on Judas?  Or when everyone abandoned him but John, and Peter cursed forth his bitter denial, did the Lord feel that somehow the ministry of the Kingdom imparted to these Twelve was all for not, with only one disciple and a few women left to follow him to Golgotha’s Hill?

The Great Advocate stood in silence as the Sanhedrin railed against him.  He refused to defend himself in Pilate’s Court, nor would he entertain Herod’s curiosity; but as a Lamb before his shearers, he was silent.  He was silent when one word in his own defense would have triumphed over all his accusers and set himself free.  Did he consider an open rebuke of the mockers, the destruction of the rebellious, or a quick escape from the trial? 

No Beloved, for even as the overwhelming enormity of the task cascaded down upon Him, crushing the Man Christ Jesus in the agony of the Garden, he yielded to the purpose and the strength of His Father declaring, “your will be done!”  For you see my precious brothers and sisters, this task belonged to Jesus, and He alone!  No other one…no man…no woman…no angel…no one in Heaven or on Earth…NO ONE could take away the sins of the world.  The was Jesus’ task ALONE!  For a brief moment in history, once and for all time, EVERY SIN EVER COMMITTED OR TO BE COMMITTED WAS LAID UPON JESUS, and the weight of it was staggering.  No wonder on that first Palm Sunday, when all the people were celebrating, our Lord Jesus wept.

Acts 4:12 NIV84 - Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.