Matthew 21:1-11

You’ve seen military parades. The parades were intended to be stirring, to instill a sense of wonder. The King enters Jerusalem. He rides a rental donkey. There is not well-placed tickertape or regalia. The crowd’s reaction is spontaneous and spur of the moment. They grab palm branches, a symbol of victory, and strew the road with their own garments.

This was the day they had been waiting for. This was the payoff for trudging around Israel with Jesus. Now they were going to be superstars. A few days later their puffed up chests were deflated like a balloon, popped by the nails that pierced their Master’s hands and feet.

If they only knew, however, what prophecy held for this prophet: namely, a turn of events like the world has never seen before or ever will see again, as the one riding a beast of burden will become a beast of burden Himself, bearing your sins on His back, not so that you might bring them with you where He wants to take you, but that you should never see them again.

Today is Palm Sunday. I’m pumped. Are you? You should be. It may not be a military parade, but it ought to be just as stirring, and even more. You know where He’s been. You know where He’s going. Remember why and your chest won’t be able to hold your heart as it beats with the ecstatic joy of forgiveness and swells with the unfathomable breadth of God’s love.

He will save us, because He is Jesus after all, whose name means “He who saves.”

Martha Lou Green