By: Mike Kelly
Retired Pastor
Sit down and hold on! These next 10 days are going to be a biblical whirlwind of emotions, activity and history: Palm Sunday with the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, the cleansing of the Temple, daily teaching in the Temple, the Last Supper, the betrayal, the trial, the crucifixion and finally, the resurrection. Whew. This week of events has been in the making for over 33 years.
This Sunday is called Palm Sunday because palm branches were spread on the road before the donkey Christ was riding and because they were being waved in the air as a sign of victory. Christ, the Messiah, had finally arrived in Jerusalem to claim his throne. Or so they thought.
Mark 11:8-10: “Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted, ‘Hosanna!’ ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ‘Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!’” Imagine being there and waving those palm branches. What a sight that must have been. You can feel the power just by reading the accounts.
Jesus then makes his way to the Temple where he throws out all the merchants who were a distraction to people wanting to pray and be with God.
Matthew 21:12-13: “Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. ‘It is written,’ he said to them, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers.’” Imagine watching this occur.
At first, it appears as sacrilege — disrupting everything going on at the Temple — but when he declares why he is doing it, the attitudes change. He is restoring the Temple to what it was intended for: a place to meet God.
All this activity was going on in the courtyard where the Gentiles were allowed. Here men came to pray to the Jewish God and found no place of peace for prayer — only a busy mall of yelling, arguing, bickering over prices and animals making noise.
Then come three days of exchanges with the Pharisees as Jesus teaches the crowd and they argue with his theology. Jesus speaks about his authority, about being the cornerstone the Jews reject.
He identifies the greatest commandments to love God and one another. He tells the parable of the widow’s offering and speaks of the signs of the end of the age, along with the Day of the Lord’s return being unknown. Finally, at Bethany, the woman anoints his feet and dries them with her hair, leading to the final straw for Judas.
How will you interact with God during these next 10 days? Will you be one of the palm wavers? One of those frozen when he clears the Temple?
One of those sitting and listening to him explain his authority? Or will you just ignore the week — just go on as if nothing unusual was being celebrated?
Will you take some extra time to read the story? To ask God to help you understand and appreciate what this week cost his son and what it will mean to you?
We’ll deal with what occurs at the end of the week next Wednesday.
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Mike Kelly is the founding pastor of Bryan’s Grace Community Church (retired) and Board Chairman of Bryan’s Sanctuary Homeless Shelter and Williams County’s Compassion (free) Medical Clinic.