Palm Sunday 2024
Notes
Transcript
1 Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” 4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, 5 “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’ ” 6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. 8 Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” 10 And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” 11 And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”
What motivates you to get up in the morning? When you get out of bed, what are your driving desires that you want to see accomplished in your life? For many of us, it’s probably the doll drum things of life that we think of when we get up, and we’re just trying to get through another day. Many of us get up and do the things that need done like laundry and labor at our job; keep your paycheck coming and your bank at bay; doing the hard work parenting your kids, or
taking care of your aging parents. You may not think often of what gets you out of bed, it’s hard enough getting out of bed without thinking, but I hope your motivations in life are deeper than simply surviving.
About 40 years before the birth of Christ, Herod the Great was installed as the king of the Jews by the Roman empire, bringing roman rule to the Jewish people. Prior to that, Israel enjoyed relative autonomy for 103 years under the Hasmonean dynasty ushered in by Judas Maccabeus. Judas Maccabeus led a successful revolt against the Greek empire.
“The branches from the trees were reminiscent of the celebration when Judas Maccabeus liberated Israel from Antiochus Ephiphanes IV in 164 BC (1Mac 10:7, 2Mac 13:51), suggesting that the crowd expected a similar military emancipation through Jesus.” - Dr. Michael G Vanlaningham (Moody Bible Commentary P 1491)
But simply surviving can be underrated when it’s easy to survive. For first century Jews, surviving was not all that easy. It may be hard for us to imagine plying ones trade without all of the modern conveniences that we live with each day. As a family, spending a majority of your time earning, making, and consuming your daily bread, and if that wasn’t hard enough taxes to the Roman government had to be paid on top of that, and