Palm Sunday’s great divide
All but one of the disciples who prepared for Christ’s entry into Jerusalem abandoned him within the week.
As he entered Jerusalem, the crowd who cheered his coming shouted for his crucifixion five days later.
Before Jesus entered Jerusalem, he wept over it for the coming destruction in 72 A.D. while the residents gloried in their sin.
The temple should have been a house of prayer, but it remained a den of thieves even though he cast out the money changers three years earlier.
Logic would dictate that the priests should have supported Christ in his teaching, but they were the first to question and challenge him during the next three days.
Like at his birth in Bethlehem, there was no place for him to reside in Jerusalem as no comforts were afforded Jesus causing him to go to nearby Bethany each evening.
His entry on Palm Sunday was like that of a king, yet by the end of the week he was murdered on the cross as a criminal.
He was celebrated when they came into Jerusalem as a wonderful person and miracle worker then by the end of the week he was rejected.
Jesus taught peace and love and redemption while his enemies plotted to do away with him.
Judas was one of them who celebrated the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday not knowing himself that he would be a traitor and commit suicide before Jesus died on the cross for him and all of us.
All of the residents of Jerusalem were present on Palm Sunday including every one of us though we were yet to be born.
Jesus taught in the temple beginning on Palm Sunday the truth of Scripture while the teachers at the temple continued in their ways toward their own ultimate eternal death.
The divine Jesus, third person of the Trinity, was among the people on Palm Sunday while they treated him merrily as a human celebrity.
On Palm Sunday Jesus was welcomed into the city and cheered as Jesus knew he would be soon rejected and crucified outside the city.
Palm Sunday showed how fickle humanity could be as Jesus was steady in his mission for the salvation of humanity.
The people who cheered him in several ways on Palm Sunday were no different to most people today who treat the day is a holiday with new clothes and special meals.
Let us today realize how greatly significant the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem was on Palm Sunday only for the reason of his love for us so that we can be reconciled to the Heavenly Father.
What other contrasts can you provide for Palm Sunday?
Christian Writer 