We call it Passion Week or Holy Week. It starts on Palm Sunday and comes to its grand finale on Easter Sunday. It begins with Jesus humbly riding a young donkey into Jerusalem, crescendos at Calvary, and culminates as Jesus victoriously vanquishes death and the grave.
More than half a millennia before the first Palm Sunday, the Prophet Zechariah had foretold, “Look, your King is coming to you; he is righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zechariah 9:9, CSB).
It happened just that way.
“They brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes on it, and he sat on it. Many people spread their clothes on the road, and others spread leafy branches cut from 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! He went into Jerusalem and into the temple...” (Mark 11:7–11, CSB).
Instead of parading into the city in the open-topped Cadillac limousine, Jesus chose a rusty bicycle. Okay... It wasn’t a white charger adorned with a silver-studded saddle and draped with the royal robes of a king. He entered the city mounted on a young donkey covered with a worn-out coat. Humble. Meek. Modest. Unpretentious.
“The large crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, they took palm branches and went out to meet him. They kept shouting: ‘Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord—the King of Israel!’ ” (John 12:12–13, CSB).
In the crowd was a once-leprous man, healed by Jesus’ loving touch. With 20-20 vision, a man born blind watch and waved. Dad, mom, and a passel of little kids stood together remembering the day that Jesus had provided bread and fish to five-thousand hungry families. With a clear mind and a happy heart, a man once racked and wrecked by dozens of demons, a man set free, cheered his Great Emancipator. With a multitude more, each worshipped the Son of David, the promised Messiah, the Man who had changed the course of their lives.
Like those who celebrated the Coming King on the first Palm Sunday, we’ll line the avenues and boulevards to joyfully hail the arrival! The pageantry will be spectacular! With the Victor upon a magnificent mount, His royal procession will march in triumphantly, gloriously, with every battle won and every foe vanquished!
The King is coming ... soon!
“Hosanna! Save us now! Save us now!”
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