Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday

March 28, 2021

Mark 11:7-10 NIV

When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. 8 Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. 9 Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted, “Hosanna! “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”10 “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!” “Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

Zechariah 9:9 NIV

“Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

Horses were for war, but donkeys were for more peaceful journeys.

Is the Jesus we want, the Jesus we need?

Show paintings of Jesus from: https://thejesusquestion.org/2011/12/25/nativity-paintings-from-around-the-world/

Guatemala India China Uganda Australia

We cannot shape Jesus into our image. Jesus intends to shape us into his image.

Jesus isn’t a celebrity to be admired but Christ to be followed.

Malachi 3:1-3 NIV

"See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come," says the Lord Almighty. 2 But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner's fire or a launderer's soap.”

Mark 11:15-18 NIV

“On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, 16 and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. 17 And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.”18 The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.

This story isn’t an excuse for every angry action. ?

Anger – This can change, and it must change.

Hatred – I want my enemies to be humiliated or destroyed.

Their animals were not good enough, so they had to buy new ones from them. The Gentile’s currency was not the right kind, so the moneychangers made commissions on the exchanges.

This was happening in the court of the Gentiles. It was the place where “all nations” could come to worship.

Jesus was angry because they had made it so difficult to find God.

When we welcome Jesus into our lives, he’ll upend some tables.

Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess, we have lost our thirst for the waters of life; Having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity. And in our efforts to build a new earth we have allowed our vision of the new Heaven to dim. Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,

To venture on wider seas where storms will show your mastery.

Where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars.

16th century prayer – Sir Francis Drake