Palm Sunday
This story is found in all four gospels. This is Passover and Jerusalem has thousands of pilgrims from all over the known world.
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.”
Hosanna was a cry of hope from an oppressed people living under Roman rule and it means 'Oh save' or 'Save us now'.
Just a week later Jesus would save them, but not in the way they ever would have imagined.
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.
If we create a god in our own image, we’ll attempt to use that god for our own benefit.
Jesus isn’t a celebrity to be admired but Christ to be followed.
He is Lord. He is the king. He’s alive, right now.
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.
The high priest ordered that only Tyrian shekels would be accepted for the annual half-shekel Temple tax because they contained a higher percentage of silver, so the money changers exchanged unacceptable coins for these shekels. Of course, they extracted a profit, sometimes much more than the law allowed.
This story isn’t an excuse for every angry action. ?
Anger – This must change because people are being harmed.
Hatred – I want my enemies to be destroyed.
Jesus was angry because they had made it difficult to find God.
Psalm 118:25-27 NIV
LORD, save us! LORD, grant us success!26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD. From the house of the LORD we bless you. 27 The LORD is God, and he has made his light shine on us. With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession up to the horns of the altar.
