On this Sunday before Easter, there are meaningful suggested readings from Scripture. There is a profound selection from Philippians 2 about Jesus humbling Himself and dying before being exalted by the heavenly Father. There are Gospel accounts about Jesus entering Jerusalem to the praise of the crowds (for ex., John 12:12-19). And there are long readings from the Gospels about our Lord’s Suffering and His Death on the Cross.
Of course, in the popular mind, this is Palm Sunday. People like to recall this moment of external triumph. Jesus rides into Jerusalem to fulfill a prophecy from Zechariah 9. By coming to King David’s city on a donkey, Jesus is making a Messianic claim. He is coming in humility and peace to begin His rule. And despite their confused ideas about the nature of Christ, many praise Him. Jesus the Christ receives the praise that He deserves, and like the ancient crowd, we tend to get caught up in the enthusiasm.
Unfortunately, many people who praised Jesus that day did not really understand Him. They used great and honorable titles for Him, but they did not sense what sort of king He was. So by the end of the week, many who praised Jesus turned on Him, and some would go from shouting “Hosanna” to shouting “crucify him.” Even those who remained sympathetic to Him and His teachings, including His closest disciples, would flee in confusion and fear.
On that first Palm Sunday, Jesus was asking for spiritual and moral commitment, but the people in the crowds were looking for other things. They were blinded by their physical, material, and worldly aspirations. Jesus Christ came to redeem people from their sins. He came to offer His life to deliver them from the power of evil. He came to conquer death through His innocent suffering and death. He came to rise again, establish the kingdom of heaven, and offer eternal life and blessed life in God’s presence.
But most people, even would-be disciples, misunderstood. They were looking for Him to bring them temporal or worldly blessings. Their chief desires were things such as wealth, power, free food, healing and health, material comfort, and external happiness. And when they began to realize that He wasn’t that kind of king, their responses to Him started to change.
All too often, modern people, even many who say that they are Christians, are much like those first century crowds. Many human beings continue to have poor understandings of redemption. We still look for false messiahs. We still misunderstand what kind of Messiah, what kind of king, Jesus is. We still try to make Him fit our personal preferences.
People still tend to focus on the material, physical and worldly aspects of Christ’s divine kingship. Yes, He does care about all aspects of human life, and He asks His followers to care as well. He wants us to live in general safety and health with reasonable food, shelter, medical care, rest, and so on. But such matters are not His primary or ultimate concerns for human beings. He is not a worldly king. He does not preach some sort of distorted prosperity or social gospel.
Instead, Christ’s main concerns are spiritual. Although He cares for our earthly lives, but He focuses more on our spiritual and eternal lives. He knows that human beings will always have crosses to bear in this world. And He wants people to respond to those crosses in ways that lead to resurrection and eternal life spent with Him.
As Christians, our priorities are spiritual and moral. Faith in Jesus as the Savior of our eternal souls comes first. Then we respond in love- love for God and for our neighbors. Many things can be included in our faithful responses. We do good deeds to the extent that we are physically and materially able. We express love for our neighbors through polite words or kind actions. We also love our neighbors by pointing them to Jesus Christ, who alone can give their lives the deepest meaning and save their souls. We support the Church and charitable institutions. We study Scripture. But above all, we love God and express that love spiritually through worship and prayer.
During this Holy Week, let us seek to better understand and appreciate the kind of king that Jesus really is. Jesus Christ is a spiritual king who comes in humility and peace to establish His rule in our hearts, minds, and souls. He is a king who asks us to keep following Him even when the hymns of praise fade. He is a king who asks for our loyalty as He and we walk the way of the cross.
Jesus Christ certainly deserves our praise, our “hosannas.” He deserves praise more than anyone else. But the praise He wants is not just for the big events and celebrations. He wants our praise and our loyalty even on ordinary dull days. And He even asks for our praise and our loyalty on the days, like Good Friday, when the honor and cheers of the crowd turn into rejection and jeers.
No comments:
Post a Comment