Palm Sunday Reflection

Today, in celebration of Palm Sunday, we will take a break from the series on Servant Leadership with a special reflection from Doug MacColl, Program Director for Pastures Servant Leadership Training and Mentoring for Men. The series Seven Lessons in Servant Leadership: Nehemiah will continue tomorrow. We hope today’s will be a blessing to you as it challenges you to evaluate the cost of following Jesus.

Reflection

I still remember the day I got my first speeding ticket as if it were yesterday.  I had been driving for about three months, and as is the case here in the south, the weather was in that unpredictable pattern of the spring season when, in just a three-day period, you could experience 70-degree temps with sunshine, a full day of monsoon-like rain, and a day temps dipping back to near freezing with 20 mph winds!  On this morning, the monsoon-like rain had cleared, but roads were slick and standing water was prevalent.  Every morning, my mom would say, “Drive safely, and only go as fast as your Guardian Angel can fly.”  The road I was on was a four-lane, one-way road through downtown.  The speed limit was 35 mph.  As I crested the only hill on this road, just as clear as day was the city policeman aiming his radar gun at me.  He got me, and I knew it.  He pulled out of the side road and fell right in behind me with his lights and siren on.  Accepting the lecture and ticket from this officer was easy compared to what lay ahead of me: calling my mom to tell her I got a speeding ticket!  The dread that overtook me, the fear of how my mom would react, and the shame of knowing I’d betrayed her trust to be a safe driver felt like I was being crushed on all sides.  All I wanted to do was escape having to tell her, but I couldn’t.

I imagine we have all had an experience where we wanted to escape the inevitable but couldn’t.  Now imagine the emotions Jesus must have been feeling as he rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday nearly 2000 years ago.  Suddenly, a speeding ticket, a lie we told, or a friend we betrayed seems inconsequential compared to what Jesus knew was awaiting him.  Friends, Jesus knew his final stop in Jerusalem was going to hurt. Flogging and crucifixion were as bad as it could get. He didn’t prize comfort, convenience, or even his own life.  He knew the cross was waiting for him…and he came anyway.  As Jesus fulfilled the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9 riding a donkey into the city where he would die, it’s likely some of the people who shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David!  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” may also have been the voices yelling “Crucify Him, Crucify Him” less than a week later. 

Application

Palm Sunday is an incredible dichotomy of the lifelong mismatch between what we think we need and what God provides. The people of Israel believed they needed a sword-wielding warrior king to free them from Roman oppression.  What God gave them was a gentle, tender, and loving King who came to defeat a much greater enemy, and the only blood that would be shed would be his own.   What we think we need is almost always shallow, and what God does instead is very confusing. As we come to God, he gives us what we really need, and in the long run, what he gives us will exceed our needs.  God always gives you what you would have asked for if you knew everything he does.  We come to God all the way downstream with our felt needs, and he travels against the current all the way to the headwaters and source of our needs.

So, let’s rewind quickly.  Before Jesus’ final days in Jerusalem, he took his disciples on a last retreat to an area called Caesarea Philippi. Whether you read this Gospel account in Mark 8 or Matthew 16, it was here Jesus shared the mission into which he called his disciples: no less than a search-and-rescue mission for the ages to take people out of the grip of darkness and rescue them from a bleak eternity without God - an eternal rescue that only the Son of God could accomplish.  It was also here Peter proclaimed Jesus the Messiah, and when he did, Jesus invited him to join the mission.  He affirmed Peter’s unique place in the mission and, handed him the authority to be involved, and made the first declaration upon whom the Christian Church would be built. Friends, we also have a unique place in this mission, as well as the authority in the Kingdom through Christ Jesus.  But I wonder, do we believe it?

Consider for a moment the people God used in Jesus’ life as he marched toward his fate in Jerusalem.  With Peter, Mary, Judas, and Pilate, good or bad, God used each of these people as part of His plan.  Or consider some Old Testament figures like Moses, Jacob, Elijah, or David.  Every one of these individuals was flawed or less than perfect, but God used them in mighty ways to advance His kingdom.  The same privilege rests in each one of us today, flaws and all!

Jesus was fully committed to his Father's purpose, no matter the cost. He submitted willingly in Jerusalem to suffering because that’s what it took. Jesus’ purpose was for you and me to have a way to enter his Father’s Kingdom. He believed the eternal life of the people his Father loved was worth whatever brutality awaited him in Jerusalem. Jesus' suffering on the cross was part of the full and final defeat of God's enemy.  His purpose in Jerusalem would have reverberations far beyond his own life—but it would cost him his.  Jesus would end the reign of Satan, sin, and death over the earth, but he’d have to go directly into enemy territory to do it.

So, I ask you. Are your eyes and heart fixed on God’s plan for your life, or have you put your own agenda up on a pedestal? 

Do you have a mission that you’d boldly make yourself uncomfortable for, or do you prefer the comfort of playing small or playing it safe?  

Or perhaps you can relate to the Pharisees along the road who, in their blindness, still believed that conforming to a set of rigid laws was the only way to commune with God. Have you bought into God’s mission that would be worth a high cost, or are you more about “playing church” on Sundays and living for this world the rest of the week? 

Are you willing to freely give your time, money, and talent and even lose friends to do Kingdom work? 

When Jesus says in Matthew 16:24 ESV, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me,” how does your conscience react?

Sadly, too many of us back away from pursuing God's purpose for our lives because the personal risk or cost is too great, and instead of being like Peter or Mary, we are more like Judas or Pilate. With Jesus, we may take a path through death, but that path inevitably gives way to life. All loss gets turned into gain by our loving Father. So today, ask yourself, “What am I so afraid to lose, and why won’t I go ‘all in’ for Jesus?” Jesus showed us the way. He gave up everything for you and for me.  Maybe it’s time we should do the same for him.  Your tab of sin has been stamped “Paid in Full” with the blood of Jesus. God is sprinting full speed toward you with arms wide open.  

Challenge Question:

Which direction will you run today?

Explore the Word

Luke 19:28-44 NIV

Matthew 16:24 ESV

Zechariah 9:9

In Christ,

Doug