Thank you for joining us on this week-long journey, following Jesus’ path to the cross.

Our hope is that you will draw closer to the Lord in this season, while we examine the Passion of our Christ.

Today is Palm Sunday, so we will pick up in John 12:12-19 (ESV):

¹² The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. ¹³ So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” ¹⁴ And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written,

  ¹⁵       “Fear not, daughter of Zion;
          behold, your king is coming,
                 sitting on a donkey’s colt!”

¹⁶ His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him. ¹⁷ The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. ¹⁸ The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. ¹⁹ So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.”

Before entering Jerusalem, Jesus had just spent time in Bethany where he raised his friend, Lazarus, from the dead. It was at this point that the chief priests began to plot to kill Lazarus because, “on account of him many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus.” 

It is interesting to note that the religious leaders of the day who knew the scriptures better than anyone, did not recognize the one whom all scripture points to. Instead of perceiving Jesus as Lord, they saw him as a liability to their own following. 

When Jesus enters the story of your life, he requires every part of us. Luke 14:25-33 details the high cost of following Jesus, culminating in the final verse which says, “33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.” 

For the Pharisees, “all that he has” was too high a price. The Pharisees said in frustration, “Look, the world has gone after him.”
The question we must ask ourselves is: Who are we going after? The “correct answer” is supposed to be “I’m going after JESUS!” Is that true in your life? Is it the desire of your heart to know him and make him known, or are there other things that we have gone after?

This Palm Sunday, may we celebrate not only with the laying down of palm branches, but of all the things we have placed more value in than God. May we rightly see who Jesus is; The Messiah, The Anointed One, God in flesh, and the one who laid down his life for his people.

Lord, in view of who you are and what you have done, help me love you more. More than being liked by others, more than having my way, more than the sin that I have allowed to entangle me. You are worthy of all glory, honor, and praise. Forgive me when I give myself over to the things you hate. Help me to surrender fully to you today.