When Jesus drew near to Jerusalem, and rode along on that small colt, the people placed on the ground before him their cloaks and palms branches, because they acknowledged Him as their king. This was a sign that they were looking to him to lead them, and to be fully allegiant and devoted to Him. No one but Jesus knew yet of the things that would transpire and lead to his passion and death on the cross. All they knew, was that they desired our Lord to be with them and to lead them.
The question, as we celebrate this Palm Sunday, is whether that is truly our desire as well. Do we really want Jesus as our leader? Do we have the desire to follow Him without reservation and without conditions being placed upon our willingness to do His will? We call Him God, we profess that He is our King, we pray to Him and ask His help, but do we really submit to Him as we should for our Lord and King? Our words can sound right, and perhaps even our intentions are good, but do our actions show that we are truly His followers and subjects?
A true king’s word is law, there is no ambiguity or questioning his word. The people of Jerusalem knew Jesus’ teachings and were willing to submit, and to have Him as their source of direction, knowledge and law. All this, without even knowing of the loving sacrifice He would soon subject himself to in His passion and death. What is more, they did not know of His resurrection that would take place. Had they known, they would have been all the more adamant.
Yet today, we know of Jesus passion, death, and resurrection. We have the benefit of knowledge and the wisdom passed on in what is written in scripture and given witness to by the apostles themselves who saw it all firsthand, and in the people of subsequent generations who struggled to keep His word, even if in some cases it would mean their deaths. We have all of this available to us, and yet we often stray from His word, we try to interpret it in ways that will make it more palatable to our own ideas and agenda’s, and in some cases we outright reject some of His teachings because we have decided to pick and choose what to believe and what to discard because we feel it might be too costly to us. This is not the way to acknowledge a king, and if we are to call ourselves believers with any semblance of truth to be ascribed to our words, then we must make some changes.
So, how do we do this? First and foremost, we need to make a decision. Do we truly want to follow Jesus Christ? Are we willing to shoulder the cross that He has told us we must each bear? Are we willing to give up our own prideful inclinations and intellectual vanities and accept what He has told us is the way to eternal life? If the answer to these questions is yes, then our work is just beginning. We need to take a deep look at ourselves and how we are currently living our lives. We need to do a truly unvarnished examination of conscience, not matter how uncomfortable that may be. Then lastly we need to develop a plan of action to keep ourselves on track going forward. We live in a world that screams and whispers its contempt for following Jesus and promises its sensual pleasures in exchange, so we need something to combat that. We need to place parameters on our lives on a permanent basis that will lead us to Jesus and strengthen our relationship with Him. We cannot do this ourselves; we need His involvement if there is to be any hope of success. We need to have regular time set aside for prayer, and for the reading of His word, in order to gain a truly intimate understanding of His will. You can’t hope to do someone’s will unless you understand it, and you have enough trust in them and their words to see you through when times get difficult, this can only come through prayer and reading of scripture on a regular basis. What is then left, is to actually put all of this into practice in everything we do. There is no part of our lives that Jesus should not be a part of. He gave everything He had for each of us, He’s proven His wisdom and His love for us, now it’s our turn to lay down our palm branches and cloaks in front of the one who loves us most and deserves our fidelity and love in return.
Podcast Link
The Deacons Bench 