We begin this Holy Week with Palm Sunday, and the remembrance of our Lord’s entry into Jerusalem riding upon a colt, and the people placing their cloaks and branches of palm before him. This is the way of the entry of a king into the holy city.
The people shouted their acceptance as Jesus entered the city, saying “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord”. This statement was altogether true, as Jesus is indeed king, yet not the one that the people had been expecting. For generations, they had been told that their king would come to set things right, and to expel those who had come to occupy their holy city. They clung to this perception despite Jesus teachings, and the peaceful, loving, and forgiving acts that He performed. He did not come as a military leader, or conqueror. He came as the King of Peace whose only enemy was sin, who healed and forgave, and sought to instruct the people in a way of living that would draw them closer to the Father. He sought to forgive sins and thus heal the spirit as well as the body. He came as the suffering servant that has been foretold in prophecy, not as the warrior king and judge. As we begin this Holy Week, let’s spend some time in contemplation of Christ’s true message to all of us. The message of one who humbly accepted the suffering he was to endure, and ultimately His death, all for the sake of we who are unworthy, and yet loved so intensely by our God that He would take upon himself the suffering that was rightfully ours
The Deacons Bench 