Dear SCC & Friends,
Hosanna! ~John 12:13
Reflection #211
Palm Sunday celebrates Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. It is the beginning of Holy Week, and what a week it was. We will never know this side of heaven what terrible struggles took place in the spiritual world between Palm Sunday and Easter morning. ~Rodney Buchanan~ So many times Jesus had told His disciples, “My time has not yet come.” …but now His time had come… Today was the day to openly declare the Messiah is here. Fear not, daughter of Zion; Behold, your King comes sitting on a donkey’s colt. ~Jn 12:15 Hosanna is derived from two Hebrew words – Yasha, which means “to save and deliver” and Anna, which means “please, I beseech”. And many spread their garments in the road, and others spread leafy branches which they had cut from the fields… and they were crying out, Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord… ~Mk. 11-7-10 The King is coming, the people are praising. Five days after the cries of “Hosanna”they were to be replaced with the cries of “Crucify Him!”
They had to stop Him… You see that you are not doing any good; look, the world has gone after Him. ~Jn. 12:19 All of us can be hostile and selfish to protect self-interests and loyalties. Judas, one of the twelve apostles, betrayed Him for thirty pieces of silver… Peter denied Him out of fear… Except for John, the other apostles abandoned Him in chaos and confusion after His arrest… The religious world plotted His death. …they planned together to kill Him. ~Jn. 11:53 He was to face six trials in twenty-four hours and was declared not guilty three times by Pontious Pilate. Guilty Barabbas would be freed while innocent Jesus would go to the cross. Jesus set His face like flint towards Jerusalem. His mission was clear. Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried…All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. ~Isa. 53:4,6 Praise the Lord… our wonderful Redeemer paid a debt He did not owe because we owed a debt we could not pay. Glory to God… Keep up the good work!
The King has come!
Kevin