The cross becomes even more significant when the failure of the people to truly embrace the King is understood. They think they need a political/military king to free them from the Romans and corrupt Jewish leadership, but Jesus knows what they need is a savior from sin - the cross! How does one who worshipped Him one day and cried crucify Him several days later find hope and forgiveness? The Cross! This is why I choose to spend one of the few times many people come to church in the year (Palm Sunday) to focus on Jesus' crucifixion rather than His triumphal entry. It is the crucifixion where God's wrath is satisfied and the glory of God's grace in Jesus is on display. This is the centerpiece of all creation and can't be over emphasized!
If we understand and accept what the cross is about, we will be on Jesus' side when He comes to reign. If we only hear about the triumphal entry and the resurrection without embracing and celebrating the cross and Jesus' payment for our sin, we will find ourselves among the conquered when Jesus returns to reign.
One solution would be to have the week between Palm Sunday and Resurrection Sunday serve as a week of revival. By spending a week on the events leading up to the crucifixion the whole story could be covered in chronological order without missing the most important thing - Jesus' sacrifice for sin on the cross. Of course the Palm Sunday and Resurrection Sunday only attendees would probably not attend many midweek services anyway. As usual, my plans are less then perfect.
Thanks be to God for His perfect plan that culminated on the cross!
Well said brother. Only as I see what Jesus went through for me do I catch the faintest glimpse of the depths of His love. And as a bonus, I get to see hopefully anew the depths of my NEED for the Savior. I think we often want clean, conquering Jesus-but not bloodied and bruised Jesus. We want the miracles, but not the hard teachings and rebukes. To sum up, we want the Savior but not the Lord. Glory to God, beloved. tj
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