They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them. And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: “Hosanna to the Son of David! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ Hosanna in the highest!”
And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, “Who is this?” So the multitudes said, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.” Matthew 21:7-11
Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and multitudes honored Him. They cried out His name and spoke of the prophetic word given centuries prior about the coming of Christ. In terms of Jesus’ ministry, this was possibly the most popular time in His ministry. In the natural, it would have been easy for Jesus to get distracted by the popularity. As a matter of fact, the triumphant entry may have raised disciples’ expectations about Jesus’ kingdom.
We can also get easily distracted by popularity. If we focus on being popular, it will compel us to do things to just get attention. We cannot let popularity take the place of our identity in Christ. Otherwise, we will begin to make compromises to remain popular.
Nowadays, the social media gives us an avenue to measure our popularity by the number people who like our posts. Some of us cannot put our phone down for more than few minutes at a time before we need a reassurance from our FB friends. We need to hear their complements and flattery.
Jesus knew behind all the song and dance, the people were not supportive of His true mission and had a false expectations of Him. False expectations lead people to disillusionment, and disillusionment leads to betrayal.
Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did. But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man. John 2:23-25
If Jesus had focused on popularity, He would have been disillusioned by people’s rejection. However, Jesus was prepared for the moment of his betrayal because He knew man’s fickle nature.
Palm Sunday is a reminder of Jesus’ march towards the cross and a warning of man’s temperamental attitude towards Him. Let’s thank Jesus for His commitment to be our Savior.
