Facing A Cross
- Don Roe
- Apr 5, 2009
“Facing a Cross”
Text: Matthew 21: 1-11
“Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord!”
- Matthew 21: 9b
The three synoptic gospels – Matthew, Mark, and Luke – tell of Jesus’ final
entry into the city of Jerusalem. After spending most of his ministry in Northern
Palestine, away form the capital city, Jesus and his followers head south to Jerusalem.
The area is crowded with pilgrims because Passover is approaching.
When Jesus arrives, his reputation had preceded him, and the people greet
him with a tumultuous welcome. Some persons cut palm branches and spread them on
the road. Some throw their cloaks underneath the donkey on which he was riding. And
all shout “Hosanna!”
The Pharisees, ever concerned with propriety, tell Jesus to order the people
not to make such a fuss; but, Jesus said to them, “I tell you, if these people were silent,
the very stones would cry out.”
I imagine that Jesus’ followers and friends were all quite pleased with the
victorious entrance into the holy city. After the way he was welcomed, his disciples think,
nothing can go wrong now. The people love him ! ! !
But, as we know, in a few short days, Jesus will have been arrested, abused,
interrogated, dragged into the public square, sentenced to death, and crucified. There
can be no doubt that Jesus’ followers, who had held such high hopes were, from the
moment of his crucifixion and death, devastated and destroyed.
Now, it is easy for us Christians today to look at the Cross and Jesus’ suffering
as something that took place in the distant past that leads to the glorious triumph of the
resurrection. There is a tendency in human nature to echo the words of William
Shakespeare: “Alls well that ends well.” Jesus we might say, got over his suffering and
recovered from it in his resurrection. This must have been mystifying for the disciples of
Jesus. It may still be mystifying to us.
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