April 09, 2006
Palm Sunday: Jesus Enters Jerusalem
This is an excellent passage from Fulton Sheen’s Life of Christ:
“Tell the daughter of Zion, Here is your king, who comes to you in gentleness, riding on a donkey.” - - Matthew 21:5The prophecy came from God through a prophet, and now God Himself was bringing it to fulfillment. The prophecy of Zechariah was meant to contrast the majesty and the humility of the Savior. As one looks at the ancient sculptured slabs of Assyria and Babylon, the murals of Egypt, the tombs of the Persians, and the scrolls of the Roman columns, one is struck by the majesty of kings riding in triumph on horses or in chariots, and sometimes over the prostrate bodies of their foes. In contrast to this, here is One Who comes triumphant upon an ass. How Pilate, if he was looking out of his fortress that Sunday, must have been amused by the ridiculous spectacle of a man being proclaimed as a King, and yet seated on the beast that was the symbol of the outcast – a fitting vehicle for one riding into the jaws of death! If He had entered into the city with regal pomp in the manner of conquerors, He would have given occasion to believe that He was a political Messiah. But the circumstance He chose validated His claim that His Kingdom was not of this world. There is no suggestion that this pauper King was a rival of Caesar.
How can we stand and lay down the palm branches welcoming Christ in our lives? Christ desires deeply to enter in the Jerusalem within each of us and conquer the city through His love.
God bless,
Jay
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