Having been away for a while, it’s always good to be welcomed home. I for one enjoy being greeted enthusiastically – even if it is by a four-legged furry fiend who tends to make a lot of noise as he does so.
But then I guess he’s just excited to have his master home, anticipating, as he no doubt is, how I will provide him with everything he wants – which, thankfully, is rarely anything more than a daily walk, never-ending attention, and something to fill his empty stomach – such as it is after devouring most of the plant life in our back garden.
Today, though, his actions remind me how Jesus was welcomed by those who made a good deal of noise when he entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.
In ancient times, when a homecoming King approached a city, the people would go out to meet him. And they would celebrate his arrival while escorting him along the few remaining miles of his journey.
So then, as the people waved palm branches and shouted their joyful hosannas, they too were welcoming the one they saw as the long-promised King – the Messiah they hoped would provide them with everything they wanted – specifically their liberation from the Romans who at that time occupied their land. [Matthew 21:1-11]
But what followed was not what the people anticipated. Because much like he sometimes still does with us, God often works in unexpected ways – and not infrequently in a manner that is not, initially at least, to our liking.
Which is why Jesus, a King like no other, rode into Jerusalem, not on a warhorse, but on a donkey. And why he made his way alongside the great many Passover lambs that would also have been entering the city that day.
For he too would be a sacrificial lamb – one that by his death would accomplish the liberation the people most needed – not from the Romans, but from sin and death instead.
And that’s why, five days later, those who had once cried out to him for salvation, would cry out for him to be crucified. [Mark 15:13] A clamour to which, had we been there, we might well have added our voice.
But by submitting to what they thought they wanted, Jesus gave them – and us – what we did not know we needed.
Because by allowing himself to be nailed to a cross, by suffering and dying there in our place, he bore the full punishment that our sin deserves – in order that death would no longer have the final word.
For that final word belongs to Jesus.
As was proved on the third day, when God once again subverted all our expectations by raising Him back to life. [Acts 13:30]
And then, just a few weeks later, Jesus ascended, not just to heaven but to a throne. One from which he has continued to reign ever since – and will continue to do so for evermore.
For Jesus Christ is King – and God’s chosen King at that.
All of which means that when, as the Bible promises, He returns, He will come, not only as the Lord of lords, but the King of kings as well.
And, we are told, those who are His will meet Him ‘in the air’ [1 Thessalonians 4:17], not to be whisked away to some distant place, leaving the earth empty of believers, but to welcome Him, and then, like those conquering kings of old, escort Him to the place where his kingdom will be fully established – not in some small corner of the globe, but throughout the whole of the created order.
When we all will sing again – not Hosanna, but Hallelujah. Because the salvation once longed for will at last have been secured.
As the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. [Revelation 19:6]
Related posts:
To read ‘Visions of Blue: Echoes of Grace’, click here
To read ‘Minding the Gap’, click here
To read ‘And not just because baked beans get in the way’, click here
To read ‘The Kindness We Don’t Needand the Truth We Do’, click here
To read ‘No Ifs or Buts’, click here
To read ‘Hope in the Ashes: Why Sin Remains But Does Not Reign’, click here
To read ‘Hope for the Guilty’, click here
To read ‘When our best isn’t good enough’, click here
To read ‘On Narcissism…an the Pot Calling the Kettle Black’, click here
Some musings 