journey onWord with us

It wasn’t what it looked like. Not to Him. He didn’t want for a “parade.” He deliberately chose the lowliest possible mount upon which to ride into the city. He didn’t assemble an entourage to walk with Him. He didn’t give a speech or stage an event near the seat of power. His deliberate preparation that day was to pause on the Mount of Olives, waiting for two disciples to return with the young donkey whose owner knew to say yes, but had no earthly idea why. No, this was not what it must have looked like to almost everyone else who was there that day.

The crowds had begun to gather. There was a buzz on the jam-packed streets. The plethora of pilgrims were there for the great Passover festival, but they were also now hurrying to find a good spot from which to see their saver (yes, I said that right). Certainly, some had already believed in the Savior, but so many more expected Him to be something that sounds so close yet means something diametrically different. Their cries that day spoke the truth of their deep-seated expectations. “Save us!” they shouted.

But the One they expected to ascend to a throne would instead sit low, continuing a pattern that began with His choice of how and where He came to be one of us in order to redeem us. Immanuel, God with us, stooping low at His birth and now riding low in the direction of His death … and resurrection. Most people were convinced this triumphal entry was Jesus being done with all the pleasantries and getting down to the business of freeing them from brutal oppression. He had preached for long enough. Now it was time to act. But this wasn’t what it looked like. Not to Him. Jesus was entering the city because it was the appointed time and place for the execution … of God’s plan of redemption. God’s people were being oppressed and Jesus had come to free them, but sin, not Rome, was in the Crosshairs. Might would not make things right. Redemption would require the willing and selfless sacrifice of God’s perfect Lamb.

We can’t possibly know the look on Jesus’ face as He rode into and through the city that day. I wonder if those whose hearts were fixed on freedom from oppression walked away curious or confused by it. I wonder if the true believer saw it in ways the others couldn’t. Jesus’ life and the story of that day suggest His countenance shown a peace that passed all understanding. Compassion for the ones He knew He would soon disappoint or enrage. Contentment with God’s plan and purpose that would demand the most brutal pain and sacrifice. Certain of the truth that very soon sin would be conquered once and for all and death would be put to death.

This sacred Sunday is the seminal sentence in the story of this week of all weeks. Fix your eyes on the Savior who sat low.