Hi, this is Joni and I hope you enjoyed a blessed Palm Sunday yesterday!
And you know what? It was a full moon last night, too. A beautiful weekend, I hope you had. And Palm Sunday has to be one of the most poignant days on the church calendar. Every Sunday school and church pulpit across America yesterday was, no doubt, telling the story of Jesus on the donkey riding into Jerusalem amidst the cheers of the crowd! People spreading their garments on the dirt road, waving palm branches, shouting at the top of their lungs, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” everybody was saying. Expectations were at a fever pitch; everyone was thinking, everyone was saying: The day has finally come, oh glory! Jesus is going to make His move finally and throw out the Romans! He’s going to release us from the burden of these dumb taxes! He’s going to feed us, provide for us, protect us, and we’re going to crown Him as our King!
And after all that you know what happened, don’t you: As the week wore on, the feel of the crowd shifted. People couldn’t understand why Jesus wasn’t making His move. Sure, He continued to heal and teach, but He remained strangely aloof -- a real recluse. He kept retreating to this outlying village every night, far removed from the action, the power brokers and political hot-shots in the city. Why wasn’t He getting on with the agenda? Taking control? Little wonder they began to think: You know, maybe this man’s not all He’s cracked up to be. We thought we knew Him, but maybe He’s just been pulling the wool over our eyes. It was all just a fluke. The rest is history. Not more than a week passed and His followers were clamoring for His crucifixion.
Now we read that story and we tend to think those people were different from us. We’d never be that fickle or erratic or unpredictable. Had we been there, we would have believed Jesus. I mean, all those miracles we would have seen… how much more proof would we need? Jesus had to be the Messiah, even if He were going about things a little weird. But I don’t know, I wonder... are we all that different? When our expectations are running high, when we think we’ve got God’s plan neatly figured, when we’ve even convinced ourselves that the King’s job is to make our lives easier, relieve our burdens, and lighten our pressures, do we cave in to doubts if God doesn’t come through? You better believe we do, don’t we?
Quick case in point: I received an email from a friend who is battling cancer right now. In it he talks about feeling a lot of anxiety and fear… he says he’s very sad and is worrying about the future of his family. Then in the next sentence, he writes, “But I am trusting God with all of this.” And I'm thinking to myself: you are?! Could have fooled me. How can we say we trust God in one breath, and then cave into anxiety, worry, fear and sadness the next! See what I mean?
The resurrection of Christ (which we will be celebrating in just a few short days)… Jesus’ resurrection gives us confidence that we can trust God no matter what the outcome. If God is for us, who can be against us? And he proved that in His resurrection. Yes, there is proof friend and if you are scratching your head wondering just what the proof of the resurrection is, I tell you what, I have a wonderful little 12-page laminated fold-out called “Evidences for the Resurrection” that I am sure will bolster your faith and shore up your confidence in the proof of Jesus raising from the dead. All you have to do is visit my radio page at joniandfriends.org and we’ll get that 12-page laminated fold-out to you right away. Would you please join me in giving Jesus PRAISE for who He is, the resurrected Lord, rather than what we think He should do for us?
Used by permission of
JONI AND FRIENDS
P.O. Box 3333
Agoura Hills, CA 91376
© Joni and Friends