Palm Sunday – triumphal entry of the Prince of Peace.

On Sunday 20 March 2016 billions of believers within the world-wide church will celebrate Palm Sunday.

We will remember a peace March in Jerusalem more than 2000 years ago and long for the Messiah of God to bring us peace and set us free, when we come to worship and sing our hosanna’s to the King of kings and prepare our hearts for commemorating his sacrifice of love and deliverance so soon to come!

Palm Sunday commemorates the Saviour’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem only days before his arrest and crucifixion — an event recorded in all four Gospels in the New Testament, emphasising its significance already during the time when the Gospels were written.

"This took place," says Matthew (21:4-5), "to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’” And: “Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road" (Matthew 21:8, quoting Zechariah 9:9-10).

And Luke tells us: "As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”  (Luke 19:37-38).

The Old Testament background to this day is found in Zechariah 9:9-10:

“Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!  Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey. And he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth."

Jesus was no military leader - he rode a donkey, not a warhorse — and his concern was pastoral and not political, as we read in Luke 19: 41 – 42:

As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes.

Oh, we pray that we would find peace when we celebrate the glory of the King of kings who gave his life to love us, bring us eternal peace and set us free from all bondage!