Palm Sunday, is the first day of Holy week leading up to Easter Sunday, also known as Resurrection Sunday.
You'll find the story of His Triumphal entry in each of the gospel writings as follows;
Matthew 21:1-11
Mark 11:1-11
Luke 19:28-44
John 12:12-19
And the parable of the Sower in,
Matthew 13:18-23
As I read these gospel writings I'm imagining that within the crowd of people in celebration there are four different groups.
Those who knew Jesus as the One who had been sent by God the Father to fullfill the Old Testament propheshies and believed Him to be the Savior.
Others saw and heard what He had preached and how He had cared for people. They figured, follow Jesus and something good will come your way.
Then there are those who didn't believe any off it and hated Him.
And the last group didn't know Him and didn't care.
It's interesting to compare these group to those Jesus talks about in the Matthew 13 parable of the Sower. It's further interesting to think of these groups still existing today and to examine ourselves to see which group we belong to. I know I have been a member of each group through my life and constantly need to check myself to make sure I'm pleasing God.
As we enter this Holy Week let's ask God to reveal facets of our life that create a distancing between us and Jesus. Distancing that if ignored could place us into a group we never thought we'd belong to. Afterall, how many people that cheered forJesus as He entered Jerusalem were among those who called out against Him later that same week, thinking more of themselves than they did of Jesus.
If you are in a group that is less than fully devoted to Jesus, just turn toward Him asking for foregiveness and pray to fully understand His gift of the cross.
There will be a continuing Holy Week blog this Wednesday.