The Bethany Bullet Sermon Message - Week of April 14, 2019

No one likes expecting one thing to only receive something else.  In the world of marketing such is called "bait and switch".

Jesus rides into Jerusalem and is welcomed as King.  He enters the Holy City, in the eyes of many in the crowd assembled, to reign.  Yet, by week's end He is paraded out of the city as a criminal.  He is crucified outside the Holy City, in the eyes of many in the crowd assembled, as a blasphemer.

Those, or at least a great many of those, who greeted Jesus on Palm Sunday were expecting this to be the pinnacle of Jesus' ministry.  David's throne re-established God’s Kingdom come.  It could have been; Palm Sunday could have been the climax of the "Christ event" and had it been it would have been the closest to heaven we'd ever get.  A pilgrimage to Jerusalem to visit a temple made by hands would be the closest to holiness we could find ourselves.  

Hosanna, hosanna in the highest that Palm Sunday!  Praise God that Palm Sunday is the beginning of the week we call holy - not the completion!  In Jesus not only do we get the unexpected, we receive the undeserved.  Jesus exchanges a throne for a crown...of thorns.  He will not rule an earthly kingdom but establish an eternal one.  This King is the Prince of peace and His ultimate coronation is His crucifixion.  And we, by grace through faith, receive the unexpected - no longer are we simple members of a crowd who can see the King pass by.  We are sons and daughters of the King, citizens of the Kingdom, through whom the Kingdom is extended and the King seen.

-        Pr. Kevin Kritzer