Palm Sunday: The Lord’s Entrance into Jerusalem.
Feast of our Lord.
Philippians 4:4-9; John 12:1-18.
Read John 12:1-18
There is a worse kind of loneliness than being alone. It is when we are with others and still feel all alone. Jesus knows how that feels. That feeling may make us want to withdraw from others and our participation in activities with them.
Jesus revealed himself to the apostles, but they did not understand him. When Jesus rode a young donkey into Jerusalem, they already knew what Zechariah 9:9 said, that this is how their king would come to them. They didn’t learn it for the first time after Jesus was glorified, they remembered it.
The great crowd only appeared to understand Jesus. They participated in the fulfillment of the prophesy, exclaiming that Jesus is the king of Israel who has come in the name of the Lord, but they came out to meet him because they heard he had raised Lazarus from the dead. Later, after speaking with the crowd, Jesus “departed and hid himself from them. Though he had done so many signs before them, yet they did not believe in him.” (John 12:36-37)
But Jesus’s departure from the crowd was not an alienated withdrawal. He wasn’t saying that he couldn’t take it anymore and that he was out of there. Just the opposite. Before departing he said, “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, for this purpose I have come to this hour… and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” (John 12:27,32) “We have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sinning.” (Hebrews 4:15)