This Sunday we celebrate the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem on the week of his death and resurrection. As He entered the city he was surrounded by people shouting “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven.” How did Jesus go from this adulation to an arrest, trial and crucifixion within one week? As Jesus entered the city the whole place was abuzz and stirred up with people asking, “Who is this? The people in the crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.” (Matthew 21). 

The thing about Jesus is that He always surprised those who encountered Him. When adults shooed children away from Him when teaching he rebuked them and with kids on his lap said, unless you become like one of these you will never see the Kingdom of Heaven. In a day when men didn’t give women regard, Jesus went out of His way to honor them. When people rebuked blind men from calling after Jesus to regain their sight, Jesus stopped and healed them. When a woman spent a fortune on perfume to wash the head and feet of Jesus, He honored her while others were convinced she was wasting good money. When the Rich Young ruler asked what He should do to please God, Jesus replied give it all away and follow me. I don’t know about you but He has constantly surprised me as well. Being God, He does not fit our limited understanding.

This certainly was true as Jesus entered Jerusalem. The crowd got one thing right. He was the Son of David and He did come in the name of the Lord. Everything else they got wrong. They were sure the king would set things right, kick out the Romans from Jerusalem and liberate the Jews. After all, that is what a Messiah does. 

Yet when Jesus enters Jerusalem, instead of taking a right to the Roman headquarters in the city, He takes a left to the temple. “Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. ‘It is written,’ he said to them, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers.’ The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David, they were indignant. ‘Do you hear what these children are saying?’ they asked him. ‘Yes,’ replied Jesus, ‘have you never read, ‘From the lips of children and infants you, Lord have called forth your praise.’” (Matthew 21:12-17).

The surprises would continue to come as the week went on. Jesus ate with the one who would betray Him. He washed the feet of His disciples, something they didn’t have the humility to do, and then called them friends. When, at his arrest, one of his followers cut off the ear of a servant of the high priest, Jesus healed it. When before Pilate, Jesus refused to defend Himself. And then the King was killed before His ultimate surprise when the resurrection took place and death was put to death!

In every instance, where Jesus surprised people, He was fulfilling a larger, deeper and eternal purpose. Think about that truth. In every instance, where Jesus surprised people or surprises you, He is fulfilling a larger, deeper and eternal purpose. Just as on Palm Sunday and the week that followed, we may not understand what He is up to. It may not make sense to us and we may be praying for outcomes that are different than we are experiencing. 

But one thing we can be sure of. Whatever our circumstances, God is always up to something that has a larger, deeper and eternal purpose. Even when it doesn’t look like it in our lives. Just as the King didn’t look like He had life under control when He entered Jerusalem. 

Paul puts it this way in Romans 8:31-39. “What then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all - how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has Chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who   condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died - more than that, who was raised to life - is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present or the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Jesus entered Jerusalem with a larger, deeper and eternal purpose than anyone understood at the time. You may be wondering what God is up to in your own life today but be assured of this. He is the King and He has you, as Paul pointed out. But Good Friday teaches us that when God surprises you, He does so because he has a larger, deeper and eternal purpose for you. You may not know it today, but one day you will.

Jesus, I thank you that you entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to die so that I could be liberated from my sin. And thank you for the resurrection that gives me eternal hope. Help me to trust your larger, deeper and eternal purposes in my life. Amen

The Question for Today: Where do I need to trust the larger, deeper and eternal purposes in my life?