Welcome to the first day of our pilgrimage, and well done for finding the poster!
Today is Palm Sunday. It gets its name from the story of what happened in Jerusalem on the Sunday before Jesus died.
Read about it in John 12:12-16 (hover over this to read it – or click to open in a new window).
Did you see where it mentioned the branches of palm trees? The people were really excited about Jesus and waved palm branches to welcome him to Jerusalem. Palms had been symbols of victory for many years. In fact, about 200 years earlier, crowds had welcomed another man to Jerusalem by waving palm branches. His name was Judas Maccabee and his story is celebrated by the Jewish Festival of Hannukah. There are two key things in that story:
- the amazing victory of Judas Maccabee over a much larger army, and
- his work in restoring the temple in Jerusalem which had been spoiled by his enemies.
It seems that the crowds in Jerusalem were expecting Jesus to save them from the Romans in a similar way.
But Jesus chooses to ride on a donkey, not a war horse. John tells us (v16) that Jesus’ followers didn’t understand this at the time. Happily, looking back later, they did. John helps us to see what they came to understand by telling us that a prophecy from about 500 years earlier is actually about Jesus. Read Zechariah 9:9-10 to see.
By choosing to ride a donkey, Jesus was showing he was a different kind of king. His kingdom would be one of peace.
Reflection
What challenges are you facing in your life at the moment? What is causing you sadness or stress?
So often, we look for the wrong kind of solutions. The Bible suggests that Jesus is the one who can bring us lasting peace, even in difficult times.
If you are interested in finding out more about this, join the pilgrimage again tomorrow to see what happened next in Jesus’ story and to learn how your story might be different.
Onwards…
Today’s Codeword is “John”. Add this to the other codewords through the course of the week to unlock a prize.
Tomorrow’s poster will be outside number 38 High Street.