Passion Week Devotions 2021 – Sunday
Today is Palm Sunday, which marks the beginning of Passion Week. Passion Week is the week leading up to the crucifixion and resurrection of our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s called Passion Week because in Latin, the word ‘passion’ means to suffer. Every day this week I will be sending you a morning devotion. I hope you will welcome the intrusion into your inboxes, will take a moment to read it and to respond in prayer. I will be taking you through a chronological journey of our Lord’s final week. Much of the technical details are taken from the book, The Final Days of Jesus: The Most Important Week of the Most Important Person Who Ever Lived by Andreas Kostenberger and Justin Taylor. Let’s begin.
Sunday, March 29, AD 33
Passover crowds were gathered in full in the holy city of Jerusalem. The crowds were filled with messianic anticipation. It was on this day that Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on a donkey in fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecy (9:9), where it was predicted that Israel’s king would come riding on the foal of a donkey. The crowds shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” It was the shouts of the coronation of the king. Sometime after this grand entrance, Jesus met with some Greeks who were among the Passover pilgrims. In this interchange, Jesus predicted his death. He said that this was the very purpose for which he had come into the world. He would die by crucifixion and in doing so, would deal Satan a crushing blow.
Reflection:
We know that the crowds were mistaken about the kind of king they expected Jesus to be. They had created a king in their own image. What a letdown it must have been when, in just a few days, Jesus, their hoped-for king, was arrested and crucified. I think we, too, need to be careful of ‘creating Jesus in our own image.’ We shouldn’t place wrong expectations upon him. We may want him to be our therapist or merely a great moral teacher or even a king, like when we vote for the political candidate that we like. No, we should receive Jesus as he is -- the one who is a king, but not just some earthly national king, rather, he’s the Lord of the universe and not just a triumphant king; yes, he will be triumphant, but before his triumph, he will be humiliated, he will suffer and die.
