It's Palm Sunday, one of the most upbeat Sundays of the year. It's a Sunday full of joy because it celebrates Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem with huge crowds of people celebrating, waving palm branches and shouting “Hosanna in the highest!” They thought that Jesus was their Messiah, the King of kings, as indeed He was. Of course things turned out differently than they had expected, with Jesus’ going to a cross instead of a throne. Nevertheless, it was good that they celebrated His entry into Jerusalem that way; He certainly deserved it. Closely connected to the story of Jesus’ entering Jerusalem is His then going to the temple and cleaning it out of all the people who were using it as a place to do business instead of for worship.

Let's take a fresh look at Jesus' entry into Jerusalem and His cleaning out the temple. I began writing this message on Tuesday as I was flying at 36,000 feet, coming back from Mexico. As I sat there studying all four of the gospels and their accounts of these two events, I settled on Matthew's account. As I read and re-read his account I observed three different reactions to Jesus when He cast out the money changers and business people in the temple. All three reactions can be stated in words that begin with the letter “R”.

(1) REJECTING
Some people in the temple responded by rejecting Jesus, and amazingly those people were the religious leaders! The apostle Matthew was there, and he saw the events unfold; his account states, “But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple area, 'Hosanna to the Son of David,' they were indignant.” (Matthew 21:15)

It never ceases to amaze me that those who were best known for being religious rejected Jesus most of all, but they had much to lose by accepting Him. They wanted to be the spiritual leaders, and if they accepted Jesus as God's anointed they'd have to give that title to Him. It would also mean re-thinking what it means to live in favor with God: it isn't based on rules and rituals, it’s based on a relationship with the Heavenly Father.

The same is true today. One of the primary reasons that people reject Christ is that accepting Him would mean having to live for Him. Many people who say that they have trouble believing in Jesus, or even in God, aren't really struggling with intellectual and philosophical issues about what’s true. They're struggling with the idea that if Jesus is who it’s claimed that He is, it will turn their worlds upside down – or perhaps a better way to put it is that it will turn their worlds right side up! There are profound implications when a person admits that Jesus deserves to rule all of his life.

Someone responded recently to a midweek E-mail Update that I send every Wednesday. This person was originally an atheist, and she was reflecting on her life before Christ when she wrote, “ I was too much of a Vulcan [a reference to the non-emotional race of people in the Star Trek series] to admit terror at the time, but I think I WAS terrified at the idea of anybody else having irrevocable control over me.”

Rejecting Jesus is often a case of rejecting the idea that anyone but ourselves is going to control our lives. However, who’s better to do that than the perfect, loving, all-wise Son of God?

Even those of us who have accepted Jesus as our Master and Lord face a daily, if not moment-by-moment, struggle to keep from rejecting His leadership; we often want to do things our own way. Rejecting Jesus and His will is a constant temptation, even for His followers!

(2) REJOICING
One great thing about Palm Sunday is that it shows us how we ought to respond to Jesus: we should be a rejoicing people! The crowd certainly rejoiced, waving palm branches and shouting, “Hosanna in the highest!” as they followed Jesus, who was riding a donkey, into Jerusalem. It’s interesting that the celebrating was continued in the temple — by the children! Matthew wrote, “. . . the children shouting in the temple area, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David’ . . . .” (Matthew 21:15)

I just came back from visiting nine of my ten grandchildren in Mexico, so the idea of kids’ imitating adults is fresh in my mind. Several times we laughed at the way Ana, the youngest, imitated the other kids or us adults. We were delighted by it! Jesus was delighted by the children’s imitating what they had seen their parents do in the Palm Sunday parade. The children danced and ran around waving palm branches, shouting “Hosanna!” just like the adults had.

I'm afraid we have far too little rejoicing in our lives as followers of Jesus — and I include myself in this observation. Once I was doing some work at a coffee counter in a local restaurant, and I guess the burdens of ministry must have been weighing heavily on me because the waitress behind the counter, who knew me well as a regular customer, felt free to observe, “You look sad.” Her words convicted me. Of all the people in that restaurant (though there could have been other Christians there too) I had faith in God and a personal relationship with Jesus, yet I stood out as being sad!

Life is difficult, and we aren't always going to be happy with our circumstances. However, we ought to get a grip on our faith in Christ. He loves us and He's with us! Through everything, He has a plan for us and we have His help! If we really believe that’s true, we ought to rejoice more!

The apostle Paul said that same thing in three short, succinct verses (they’re all one sentence in the NIV translation): “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18) The middle command is to “pray continually,” and it seems logical that the two commands that “bookend” it are commands to be joyful and thankful. When we have a constant connection and dependence on the Lord (that's what it means to “pray continually”), we can be joyful and thankful, rejoicing even in the midst of great challenges and difficulties. This “pray continually” command leads us to the third and final response to Jesus’ entering Jerusalem and the temple.

(3) REQUESTING
I find it intriguing that after he described Jesus’ causing such a ruckus in the temple, Matthew jumped to a completely different observation: “The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them.” The strong, former Galilean carpenter turned over tables, released animals, and shouted that His Father's house should be a house of prayer — and then blind and lame people approached Him!

Apparently the very needy people who gathered at the temple, probably as beggars, had little trouble believing that the same Jesus who was cleansing the temple could help them, healing them and cleansing them of what was wrong with them! Matthew reported that Jesus did heal them. The same Jesus who had the authority to overturn the money changers' tables and throw out the merchants had the authority to heal those who were hurting.

Some people rejected Jesus, some rejoiced in Him, and some requested things of Him. As His followers, Jesus wants us to come to Him with everything: every burden and every challenge. He doesn't expect us to handle things on our own, and He doesn't want us to: He wants us to come to Him! We can be intimidated by the power of the Lord or we can be helped by it! When we know Him personally we don't fear His power; we put our faith in it!

In that midweek E-mail Update I referred to my blog, where I had posted a picture of Popo (a volcano that's twenty miles from where our daughter Julie and her family live in Mexico). While we were there it erupted with a mighty cloud of ash that I photographed. The person who responded to my E-mail and blog wrote, “I would like to see something like Popo from near enough to be awestruck without being near enough to be terrified.” We'd all agree with that. I often let Popo the volcano remind me of God's power: if He makes powerful volcanoes, how much MORE powerful He is, who makes them!

The writer of the E-mail said that she’d like to be near enough to be awestruck without being near enough to be terrified. I think that with God it’s the opposite: it’s possible to be near enough to God to be terrified, but when you draw really close to Him your terror is replaced by awe. When we live in awe of the Lord we can believe without much difficulty that He can see us through our challenges. This, I believe, was the experience of the blind and lame people in the temple when Jesus cleansed it. Their need gave them the faith and courage to come close enough to this powerful, temple-cleansing Jesus so that they weren’t afraid of how He might hurt them; instead, they were in awe of how He might heal them! We need to be close to Him in the same way, so that our relationship with Him can include requesting.

OUR CHOICE
We can choose how to respond to Jesus, just as it was the choice of those people that first Palm Sunday when some responded by rejecting Him, others by rejoicing, and others by requesting things of Him. Jesus is the ruler of the entire cosmos, and even the largest supernova and the grandest galaxies have nothing to say about it. However, we do have something to say about Jesus’ ruling over us! Jesus won’t impose His leadership on us.

I think it’s interesting that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey instead of a horse. That was done to fulfill prophecy: from the beginning of time God ordained that Jesus would ride into Jerusalem on a donkey.

Having just returned from Mexico, I have fresh memories of men riding on horses and donkeys. The man who lives next to Refuge Ranch took his flock of sheep down the road to greener pastures, and he rode on a horse, a picture of strength. Then I met an old man riding on a donkey, the man's feet almost dragging on the ground. (I wondered if they came to a steep hill who really should have carried whom!)

Jesus rode a donkey; it must have been a humble image with His sandaled feet nearly dragging on the ground. “‘See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, . . .’” (Matthew 21:5) Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of lords, won’t intrude upon our lives with His leadership. He comes only by invitation.

If you've never given leadership of your life to Him, why not do it now, at this very appropriate season of Palm Sunday? If you’ve already done that, as I have, let's renew our commitment to live for Him every day as never before!

In Mexico I came upon some old, discarded palm branches. I suspect that a few days after Palm Sunday there were all kinds of discarded palm branches littering the road into Jerusalem, a reminder of the parade for Jesus. Palm Sunday will soon be over, but will He find us still declaring Him to be our King — and more importantly, seeking to live with Him as Lord? By God's grace, may it be so!