This Sunday is called Jesus’ triumphal entry. It’s described in all four gospel accounts. We look at it and we say, “Wow! Look at them waving the palm branches and yelling hosanna! They’re welcoming Him as the king!”

Luke 19:41 says “As they came closer to Jerusalem he saw the city ahead and he began to cry.” Not, He began to jump up and down in excitement saying, “This is my day! This is what I’ve been waiting for! Finally I’m going to be recognized as the king!” That’s not what it says, is it? He began to cry. “Eternal peace was within your reach and you turned it down.” He wept.  

So, Jesus came into Jerusalem knowing that they could have accepted Him as Savior for their personal lives, but they were going to miss Him as Savior because they were looking for some national redemption rather than a personal redemption, and it broke His heart.

When you look at what Jesus did, there are a couple of questions that come out of it that are incredibly challenging.  

​1.  What gets your attention? Is it the shout of the crowd or the voice of God? What gets your attention most often? We all say it should be the voice of God. Right? But which is louder? The shout of the crowd or the voice of God? Usually it’s the shout. Usually God comes to us and whispers in our mind, Je whispers in our heart, He says it through a friend. The shout of the crowd is always louder and so because of that we’re always drawn to it.

​2.  Another question in what Jesus did – another lesson. When you and I come to our days of greatest triumph, will our actions say look at me or look at God?  Jesus had been kicked around Jerusalem and the Pharisees had said He was never going to make it, and He rides in with 500,000 maybe a million people celebrating Him. This is grander than any ticker tape parade that you’ve seen. This was an incredible event. So, when you come to your days of greatest triumph, will your actions say look at me or look at God?  

If you look at all of God’s servants down through history, they had a habit of when their greatest triumph came, they said, “Look at God.”  

Moses stands on the edge of the Red Sea, and he is going to hold out this rod and the sea is going to split in two. He could have said, “Hey Israel, look at me and look at what I can do.” But he said, “Stand and see the salvation of the Lord. Look at what God can do.”  

Or Joseph in the book of Genesis stays in prison for thirteen years and finally they bring Him out and say, “We want to raise you up to a rulership. Can you interpret this dream?”  And Joseph doesn’t say, “Look at me.  I can interpret dreams.”  He says, “I can’t do it, but I know a God who can.”  

Later a man named Daniel who is taken captive to a foreign country, and when he is brought before the king and the king says, “I’ve heard that you can interpret dreams.  I’ve heard that you are a very wise man.”  He said, “I’m not the one who can interpret dreams but I know a God in heaven who can.”  And he interpreted it.  

Here is Jesus in his moment of greatest triumph and what is He saying?  Look at God, look at the prophecy, look at who I am, who I really am.

We at Missions Door are all about pointing people to Jesus, whether on campus, in the city, or in villages or cities around the world. A person much smarter than me once said, “It’s not about me, it’s not about us, it’s all about God.” Happy Easter from Missions Door.

-Bob Lehman
Minister at Large