" JESUS' Final Week of Work - Sunday ( Palm Sunday )

     Zechariah 9:9  Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion !  Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem !  Behold, your KING is coming to you; HE is just and having Salvation,  Lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Nearly 500 years before CHRIST was born, the above passage was spoken by the Prophet Zechariah and GOD gave him this window of insight into the future coming of Israel's MESSIAH.  A colt or donkey was considered, in those days, a Kingly way to travel.  When JESUS rode into Jerusalem on a foal of a donkey that had never been ridden on (which would have been very dangerous for anyone else, the colt was unbroken) this would have been a sign of HIS royalty.  All 4 of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke & John ) have described the "Triumphal Entry" of JESUS into Jerusalem and each of the Apostles wrote what they saw from their own perspective as GOD inspired them.  I chose Luke's version as the one I will include, since it gives a precise look at what happened that day. Precise, because Luke had been a Physician before he became one of the LORD's disciples.  Luke 19:28-44  is as follows:

When HE had said this, HE went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. And it came to pass, when HE came near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mountain called Olivet, that HE sent two of HIS disciples, saying, "Go into the village opposite you, where as you enter you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Loose him and bring him here. And if anyone asks you, "Why are you loosing him ?" thus you shall say to him, "Because the LORD has need of him.' " So those who were sent departed and found it just as HE had said to them. But as they were loosing the colt, the owners of it said to them, "Why are you loosing the colt?" And they said, "The LORD has need of him." Then they brought him to JESUS. And they threw their own garments on the colt, and they set JESUS on him. And as HE went, they spread their clothes on the road.

Then, as HE was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise GOD with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, saying:  "Blessed is the KING WHO comes in the  name of the LORD!"  Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!"

And some of the Pharisees called to HIM from the crowd, "Teacher, rebuke YOUR disciples." But HE answered and said to them, "I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out."

Now as HE drew near, HE saw the city and wept over it saying, "If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation."

JESUS was giving a prophecy of things to come to the beloved city of Jerusalem. HE made mention of them " not knowing the time of their visitation." There is another place where this same time of blindness was mentioned in John 1:9-11 which says:

That was the true LIGHT which gives light to every man who comes into the world. HE was in the world, and the world was made through HIM, and the world did not know HIM.  HE came to HIS own (place/people)and HIS own did not receive HIM.

The Jews, the religious rulers, and others should have known who HE was but never bothered to find out. They assumed HE was the illegitimate son of Mary and Joseph. They assumed HE was from Nazareth, because that is where HE came from, but no one ever asked HIM where HE had been born.  If they had they would have known that HE was born in Bethlehem around the time of Rachel's grief over the death of all the children. But their eyes were blinded to WHO HE was and is.

Monday I will continue with some of the things that JESUS did on the Monday before HIS crucifixion. Each day I will give you a glimpse of what preceded HIS agony on the cross, HIS burial and HIS resurrection.  I hope you will peek in each day to walk along the path that our SAVIOR walked and maybe get an insight into what HIS priorities were right up to the moment HE gave up HIS SPIRIT on the cross.

Your servant in CHRIST,

Julie