The Triumphant Entry

Today we took our family of 5 and two friends from America and headed to the top of Mount of Olives in Jerusalem to participate in the annual procession commemorating the day that the Bible describes Jesus entering Jerusalem from Bethany, over the Mount of Olives, and into the city of Jerusalem. It began as what appeared to be a fairly small group of people making the walk and turned into a parade of thousands of people (over 10,000?) from nearly every country in the world all marching down the hill carrying palm branches, and celebrating the fact that the Messiah Jesus is the God who saves and He did enter this city. As our family and friends joined the crowd we walked casually towards the old city of Jerusalem, up the same hills that Jesus and his disciples walked so many years ago. We had the sound of voices shouting and singing "Hosana" and we saw dancing and rejoicing in the Good News of the Savior.

No words can really describe the joy that was evident this day so I will do my best with the following observations.
1. The sounds of dozens of languages and the presence of literally hundreds of different ethnic groups gave a true picture of the Body of Christ and a glimpse into Heaven. Every tribe and every language was present as we worshiped our King.
2. Standing on the East side of the city is the "Golden Gate" that traditionally is believed to be the gate that the Jewish Messiah will enter through on way to the temple. It was the gate in existence in the time of Christ and would be the likely gate he entered from the Mount of Olives. Currently the temple mount is under jurisdiction of the Muslims and therefore this gate has been filled in with bricks so that the Messiah will not be able to enter. As we walked towards the city and saw the gate before us, my wife and I said that it was too late. The bricks can't stop the Messiah from entering... he already came in!
3. As we walked, hundreds of Israeli soldiers stood by in an attempt to provide protection for the crowd. At first I thought how they must have looked a bit like the Roman Soldiers who probably stood by and watched these people run out to celebrate a Messiah. Then I wondered what they were thinking, I really cannot explain how much joy was obviously in the place today so I wondered how they viewed this. This must be such a welcomed relief to the "action" that these police and soldiers face each week. It also must be a cause for wonder as they saw a united and a joyful group of people from all over the world getting along because of the work of the "Prince of Peace".
4. I don't know how my family will be able to experience these days once we return to America. This year we are blessed to have been in Bethlehem for Christmas and in Jerusalem for Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Easter. I know the location doesn't make this experience more "spiritual" than anywhere else, but being able to head the Old City of Jerusalem to celebrate Jesus with thousands of people is hard to beat.

Allow me to end this short post by encouraging all of you to celebrate what Jesus did this week. Whatever you can do, try to see this season in new light and do not simply go through the motions of experiencing the magnitude of what happened during this week so many years ago. And remember that that are literally millions others from all over the planet that believe the same things you do and who want to celebrate the king as well.