he changed everything.

i want to take you with me on my spiritual journey this week, and it starts today. i won't be doing any link ups, but i hope you'll take the time to read my posts. this is the week that changed history.

todayis  nisan 10, or palm sunday, when Jesus entered triumphantly into jerusalem (mark11:1-11). the learned leaders of the day were about fed up with him and his teaching, but he came into the town anyway.  the jews were preparing to observe passover, a remembrance feast and celebration of the final plague in egypt and their miraculous escape from hundreds of years of bondage. this is a time when the jews are to share the story of the redemption of their people with all the descendants. in history and in tradition, this was the day that the lamb was selected by each home and examined to be sacrificed. (the blood of this lamb was put on the doorposts of each household, and saved the firstborn from the final and most harsh of the plagues.)

 exodus 12:3-4  "tell all the congregation of israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for the household...your lamb shall be without blemish...and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of israel shall kill their lambs at twilight." 

Jesus came into town on a donkey rather than a stallion, signifying peace and not conquest and fulfilling a prophecy that the redeemer would come to the people on a lowly ass (Zech 9:9). his followers cried out "hosanna!", which means "please save!" and expected that, with the fulfilling of the prophecies of the OT, that Jesus would finally emerge as their political messiah and liberate them from roman oppression, exactly like their ancestors had been saved from egyptian slavery.

what are you looking for from the King? are you expecting him to end abortion or wars or the democratic party in our country as a political messiah, like the jewish people of the day? or is he even smaller than that, sent to keep you from hurt or confusion or misfortune? or do you see the entire story of his kingdom, and will you let him save the world? take a few minutes to ponder how much bigger than our problems and our limits than the lord is. pray that we learn to let him be God Almighty, and not God in the box of our own limited imaginations.





for more background, i invite you to listen to my pastor's sermon from today at vimeo (link to come). he did a GREAT summary of the old testament (we've been doing a series on it). if you are like my small group, perhaps you have never strung together all these stories you hear in sunday school, or here and there in your church services, or in passing. but the story is cohesive. the theme is the same from beginning to end: "God is building a community of people who relate to him through faith and each other in love so that he can bless us, and through us, bless the world." he is consistently correcting, protecting, and redirecting his people throughout all of history. no matter how many time we fail, or fall, or deliberately turn our faces from him, he does not forget about us.