Matthew 21:1-11
Jesus Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem
1 As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.”
4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:
5 “Say to Daughter Zion,
‘See, your king comes to you,
gentle and riding on a donkey,
and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”
6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. 8 A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,
“Hosanna to the Son of David!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
10 When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”
11 The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”
Matthew 27:11-26
Jesus Before Pilate
11 Meanwhile Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”
“You have said so,” Jesus replied.
12 When he was accused by the chief priests and the elders, he gave no answer. 13 Then Pilate asked him, “Don’t you hear the testimony they are bringing against you?” 14 But Jesus made no reply, not even to a single charge—to the great amazement of the governor.
15 Now it was the governor’s custom at the festival to release a prisoner chosen by the crowd. 16 At that time they had a well-known prisoner whose name was Jesus Barabbas. 17 So when the crowd had gathered, Pilate asked them, “Which one do you want me to release to you: Jesus Barabbas, or Jesus who is called the Messiah?” 18 For he knew it was out of self-interest that they had handed Jesus over to him.
19 While Pilate was sitting on the judge’s seat, his wife sent him this message: “Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him.”
20 But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus executed.
21 “Which of the two do you want me to release to you?” asked the governor.
“Barabbas,” they answered.
22 “What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called the Messiah?” Pilate asked.
They all answered, “Crucify him!”
23 “Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate.
But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”
24 When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “It is your responsibility!”
25 All the people answered, “His blood is on us and on our children!”
26 Then he released Barabbas to them. But he had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.
John 14:5-7
Jesus is the Way, The Truth, and the Life
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know[b] my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
Jesus shows us our human potential...He shows us how we can live and ought to live and behave...And how He lived and acted is much different than how we actually behave...
Jesus was welcomed into Jerusalem by a large crow with a Triumphal Entry...And then very quickly the crowd changed...Maybe it was two different crowds or maybe it was the same crowd or maybe it was part and parcel of both crowds...But the mood on how they felt about Him, swung from a happy entry into Jerusalem to a loud shouting of the crowd to crucify Him later...
I wonder hours or the next day after the crowd had Jesus yelled to crucify Him, if they thought about what they had said?...I wonder if they thought later on how they had behaved in bringing down an innocent Man (if it is fair to call Jesus a Man)?...I wonder if they thought later that they should have behaved differently, because really what had He done so terrible in His ministry?...Could have they behaved differently, given their circumstances?...
We as men sometimes behave badly, very badly...I think C. S. Lewis thoughts on the Natural Laws, justice and fair play relate very much to this scene...Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity, "If you take a thing like a stone or a tree, it is what it is and there seems no sense in saying it ought to have been otherwise...Of course you may say a stone is ‘the wrong shape’ if you want to use it for a rockery, or that a tree is a bad tree because it does not give you as much shade as you expected...But all you mean is that the stone or the tree does not happen to be convenient for some purpose of your own...You are not, except as a joke, blaming them for that...You really know, that, given the weather and the soil, the tree could not have been any different...What we, from our point of view, call a ‘bad’ tree is obeying the laws of its nature just as much as a ‘good’ one...
Now have you noticed what follows?...It follows that what we usually call the laws of nature—the way weather works on a tree for example—may not really be laws in the strict sense, but only in a manner of speaking...When you say that falling stones always obey the law of gravitation, falling-stone is not this much the same as saying that the law only means ‘what stones always do’?...You do not really think that when a stone is let go, it suddenly remembers that it is under orders to fall to the ground...You only mean that, in fact, it does fall...In other words, you cannot be sure that there is anything over and above the facts themselves, any law about what ought to happen, as distinct from what does happen...The laws of nature, as applied to stones or trees, may only mean ‘what Nature, in fact, does’...But if you turn to the Law of Human Nature, the Law of Decent Behaviour it is a different matter, That law certainly does not mean ‘what human beings, in fact, do’; for as I said before, many of them do not obey this law at all, and none of them obey it completely...The law of gravity tells you what stones do if you drop them; but the Law of Human Nature tells you what human beings ought to do and do not...In other words, when you are dealing with humans, something else comes in above and beyond the actual facts...You have the facts (how men do behave) and you also have something else (how they ought to behave)...In the rest of the universe there need not be anything but the facts...Electrons and molecules behave in a certain way, and certain results follow, and that may be the whole story...But men behave in a certain way and that is not the whole story, for all the time you know that they ought to behave differently...
Man thinks he ought to behave differently, but yet he does not...We continue to behave in the same way, over and over...Jesus teaches us not only the eternities, but teaches us basic and simple truths...He taught us much about forgiveness, justice, and love...When we, as men, behave in a certain way -we sometimes do see that it is not the whole story...We often behave not as we are supposed to...We somehow know that we can behave better...Maybe the best way to explain the way mankind behaves, is by reading and observing how Jesus behaved, while He was on earth...The way it is, is not the Way it has to be...There is this Better Way...Thomas told Jesus, he did not know the Way, and I think that is an accurate telling of much of how we live...Man just gets lost...Jesus said He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life...He shows us the Way, the Truth, and how Life can be better...It is better when we follow His Life, His Truths, and His Way...