I’m not sure how the word spread, but as Jesus was preparing to enter Jerusalem, the people of Israel gathered and awaited his arrival. Now up to this point, the Jews knew of the miracles that Jesus had done, and that he was a remarkable teacher, but this great gathering wasn’t about celebrating what Jesus had done, rather it was a greeting of hopeful expectation of what Jesus was about to do! You see, all along Jesus had been teaching that the Kingdom of God was at hand, and for some reason the Jews believed that the long awaited Messiah, the future king of Israel was about to present himself and liberate the people from the oppression of their Roman rulers.

So the city was wild with excitement and I imagine that as they waited the people imagined what this moment might look like. Perhaps they pictured a military King who would ride into town on a stallion prepared for battle. Or they imagined a mighty King who would bring soldiers with him, perhaps even some chariots. Or they thought about a powerful king who would finally take his rightful thrown as the King of the Jews.

But as soon as Jesus came into plain view, there was no stallion for this Messiah, just a donkey on loan. There was no army for this Messiah, just a small band of common fisherman. And this Messiah was no defeater of Romans; he was just a Galilean carpenter.

Now I imagine that if we were to find ourselves in the crowd today – yelling and cheering and waving our palm branches as Jesus enters into Jerusalem, that we like the Jews would probably be caught up in the emotion of the moment, so excited that the moment of liberation had finally come! And yet, as Jesus turns the corner, something within us balks as Jesus approaches on a donkey, and our grasp around our cloaks begins to tighten, and we ask, “Is this really the Messiah?”

And just like the Jewish people in this story had to do, we have to lay down our cloaks before Jesus, setting aside our assumptions, our hopes, our plans AND worship Jesus for who He is, not what we want Him to be. You see the Jews wanted a reigning king and instead welcomed a suffering servant! And while Jesus wasn’t going to bring the political liberation they were hoping for, I imagine that there were some who got a glimpse of Messiah for who is truly is and what he longs to do in our lives…bring us true spiritual liberation!

So I think the questions for us this day is: What kind of king do you prefer to follow? What’s stopping you from laying down our cloaks before Jesus? Why are you holding on so tight? And would it really be so bad if we let go? Would it really be so bad if we trusted God more than we trusted ourselves? I think if we’re able to do that – we’ll be one step closer to experiencing the liberation that Jesus came to bring.