NOTES for Mat 21:1-11

Remembering Christ's entry into Jerusalem, it is difficult not to experience mixed feelings. We see jubilant crowds and the people's joy as they welcome the One who brings deliverance from evil—and in this the people are not mistaken! Even without really understanding the true meaning of Christ's coming, the people sense that He is no ordinary teacher, of whom Israel had seen many.

Yet the very fact that most of those welcoming Him are guided by distorted ideas about what is happening will soon cause the crowd to recoil from Him. The people's words that the One entering Jerusalem is a prophet explain much. They were ready to welcome a prophet, but it was harder for them to accept that He was more than a prophet. Even for those capable of understanding this, established judgments about what the Messiah should be like would prove dearer than Jesus, who did not fit their ideas about Him.

This is how the inhabitants of Jerusalem met Him. But are we not ready to meet Christ in the same way today? Do we not likewise want useful miracles from Him and punishment for our enemies? And if He is in no hurry to satisfy our whims, are we always prepared to accept His will rather than insist on our own?