Palm Sunday: Who Is This Who Comes?

I like to read letters more than once. So, I will save them a few days and read them over again. My family accuses me of reading them again because I haven't paid attention to my first reading. I prefer to think that I read them because of my training. I have been taught to read hastily the first time, then rapidly a second time, and finally to make slow progress through the writings for detailed understandings.

I like to read the Scriptures more than once. Every time that I read some portion of the Scriptures, there is a truth which becomes clearer than ever to me. I will sometimes read a passage, and although I know that the words are going to be there, some new image just leaps off the page at me.

That is what happened to me recently as I read again the passage from the Gospel of Matthew for Palm Sunday. As I reread that story from Matthew 21, every part of the story was familiar -- the disciples being sent into the city to find a donkey, the instructions Jesus gave about where to find one, the way to borrow it, the way Jesus mounted the animal, the cloaks of His disciples covering the animal, the people throwing their garments on the road, the waving palm branches, the shouts from the pilgrims along the way. Jesus arrives at Jerusalem, and the people ask the question, "Who is this?"

I knew that question was there. I had read it many times. But now those questioning words have taken on a new importance. That question is much more than a question from the past. It is a contemporary question. It is our question.

As joyful as we may be as we enter into the Palm Sunday celebrations, there is deep within us a lingering question, "Who is this who comes?" There are factual answers, theoretical answers, and personal answers.

Who Is This Who Comes?

The expected, practical, factual answer is "Jesus of Nazareth, a prophet from Galilee, the son of Mary and Joseph, the carpenter." That is an honest, truthful answer. It is certainly not all there is about Palm Sunday, and it is not all there is to say about Jesus, but it is an honest answer. It is a factual answer. The one who comes is Jesus the Man.

It is possible to know Jesus as a man, as a person like ourselves. But to know Jesus as a man is not to know the full meaning of His life nor to understand the significance of His purpose.

We can be as frustrated with this factual answer as the preacher's child who was called in to wash up before dinner after an afternoon of play. Like all boys he wanted to know why he needed to wash. The mother's reply was typical. "Son, we have to wash to get rid of the germs." The boy responded with disgust, "Germs and Jesus. Jesus and germs. That's all I hear about around here. And I've never seen either one."

Jesus was a person, He was a man. Jesus was a man from Nazareth. But, to know the simple facts is not to know the full significance of His life.

Several years ago, I became acquainted with a man with the same first name as myself. He had visited the church I pastored, and I became acquainted with him as he continued to visit our congregation, finally joined, and became an active leader. He worked for a large company and lived in a large home. He and his wife attended a Bible study I was leading. Harold soon accepted responsibilities of leadership in the church. I felt that I knew him well.