Palm Sunday: Right Savior, Wrong Salvation 

During times of personal or societal upheaval, there is a tendency for people to look to God in prayer, and good for us. He is truly our only source of real and lasting hope.

But I want to dig a little deeper to see if there is wisdom below the surface that we’re missing. 

Looking to God for salvation is nothing new. The power of God has been so evident throughout history that even rulers who deny His authority have sought His protection. There is nothing particularly Christian about praying to God to save us from calamity.

In 33 A.D., the Jewish people, God’s chosen people, did more than call on God. They rightly recognized His Son, Jesus, as their long-awaited Messiah, and met Him with Palm branches, their symbol of nationalism and victory, and with cries of “Hosanna! Save us now!” They were ready to crown Him as their King and to follow Him in armed insurrection against the Romans. They were ready for salvation.

Luke 19:29-40
When He approached Bethphage and Bethany, near the mount that is called Olivet, He sent two of the disciples, saying, “Go into the village ahead of you; there, as you enter, you will find a colt tied on which no one yet has ever sat; untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of it.’” So those who were sent went away and found it just as He had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners said the them, “Why are you untying the colt?” They said, “The Lord has need of it.” They brought it to Jesus, and they threw their coats on the colt and put Jesus on it. As He was going, they were spreading their coats on the road. As soon as He was approaching, near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen, shouting: “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord; Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.” But Jesus answered, “I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!”

They had the right savior, but they were asking for the wrong salvation.

Jesus was indeed the King who had come in the name of the Lord, but the victory Jesus came to bring at that time was a victory over the bondage of sin and the power of the grave, not over an oppressive government. Tragically, the people’s failure to see the salvation being offered actually cost them salvation on both fronts.

Luke 19:41-44  
When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”

God offers His salvation, but He will not force us to live under His protective will.  The life of the unrepentant is the life of the unprotected.

I believe we are repeating the error the people made on “Palm Sunday” all those years ago. I believe we are looking to the right Savior, but we’re asking Him for the wrong salvation.

Jesus rode that donkey into a Jerusalem that was rife with anger. What were the topics that had the people so angry? So ready for revolution? From what did the people want to be saved? From an oppressive government, poverty, class distinctions, injustices, sickness and disease, and more. It’s a terrible list.

During our present period in history, America is rife with anger, and what are the topics that have us so angry? So ready for revolution? The list should look familiar. Governments are limiting the activities of citizens. Families have lost their means of support. Individuals are being segregated into classes labeled “essential’ and “non-essential” and are being idolized or shelved according to those labels. Healthcare and financial aid is being granted in ways that seem unjust. Sickness and disease have taken over the globe. And we cry out for salvation, but from what? From that list? It’s still a terrible list.

To be clear, Jesus does want us to be free from those things, and for His children, that day is coming. But there is something much worse than the items on that list. One problem outweighs them all. Only one source of bondage will follow us beyond the grave. Hunger can’t. Poverty can’t. Injustice can’t. Only sin has the power to hold us in tormented bondage in both this life and the next. And that’s what Jesus came to deal with first.

Luke 19:10 For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.

John 3:16-17 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.

Romans 6:4-9 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.

Are we reporting to God as an angry mob equipped with pitchforks and torches, ready to help Him rout the enemies of government and societal ills and sickness? Or are we falling before him in broken repentance and in recognition that the real enemy is sin?

Acts 17:30-31 Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed on a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed [Jesus], having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”

The Resurrection is coming! But while we contemplate Holy Week, let’s not forget what it’s really all about. Let’s not forget our need of a Savior to save us from our sins.