April 9, 2017 - Palm Sunday

TONY & MICHELLE PAWLAK

MEMORY VERSE

“Hosanna! 

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

Mark 11:9b

       Remember a while back when we learned about God, through Moses, rescuing the Israelites from the Evil Pharaoh in Egypt?  God had sent 9 horrible plagues to Egypt to persuade Pharaoh to let the Israelites go.  Finally, God sent a 10th plague where the Angel of Death was sent to kill the firstborn son of every family.  Anyone who believed Moses' warning and didn't want the Angel to visit them only had to sacrifice a perfect lamb and paint their doorposts with the lambs blood.  If the Angel saw the blood, he would pass over the house and all inside would be safe.  

God then told the Israelites to celebrate this every year.  This would be called the Passover and the celebration would last an entire week.  Thousands of years later the Passover is still celebrated.

Much later, in about the year 33 A.D., Jesus and His disciples headed to Jerusalem to celebrate the week long Passover Festival. Jesus sent some of His disciples to go fetch a special donkey that had never been ridden.  He even told them where to find it and how to convince its owners to let them have it!  Jesus then got on the donkey and began riding into Jerusalem.

     The people must have remembered Zechariah's prophecy because they grabbed palm branches and began waving them and laying them, as well as their coats, on the road in front of him.  They even started shouting "HOSANNA! (Which means Save, we pray).  Blessed is the King of Israel!"  This did not make the Pharisees happy.  They told Jesus to quiet the crowd down.  Jesus told them, “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” (Luke 19:40 NIV)  
   Five days later, Jesus and His disciples got together in an upper room to eat the Passover meal (which is called a SEDER).  Before they could eat, Jesus got up and began washing the disciples' feet, a job usually meant for the servants.  At first, Peter didn't want Jesus to wash his feet. He thought that Jesus was too important to be washing anyone's feet!  Jesus explained that He needed to do it or else Peter would have no place in His Kingdom. 

Jesus was showing, by example, how we should be servants to others.

     Afterwards, Jesus gave them some bad news.  He said that one of them would betray him!  They were all shocked!  One by one they asked Him if they were the one until, lastly, Judas Iscariot asked, "Is it me?"  Jesus, who already knew it was Judas, told him that what he was going to do he had better do quickly.  He didn't even try to stop him!!!  Judas left without anyone knowing why.

     After dinner, Jesus took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and passed it out to the Disciples.  He said, "This represents my body which is going to be broken for your sake." (paraphrase)  Then He took His cup of wine and said "This represents My blood which is being poured out so your sins can be forgiven." (paraphrase) We still celebrate this ceremony today.  It is called communion.  

Even if you're not Jewish, Christians can still celebrate the Passover today.  Talk to your parents about learning how to do a Seder meal or maybe even celebrate with our Jewish neighbors.  It is a great way to understand and remember that the Passover points to Jesus.  Remember that Jesus came to Earth as a Jew and used Jews to spread the Gospel to the whole world!  There is nothing wrong with celebrating their history because, in many ways, it is also our history too.  Don't forget to come back next week to learn the incredible thing Jesus did next...