Thoughts From Luke - Day 83

                                        Luke 19:28-40

28 After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. 29 As he approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, 30 “Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 31 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it.’”

32 Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he had told them. 33 As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?”

34 They replied, “The Lord needs it.”

35 They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. 36 As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road.

37 When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:

38 “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”

“Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”

40 “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”

          The triumphal entry, Palm Sunday, or as we commonly know it, the beginning of Spring Break or one week before Easter. Yet, here is an occurrence prophesied in Psalm 118 and quoted every Seder, and in Daniel 9 which gives the exact date it was going to happen, and Zechariah 9:9 which tells that the king will arrive on the colt of a donkey. This was such a significant event that Jesus says that if one part of this day failed to happen, the people not crying out Hosanna, inanimate rocks would turn into those rocks in the movie Frozen and start singing "Hosanna". So in light of all this, why is this day so significant when really it apparently leads to nothing and is just a prequel to the events we as Christians celebrate as our life-blood, Jesus' death for us to take away our sins, and His resurrection to give us life?

          I guess as I ponder this, and I have pondered this for a while as I have been struggling with this blog, what I come up with among many other truths, is that this is the no turning back moment in Jesus' life. He could have stayed outside of Jerusalem and continued to teach, heal people, and He would have remained an Old Testament prophet. The moment He rode into town He set in motion a series of events that would lead to His death. He would move not only from a prophet to a priest and a King. He would fulfill His role and God's plan for Him by fulfilling scripture and riding into town on a donkey.

         So as we, in Holy week, celebrate Good Friday as His death for us and Easter as His resurrection, maybe we should consider celebrating the day that He said, no turning back and commemorate the day when we said "no turning back". We sing a song like that, "I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back". I often wonder, do we really mean that? After all, most of us were probably saved in the single digits and it was so that we would go to Heaven and not Hell. However as we read the gospels, this really isn't what Jesus considered to be salvation. Just one quote of His many from a few chapters back says, "In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples." What was your no turning back moment? Do you have one? You should. If you don't, why not today? Let me tell you about mine.

       I was a 16 year old who grew up in a Christian family and prayed the prayer when I was 5 to escape Hell and more accurately, not be left behind when my family raptured. As a 5 year old, the thought of raising yourself was pretty scary. I was at a summer Bible Camp where I heard a missionary talk about the very thing I was holding back from God - being a missionary. I was willing to do anything else but I'd heard stories of Jim Elliot and I didn't want to leave the comfort of America, eat bugs, and potentially have my head shrunk and put on a pole. The missionary spoke about Jonah running from the Lord and that the safest place to be is in the Lord's will. That night I gave my whole life, my future, the deed of my life to Christ. I gave Him the keys, I gave Him full access to my house and whatever analogy a kid growing up in Church has heard. That was my no turning back moment. But, as a friend of mine says, "The problem with a living sacrifice is that it keeps crawling off the altar." As some missionaries we support, the Crook family, head off eagerly back to Thailand after a 6 month medical leave in Tennessee, my wife and I are thinking, could we do that? I went on a two week medical mission to what felt like the hottest place on the Earth in Honduras and lived in a medical compound with lifelong missionaries. They would have to drive an hour on dirt roads to get groceries. The medical supplies were sparse and wrong and the surgery expected to be done was tremendously difficult. Could I go practice there the rest of my life? These are questions I need to keep asking myself to see if I have "crawled off the altar".

  Lord, I daily surrender my life to you. Take me, use me for Your honor and glory. Amen