March 24, 2024 Daily Dose of Discernment

“Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” (Mark 11:9)

As Jesus entered Jerusalem on what we today commemorate as Palm Sunday, the crowd who had come for the Passover Feast shouted “Hossana! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” Those words are from Psalm 118 which also says “This is the day the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it.” It was a plea for deliverance and at the same time praise for the deliverer. But at least for the moment, it seemed like the people looking to Jesus to save them forgot about Zechariah’s prophecy describing the Messiah as a humble king whose government is characterized by peace, not violence and domination of the weak. That’s what coming in the name of the Lord means.

Let us, as the followers of Jesus today, remember that the way we will reign with Him through all eternity is through the same willingness to serve and give our lives for the sake of others.