Hello, I know that many of you are going to have rich church experiences this week and all kinds of just great teaching and music on Easter.

And so what I'd like to try and offer for us this week is a sort of progression of some devotional

thoughts is something of the other side of Easter.

What I would love to try and discover together through these podcasts is something of the internal

world of Jesus as he is moving through Easter week from Palm Sunday, which is today through Easter Sunday next week.

So before we jump into the joy of Palm Sunday, I'd like to set the context of what's really going on here this week for Jesus.

Context is everything.

Context is how we understand our life and our world around us.

And so we need a little bit of background here.

I want to read from something that actually took place yesterday in the story the Saturday before Palm

Sunday and it picks up at the end of chapter 11 in the Gospel of John. When it was

almost time for the Jewish Passover, many went up from the country to Jerusalem

for their ceremonial cleansing before the Passover.

They kept looking for Jesus, and as they stood in the temple area they asked one another what do you think isn't he coming to the feast at all

But the chief priests and Pharisees had given orders that if anyone found out where Jesus was he should report it so that they

might arrest him.

And then in chapter 12, six days before the Passover, Jesus arrived at Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus

had raised from the dead.

And then in verse 9 it says, meanwhile a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came not only

because of him but also to see Lazarus whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief

priest made plans to kill Lazarus as well. For on account of

him, many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and putting their faith in him.

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