Every year that I get to preach on Palm Sunday, I like to remind our church that Palm Sunday

is your yearly reminder that God is more than willing to disappoint your immediate expectations

in order to ultimately exceed them.

I love that there is a day on Holy Week that's marked off for a massive disappointment

in expectations at the time that it happened.

Because as all of these people are shouting,

Hosanna, save now, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, blessed is the son of David. What they're thinking in their minds, this is the Jewish

people. And if you don't know anything about the history of the Bible, it begins with a family,

Abraham, that becomes a nation. And this nation goes through a lot, mostly suffering because of their own rebellion

against the God who chose them and set them apart. So they've been oppressed, they've been

enslaved, they've gone through difficulty. But there's this promise embedded in the scriptures of this

new covenant that God's going to make with his people. And there's going to be a son who's related to King David, who's going to restore

the kingship of Israel and deliver them from their slavery and suffering. And this guy's raised people

from the dead. He's healed. He's bringing back sight to the blind. He's confirming more signs

than they have ever seen. And they're going,

this is the guy. And here he comes confirming a prophecy that's written in Zechariah that he would

enter in on a donkey as people shout, waving palm branches in celebration. Here he comes,

our conquering king. What can Rome do? What can anyone do? God has placed his king to reign with his

people. Guys, just five days after this moment where they're celebrating their deliverer from Rome,

he will be hung naked and die publicly on one of Rome's instruments for taunting the people

they oppress and enslave. At the cross wasn't a symbol of a religion two thousand years ago.

It was an instrument of public execution. And so Palm Sunday is actually a yearly reminder

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