The story this week comes from John chapter 12.

The next day a large crowd heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches from palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the king of Israel!” And Jesus passed by them, riding on a young donkey. 

The crowd that had been with him when he raised Lazarus from the dead continued to tell everyone they met. The reason people went to meet him was that they heard he had done an amazing thing! And the Pharisees said to one another: “See, we are getting nowhere! The whole world has gone after him.” 

Imagine. People line a dirt road to see a man riding on a donkey. They catch a glimpse of his face and try to decide if it’s true: does he look like the kind of person who could raise a man from the dead? Is he the one they have been waiting for—is he a leader, a prophet, a changemaker? “The king of Israel!” someone shouts, and others repeat the words. “The one who comes in the name of the Lord!”

For a few long moments—the donkey doesn’t move that quickly—everyone is swept up in the belief that something important is happening, that this is a day they will never forget. Maybe he did what they say; maybe he is who he claims. It’s a belief that will be challenged as quickly as it comes.

Because on the fringe of the crowd are the haters. How can we trick him? How can we silence him? How can we make this man, and his donkey, and his cheering friends all go away? Not everybody loves a parade.

There are days when we let our thoughts run wild, and we might not believe all the stories we’ve heard. When the man on the donkey just looks like another traveler on the road. When the rumors of miracles only remind us of when we’ve been let down, or let someone else down. When we maybe wish that God would leave us alone.

On Palm Sunday, “the whole world” went chasing after Jesus; yet many of the same people turned on him just a few days later.

His closest friends, the disciples, did not understand these things when they happened; but when Jesus was glorified—when they had seen him killed, and buried, and risen—they remembered what had been written long ago.

Fear not, daughter of Zion; for behold: your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt.

He’s about to the change the world, but unlike the crowd, unlike you and me—he’s absolutely steady and sure. Fear not, my children—words we hear throughout the Bible—fear not. Sometimes, the rumors are true.

Today, for a few minutes, imagine being there in the crowd on Palm Sunday. Pushing toward the center of the crowd, to get near the man who called a friend to come alive out of his grave. He looks like one of us—because he is.