Palm Sunday

“God is not what you imagine or what you think you understand. If you understand you have failed”.– St. Augustine.

I believe that is true. How I see Him is not as important as how you see Him. With growth, there are continual changes in our perception.

Palm Sunday He was welcomed as king. Though He had been speaking of what was to come:

From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. (Matthew 16:21 KJV)

Though they had Peter’s experience as an example:

Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee. But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. (Matthew 16:22-23 KJV)

It was so much easier – powerful and awesome, too – to accept Him as king:

And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way. And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest. (Matthew 21:8-9 KJV)

Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord. (John 12:13 KJV)

Less than a week later, He fulfilled the prophecy -- despised and rejected of men:

He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. (Isaiah 53:3 KJV)

How do we imagine Him now? Is He esteemed? More importantly, how should we see Him?