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2016 Worship Guide
December 7, 2016
A Lincoln Daily News Publication
Page 19
A
nyone encountering Jesus eventually
asks the question, “Who is this?”
When Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm
Sunday the crowd of people with Him
laid cloaks and palm branches on the
ground before Him. Those people who
went before Jesus and followed after
Him shouted, “Hosanna (a Hebrew word
meaning save us now), hosanna in the
highest.”
When Jesus entered Jerusalem the whole
city was in a state of agitation.
The appearing of the ‘King of the Jews’
may bring salvation, or it may bring the
wrath of Rome upon the people.
This was not the first time that Jesus
brought a state of agitation to the city of
Jerusalem. After His birth a caravan of
star-gazers and sign readers, ‘Wise Men,’
appeared from the East looking for the
newborn King of the Jews (Matthew 2:2-
3). A challenge to Herod, the sitting king,
could mean freedom from that paranoid
tyrant or it could mean death to many.
Holy Scripture tells us that all Jerusalem
became anxious and distressed.
Who is this newborn king?
At other times and in other places the name
of Jesus caused commotion. Shepherds
heard the announcement of the birth of
God’s Savior. Angels proclaimed to them
that Christ, the Lord, had been born that
very day.
Hustling through Bethlehem, knocking
on doors looking for a newborn baby boy
certainly must have stirred up that small
town. (Luke 2:15-18) In fact, this time the
people of Bethlehem marveled, wondered
in their minds and conversation at what
was said by the shepherds concerning this
child.
“And when He entered Jerusalem the whole city was stirred up
saying, ‘Who is this?’”
-
Matthew 21:10
Pastor Mark Thompson
of Zion Lutheran Church, Lincoln
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