Expectations

A Palm Sunday Devotional, March 24, 2024

By Maile Soto, Director of Discipleship, Tree of Life Church

Matthew 21:1-10 TPT

Now, as they were approaching Jerusalem they arrived at the place of the stables near the Mount of Olives. Jesus sent two of his disciples ahead, saying, “As soon as you enter the village, you will find a donkey tethered along with her young colt. Untie them both and bring them to me. And if anyone asks, ‘What are you doing’ just tell them, ‘The Lord of All needs them,’ and he will let you take them.”

All of this happened to fulfill the prophecy:

Tell Zion's daughter:
"Look, your King arrives!
He's coming to you full of gentleness,
sitting on a donkey, riding on a donkey's colt."

So the two disciples went on ahead and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and her colt to him and placed their cloaks and prayer shawls on the colt, and Jesus rode on it.

Then an exceptionally large crowd gathered and carpeted the road before him with their cloaks and prayer shawls. Others cut down branches from trees to spread in his path. Jesus rode in the center of the procession–crowds going before him and crowds coming behind him, and they all shouted, “Bring the victory, Lord, Son of David! He comes with the blessings of being sent from the Lord Yahweh! We celebrate with praises to God in the highest!”

As Jesus entered Jerusalem, the people went wild with excitement–the entire city was thrown into an uproar! Some asked, “Who is this man?” And the crowds shouted back, “This is Jesus! He’s the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee!”

John 12:9-13, 17-19 TPT

When word got out that Jesus was not far from Jerusalem, a large crowd came out to see him, and they also wanted to see Lazarus, the man Jesus had raised from the dead.  This prompted the chief priests to seal their plans to do away with both Jesus and Lazarus, for his miracle testimony was incontrovertible and was persuading many of the Jews living in Jerusalem to believe in Jesus.

The next day the news that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem swept through the massive crowd gathered for the feast.  So they took palm branches and went out to meet him.  Everyone was shouting, “Lord, be our Savior! Blessed is the one who comes to us sent from Jehovah-God, the King of Israel!”

…All the eyewitnesses of the miracle Jesus performed when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead kept spreading the news about Jesus to everyone.  The news of this miracle of resurrection caused the crowds to swell as great numbers of people welcomed him into the city with joy. But the Pharisees were disturbed by this and said to each other, “We won’t be able to stop this. The whole world is going to run after him!”

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Expectation

By Maile Soto

So much expectation! So much excitement! Stop for a moment and just imagine what it must have been like. When Jesus entered Jerusalem the Sunday before Passover, it seemed like something really good was just around the corner. Jerusalem was gearing up for their annual celebration of the greatest deliverance in Israel’s history, the Passover feast. Crowds were flooding into the city, and here comes the miracle-working teacher that everyone is talking about because HE JUST RAISED A MAN FROM THE DEAD! Not only that, but he comes into the city in a way that might suggest he’s there to save them from the Romans (riding in, palm branches and garments being thrown in front of him.) Sure, he doesn’t have an army, but this is the people whose history includes one miraculous story of God’s deliverance and victory after the other. Anything is possible with their God! Something really good is about to happen, and the whole city is abuzz with the excitement. I bet a lot of people were full of expectation about what was next.

No one, not even his closest friends, would have predicted what happened just a few days later. Jesus was arrested, and all his followers ran away and abandoned him. (Mark 14:50). And whereas on Sunday the crowd was hailing him as their savior, on Friday the crowd was calling for his death. (“Crucify him!… Crucify him at once!” Mark 15:12-14)

What must it have been like to live through that week, to have your hope built up so high only to have it so thoroughly crushed? It must have been devastating. …I wonder how many people who had been in the crowd that week later heard a rumor about Jesus being alive after the resurrection and chose not to get their hopes up again. How many people had a friend saying, “Come and see! He’s alive,” and thought, “You’re not going to fool me again.” This is the dark side of expectation.

It reminds me of what Solomon said in Proverbs 13:12:

Hope deferred makes the heart sick
But a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.

Kris Vallotton says, “It’s not deferring what we hoped for that makes our hearts sick; it’s deferring our hope that makes us sick.  When we stop hoping, we get sick.” (Spiritual Intelligence, p.139)

Have you ever hoped and prayed for God to act in a certain way, and what you prayed for didn’t come to pass? I have. It can be soul-crushing. And how we deal with our disappointment in those moments can affect our ability to expect good things (to hope) and have faith moving forward.

So, how do we find our way back to hope again?

The prophet Jeremiah says this in Lamentations 3:21-24:

This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. 
Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.  They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”

“This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope… ” For me, I have to do 2 things to find my way back to a joyful expectation that good is right around the corner. I have to bring Him my disappointment and all the lies I’ve let myself slide into in my disillusionment and let Him tell me His side of the story. Let Him show me some truth about where He was when it all went down and what He was up to. Supernaturally exchange my heart’s sickness for hope. Then I have to feed my mind and heart on who I know Him to be; I have to remember who He is and what He has done.

I feel like the invitation for us this Palm Sunday is to let the Holy Spirit search our hearts and point out any situation where hope deferred has made our hearts sick. I believe He wants to restore our hope and expectation that good things are coming for us so that our faith can rise to a new level. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to miss what God IS doing in my life because I’m locked on to what He didn’t do.

When I hear stories of the amazing things God is doing (He’s alive!) and a friend says, “Come and see,” I want to run toward Him in faith, not hold back in doubt. When I hear stories of people getting healed, I want my response to be “Yes! Do it again, Jesus. Do it for me, too.” I want my expectation that He’s good and He is at work to fuel my faith to see heaven invade earth at church, and in my family, and where ever I go.

So, Holy Spirit, I invite you today to bring to my mind any area of my life where I have stopped believing that You are good and that You are for me. Show me where I have stopped expecting Your goodness in my life and where I’ve let unbelief creep in. Remind me of who You are and what You are doing in my life.

Ephesians 1:16-21

 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers,  that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might  that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,  far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.