WEEK FOUR: I WILL RESCUE YOU

Have you ever been looking for something that you know you have, but you just can’t seem to find it? But then when you do find it, that item was right in front of you entire time? Just recently my wife was looking for something that she had purchased for me but couldn’t seem to locate where she had put it. After looking around for several minutes, she gave up and said that she would have to look for it later. A moment later, I turned around and there on the kitchen island was the item she was looking for. Even though it was right there in plain view, she couldn’t see it.

The day that we celebrate in our churches as Palm Sunday commemorates the day that Jesus entered into Jerusalem to the shouts of “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” People spread clothing and palm branches on the road ahead of him. They were looking for a king that would free them from the Roman oppression… but that wasn’t Jesus’s mission. His mission was one that wouldn’t just free them from an oppressive government but would free them from the eternal oppression that faces each and every one of us: the oppression of sin and shame. But even though he was right in front of them, they didn’t understand his message or see what he was offering them. In just a few days, they would fully turn on him and demand his crucifixion at the very hands of the government that they wanted him to overturn.

It is not hard to see how they could be so blind to this. After all, difficult times can easily blur our vision and cloud our thinking to what is happening around us. The problems grow bigger and larger. The pressure mounts around us. We find ourselves trying to escape the shame and anguish we feel, all while ignoring what is right in front of us. This Jewish audience didn’t have the Gospels that we have access to. They didn’t have theologians explaining the symbolism that we can see in the Passover and its correlation with the crucifixion. They didn’t have two thousand years separating them from the event that would allow them to process what had occurred. They were living it in real time—real crisis.

So what’s our excuse? We have God’s Word! We have the symbolism clearly explained to us. We can look at the last supper and see Jesus’s broken body and spilled blood. And yet even though it is right in front of us in plain view, so often we overlook it. We take for granted the immense price that was paid for our salvation. Jesus did it all for each of us—once and for all—so that our eternity is secure. It is finished—he finished it!

In this Easter season, if you haven’t accepted the sacrifice of Jesus, receive it for yourself. If you already have, celebrate again the sacrifice paid for you. Don’t let another year go by where you miss what is right in front of your eyes.