I have to admit, I used to find all the Holy Week services a bit of a chore. I mean, going to church every night for a whole week! I’m sure I could think of better things to do with my time. (Like knitflixing, which is kind of like netflix, but with a lot more yarn!)

But this year I feel like God has really set Holy Week on my heart. The thing that has really captured my attention is all the emotions that Jesus’ followers must have felt during that one short week.

I mean, seeing Jesus enter Jerusalem as a king, only to die the most painful death imaginable a few days later, and then finding that he had come back to life again. What an emotional tornado!

It’s easy, isn’t it, to forget that those disciples didn’t already know the end of the story.

So this week I am going to write a post each day as we walk through Holy Week. This is more for my benefit, but I would love for you to join me. After all, how can we truly celebrate Easter without experiencing all the emotions leading up to it. The expectancy, sorrow, anticipation, despair they felt, before truly experiencing the joy of Easter Sunday.

So today it’s Palm Sunday. Coming from an Anglican Church, it was always kind of a big deal. I mean it was that day you got given swords crosses made out of palm leaves.

But lets just think for a minute how exciting this day must have been for Jesus’ followers. Living under Roman oppression, their king, the one who had been prophesied for generations, was finally entering into their capital city. Alright, it wasn’t in a chariot but on a donkey, but their Messiah had arrived. The one who was going to save them, and restore them.

No wonder they were all shouting Hosanna, he had finally come. And they couldn’t wait to see what he was going to do!

I’m sure they must have thought he was going to attack the Roman leaders. This was their time. The time when the whole of the Empire would see just who God’s chosen people were, and just how special they were.

I bet they weren’t expecting that Jesus was going to first go into the temple and challenge the respected leaders of their community.

A bet they didn’t realise that for victory to come, there would first have to be death. Death of the one they loved, the one they were cheering for. And I bet they couldn’t imagine what that victory would mean. That it would be a victory for the whole world, not just the Jews.