As Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, the crowds erupted in praise. They laid their cloaks on the road, waved palm branches, and shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Matthew 21:9).
And yet, Luke’s Gospel tells us that while the crowds cheered, Jesus wept (Luke 19:41). He knew that the fanfare was not going to last, and that many of the people were going to reject the salvation He had come to bring.
The people of Jerusalem wanted a Messiah who could free them from Roman rule. Jesus had come to do something much bigger, and even better, than the best thing they could imagine in that moment. He had come to bring salvation for their souls and establish an everlasting kingdom.
One of the most important lessons we can learn from the events of Palm Sunday is what it means to truly worship Jesus.
1. True Worship Involves Honoring Jesus as King
Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on a donkey was a deliberate declaration: By fulfilling the prophecy in Zechariah 9:9, Jesus was announcing that He was the long-awaited “Son of David,” the one who would restore the throne of David, which God had promised would be an everlasting house.
And yet, Jesus was also declaring that He was a different kind of king than what many people might have anticipated. Conquering kings ride warhorses. Jesus rode on the foal of a donkey—not even a full-grown donkey! He was coming not to make war against the Romans but to sacrifice His life.
As the people shouted “Hosanna” (“Save now!”), they acknowledged Jesus as their king, even if many of them underestimated the breadth of the nature of the salvation He had come to bring. And yet, they were right to acknowledge Him as their king! The essence of worship is surrender to Jesus as your king: to give Him the place of ultimate authority over every area of your life. True worship means surrendering our plans and expectations into His hands and entrusting ourselves wholly over to Him.
This Palm Sunday, it is worth asking yourself the following: Have I made Jesus my king?
My pastor, Tom Stipe, used to say, “I just want to be a penny in God’s pocket that He can spend wherever and however it pleases Him best.” The essence of worship is surrender, and like Isaiah, who saw a glimpse of God’s glory, when we really understand who God is—both His majesty and His grace—it causes us to respond to His call and surrender our lives to His will. To make Jesus your king means letting Him sit on the throne over you, and following His lead in every area of life.
2. True Worship Involves Receiving His Salvation
When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the city was stirred (Matthew 21:10). The Greek word used here is seismos—the same word used for earthquakes. His arrival shook the city.
But rather than leading the crowds up to the Roman garrison at the Atonia Fortress to overthrow the Romans, Jesus led them up onto the Temple Mount, where He overturned the tables of the money changers and spoke out against the corruption of Israel’s religious elites.
The salvation that Jesus came to bring was not the salvation they had been hoping for. Truly, it was something better, but many of them were not able to see that yet. Similarly, there are times in our lives when God does not do what we expect or perhaps hoped He would. True worship in these cases involves walking with God by faith: trusting in His character, His promises, and His Word, and embracing His plan for your life, knowing that He knows what you truly need, and that He who did not spare even His own Son, but gave Him up for you, will surely work all things together for your good, since you are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28, 32).
3. True Worship Involves Yielding to His Purifying Work
When Jesus arrived at the Temple, He did something that surprised those who were gathered there: He overturned tables, drove out the money changers, and said, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers” (Mark 11:17).
The religious leaders had turned the “courtyard of the Gentiles” into a marketplace. Here, Jesus is quoting two Old Testament passages. The first, Isaiah 56:7, describes the coming of the Gentiles to worship the Lord in the Temple. The second, Jeremiah 7:11, describes how people in Jeremiah’s time wrongly assumed that they could escape God’s judgment for their sins by hiding out in the Temple. Rather than reaching out to the world with God’s love and truth, the religious leaders of that time had turned the space meant for welcoming outsiders to come near to God into a place that lined their own pockets with revenue from the fees paid by merchants who sold goods. By cleansing the Temple, Jesus was asserting that He is the Lord over the Temple, and He was reclaiming it for its true purpose.
In the New Testament, we are told that we are now God’s temple, both corporately, as the church, and individually as believers in whom God’s Spirit dwells (1 Corinthians 6:19; 1 Peter 2:5). Just as Jesus cleansed the Temple back then, Jesus desires to cleanse and purify us as well, and claim us for the purpose He intends and desires for our lives and our churches to have.
Are there things in your life that Jesus desires to overturn and drive out—things that are not helpful, and need to go? Perhaps there are sinful attitudes or unhelpful practices that He wants to cleanse out of your life. Like the religious leaders, we can resist His purifying work. But when we yield to the cleansing He desires to do, we find greater joy, freedom, and increased effectiveness for His purposes in and through our lives.
How Will You Respond to Jesus this Palm Sunday?
The people of Jerusalem welcomed Jesus with praise—but when He didn’t meet their expectations, their worship faded into rejection.
How about you?
Will you honor Jesus as your King by giving Him the place of authority over your life?
Will you receive His salvation by putting your faith and trust in Him today? Will you yield to His purifying work, allowing Him to cleanse you from anything that is holding you back from living out the fullness of His purpose for you?
True worship is about surrendering every area of our lives to Jesus, trusting that His kingdom, His salvation, and His cleansing work are what we need most.
