No Free Lunch

When Jesus paraded into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the people who cheered Him along the way regarded the event as a royal procession. They expected Jesus to ride into town, declare Himself the King and start the long-awaited revolution against the Roman government. When He refused to do so, the crowds turned against Him, enabling the religious authorities to engineer His arrest, His trial, His torture and His execution.

Jesus’ refusal to be the King the people expected Him to be and wanted Him to be is a recurring theme of the Gospels from the very beginning of His public ministry. When Jesus was tempted in the desert, the whole issue for Him was whether or not to become King. He lived in a time of political turmoil when the people were hoping and praying for a powerful leader, a strong king. And the temptation that came to Jesus was to be that King. The devil urged Jesus to demonstrate His mighty power in…