The Emotions of Easter - Joy of Palm Sunday!

Each day from Wednesday through Sunday, we are going to post some daily readings for you and your family with the theme of "The Emotions of Easter!"

The reading is the Joy of Palm Sunday.

On Palm Sunday, Jesus entrance into the city is filled with joy!  Branch waving, coat dropping joy!







INTRODUCTION QUESTIONS:

What is joy?

Christian joy is a good feeling in the soul, produced by the Holy Spirit, as he causes us to see the beauty of Christ in the Word and in the world.

Now understand, describing joy as a good feeling is not a bad thing.  You don't necessarily have control over your feelings.  When you think about what God has done for you through Jesus Christ it should make you joyful.

What brings you joy?


What do you do when you are joyful?

READING:

Here are some quotes regarding the Joy of Palm Sunday from an article entitled "The Strange and Wonderful Ride."  Click HERE for the entire article.

Joy shines on Palm Sunday — a joy, as we now know, that anticipates a supernova of gladness coming on the following Sunday. In the thrill of hope, the crowds rehearse the praises of Psalm 118, pining that perhaps this is, at long last, the great “Son of David,” the promised royal rescuer, riding into the Holy City to definitively save his people. 

“Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” (Matthew 21:9). Hosanna — a Hebrew declaration of adoration and delight — is the refrain for this triumphal entry.

The joy of Palm Sunday is a shadow of the joy to come.

Yet the joy of Palm Sunday forecasts the unrivaled euphoria to come on Easter morning.

In Jesus our joy comes from the most unlikely place.

The long-awaited Messiah comes not in human glory, but peculiar glory — the glory of strength in weakness, the glory of indomitable joy in excruciating pain, the glory of the Lion of Judah who gives himself as the Lamb of God. He comes on a donkey’s colt to be the stone the builders will utterly reject on Friday, and that God himself will unveil as the very cornerstone on Sunday morning.