Palm Sunday 

Today we consider the experience of disappointment. On Palm Sunday Jesus approached Jerusalem on a donkey (John 12.12-16), deliberate identifying himself as the servant King of Zechariah 9. This profoundly disappointment Israel’s popular expectation of their messiah. And we too can be disappointment by the reign of Jesus. But what if he came to serve us in a deeper way? Offer us a more needed and powerful redemption? All welcome this Sunday as we hear the message of Palm Sunday- the new perspective on the reign of Jesus, a revelation that deeply satisfies. 

Palm Sunday – Reflection Questions 

1. Describe a time when you have felt a significant disappointment with a family member, friend, school, workplace, or state or national leadership. 

2. In your disappointment, did you cry out to Jesus? If so was his answer all that you desired? Or were you left still wanting him to do more?

3. Consider the circumstances of the people of Israel, occupied by the Romans, controlled, having to pay tax and submit to Roman authority. What would they naturally desire God’s king to do?

4. How would seeing Lazarus raised from death in JOhn chapter 11, make the crowds even more excited about Jesus as he approaches Jerusalem (John 12.12-13)?

5. What does it mean to cry out ‘Hosanna!’ to Jesus? (John 12.13). 

6. What kind of person might ride a donkey? What were donkeys used for in Jesus’ day?

7. Jesus mounts a donkey to ride to Jerusalem, and the Apostle John reminds us that this was promised in Zechariah 9.9-11. In this prophecy, what will God’s King do?

8. What great enemy will the king save his people from, according to Zechariah 9.11?

9. In what ways, according to Zechariah’s prophecy, is the reign of Jesus deeply satisfying? How does this assist us when we feel disappointed by him today?