Towards Jerusalem he turned

On Wednesday in our KS1 assembly we considered what it must have been like to have been in the crowd the day that Jesus rode into Jerusalem. We considered the emotions and the excitement, the stories that would have been circulating the crowd and their response to the man that rode into Jerusalem.

 

One of the questions that must have been raised was who really was this man? The crowd would have heard of his miracles and teaching, some may even have seen him or heard him. Some in fact might actually have been related to those he had healed, those whose lives he changed for ever.  But the symbolism in the way he was greeted as he came into Jerusalem, seemed to suggest that the crowd had already made up its mind. Their welcome was traditionally reserved for a king, a conqueror, a hero who was returning to his city. The shouts and cries of the crowd, the palm branches and the euphoria where all part of this.

 

But as the Easter story unfurls it seems that they did not get what they expected, the man they welcomed was clearly not a king in the earthly sense. But in many ways this probably only raised the same question again. If he was not an earthly king, then who was this Jesus, who turned and rode towards Jerusalem?

 

This question will be the focus of our assemblies this coming week. For it is a question that is central to the Easter story. Throughout the Gospel accounts of the events that led up to Good Friday this question is asked time and time again. Who is this man?

 

Dave Godfrey in one of his many excellent songs, frames this question really well and I will be introducing this song to the children this week.

 

What kind of man is this, who taught in Galilee
Who stilled the raging storm, and calmed the angry sea?
What kind of man is this, who healed the blind and lame
Gave the poor new hope, the girl her life again?...