The Triumphal Entry

This morning, in preparing for Palm Sunday, I was reading the account of the Triumphal Entry in the Gospel of Luke. What especially touched me on this reading was the fact that as the Lord was approaching Jerusalem on the donkey, while His disciples shouted out “Blessed be the King who comes in the name of the Lord!” (loudly enough that the Pharisees in the crowd were demanding that they stop), the Lord was not smiling and waving, or even sitting calmly on the donkey. He was weeping.

“Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.” (Luke 19:41, 42)

There’s something profoundly moving in that image of such deep grief and pity in the middle of such joy. I want someone to paint a picture of the triumphal entry this way: with the crowds shouting and rejoicing, and Jesus weeping.