Will You Choose My Lamb?

Today is Palm Sunday.  It's that day during the church year that we celebrate the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.  It's the one place that Jesus should have avoided, and yet today we are reminded that He went willingly.  I'm overwhelmed at that thought...

The city was filled with people.  In fact, it is estimated that some 2.5 million people had gathered there.  They had come to Jerusalem for a purpose.  Today was "lamb selection day"; that day when the head of each household would select the passover lamb for their family. 

It was a time of remembrance.  They would remember their exodus from Egypt.  God had heard His peoples cries for deliverance, and deliverance came.  The death angel passed over any home under the protection of the blood of the lamb and ultimately set them free.

It was a time of expectation.  They would look for Messiah to come.  Just as they had been delivered from the tyranny of Pharoah, they believed they would be set free from the oppression of Caesar.  God would deliver them.  He had promised.  The anticipation was evident.

So today they would choose their lamb: That perfect sacrifice symbolizing their past deliverance and future restoration.  Yet while the city is electric with the selection process, God is at work. 

Today would be different.  Today, deliverance would come. 

Descending the mount is Jesus seated upon a donkey's colt.  God has invaded humanity and today He is confronting all people.  In the busyness of the selection process and their religous routine God was asking humanity, "Will you choose my Lamb?".

It's the choice that confronts us all.