Lessons. Questions

Lessons

For the Jews, Jerusalem was the holy City of God. When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, He fulfilled an Old Testament prophecy (Zechariah 9: 9-10) and left little doubt that He was accepting the title of Messiah. Jesus was adored by the crowds of people who had come to Jerusalem for Passover.

But there was harsh conflict between Jesus and Jerusalem's religious leaders. They clashed on issues of prayer, holiness, life after death and paying taxes to the Romans. Above all, they clashed on the issue of Jesus' authority from God. These conflicts led to Jesus being crucified less than a week after entering Jerusalem.

Jesus did some of His most important preaching during this final week. He spoke of His second coming and told parables of the kingdom of God. Most of all He said we must put our total trust in God and put that trust into action with kindness for other people.

Questions

What is Palm Sunday? Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter, is a celebration of Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Some churches decorate with palms and distribute palm branches in memory of the greeting Jesus received from the pilgrims as He rode into Jerusalem.

Why did Jesus preach and work His miracles among the Jews? The people known as Hebrews, Israelites or Jews were God's chosen people. It was God's plan to bring salvation to the Jews first, then to the rest of the world through the Jews. Jesus was born a Jew and remained faithful to Judaism (the Jewish religion) throughout His earthly life. He worked and preached mainly among the Jews of Palestine, which is now the country of Israel.

Christianity began as a small sect of Judaism. It was only after many Gentiles (non-Jews) converted to Christianity that it emerged as a separate religion. God has not revoked His covenant with the Jews (Romans 11: 25-29), but His salvation is now available to all people of the world.

What does Messiah mean? Messiah comes from a Hebrew word meaning " the anointed one. " In Old Testament times, important people like kings and priests were anointed with oil as a sign of their office. For hundreds of years, the Jews had expected God to send them a special king (Daniel 9: 25-26, Isaiah 7: 14-17, 11: 1-9, Micah 5: 2). Jesus avoided accepting the title Messiah until the very end because the people were expecting their Messiah to be a military and political leader instead of a spiritual leader. In Greek, the original language of the New Testament, christos means " anointed one", and that is where the word " Christ" comes from.

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