In this short series, we’ll spend a few minutes every day meditating on Jesus’ journey to the Cross. From Palm Sunday to Resurrection Day, this is a sacred week in the Christian calendar—a week that changed everything. 

 

The Gift of Self-Forgetfulness

In the part of the world where I live, when a minister or important government official is traveling through town, the rest of us know it only too well. Roads are blocked. Traffic is diverted. Often, even schools in the area close early. We hear sirens, see flashing lights and whizzing streams of pompous cars with tinted windows.

Sure, it’s for security reasons. But it’s also just because VVIPs like to feel like VVIPs.

But 2000 years ago, the King of Kings came to Jerusalem without the outward trappings of “importance.” 

Instead of a stately white steed, he rode a donkey.

Instead of a red carpet, the dusty path was lined with cloaks of the townspeople.

Instead of trumpet blasts, children sang, “Hosanna!”

Jesus final journey began just as His earthly life had started—in the most humble circumstances. 

If you’ve been in Christian circles, you’ve heard this before.

But how does His humility transform us?

One of my favorite passages reads: 

“In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 

Who, being in very nature God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness. 

And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross! 

Phil 2:5-8

Friend, let those words sink in: Jesus made Himself nothing.

When we begin to grasp His startling humility, 

We fall to our knees in reverence.

When we begin to grasp His startling humility, 

We die to ourselves in our relationship with others.

 

In a world obsessed with climbing higher,

in a culture fixated with proving oneself,

in a climate where we clamor to be first in line,

may we learn from and lean into Jesus—the King who chose to begin His final journey on the back of a colt.

 

Prayer

Dear Jesus, As we meditate on that very first Palm Sunday, we are confronted by Your radical humility. In a world where we often try to outsmart, outwit, outshine others, may we learn from You—the One who did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, the One who made Himself nothing. Give me today the gift of self-forgetfulness. Amen

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