March 29, 2026 Palm Sunday Service - "The Road to the Cross

Or will you set your feet on this road that Jesus walked? Not the literal road in Palestine that took him into Jerusalem with the crowd shouting, Hosanna, but the spiritual road that leads us to the cross and beyond. Because we must go through the cross to get to the empty tomb to resurrection Sunday, and the road leads us through suffering, through service, and through surrender. Where are you headed? Your direction will determine your destination, and Jesus leads the way. [00:57:00] (45 seconds)  #RoadToTheCross

If you are suffering physically today, if you are suffering emotionally or spiritually, you are not alone. Jesus knows what it is like to suffer. He does not make light of your suffering. He does not condemn you for your suffering. He does not say you are failing as a Christian when you suffer. Instead, he affirms its reality. He says he is with you when you suffer, and he points to the time beyond when this world will be made new, when because of Easter's victory over death, he will wipe every tear from our eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. [00:48:03] (51 seconds)  #YouAreNotAlone

Reed Sport Church of God, I want to warn you against those who preach a false gospel of prosperity and health, who tell you that if you are a true follower of Jesus, you will not suffer physically or emotionally or spiritually. That does not square with the gospel revealed by Jesus on the road to the cross. In this life, we will have many trials and sorrows just as Jesus did. But Jesus goes on to say, but take heart because I have overcome the world. Hallelujah. [00:47:06] (41 seconds)  #RejectProsperityGospel

And the disciples are shocked and ill at ease and uncomfortable, incredibly uncomfortable with this turning upside down of the way things should be. Only servants wash people's feet. It was unseemly, inappropriate, wrong for Jesus to do such a thing. But when he's finished the job, when he's put his outer robe back on and taken his place again at the table, here's what he says. Do you understand what I was doing? You call me teacher and lord, and you are right because that's what I am. And since I, your lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash wash each other's feet. [00:50:08] (46 seconds)  #ServeLikeJesus

He looks down at the soldiers, he looks down at the religious leaders who essentially have carried out his death sentence and he says, father, forgive them for they don't know what they are doing. This is the ultimate surrender. The giving up of our rights to nurse bitterness, resentment, hatred, disdain, the intentional intercession to ask God to forgive those who have wronged me. Will you surrender with Jesus on this road to the cross? Will you echo his words, not my will, but yours? [00:54:20] (46 seconds)  #ForgiveLikeJesus

But there is more to this road than only resurrection. On Palm Sunday, we watched the children parade in with palms only to realize that they've been following Jesus' hearse. It's a funeral procession. We can't make it even halfway through this celebratory service before the pain of Jesus' crucifixion overwhelms us. Yes, we are Easter people, but the road to resurrection must first go through the cross. [00:40:21] (42 seconds)  #CrossBeforeResurrection

This is such a heart wrenching moment in Jesus' life where he divinely knows what lies ahead and still desperately and humanly doesn't want to have to go through it. Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. I don't want to have to do it. I don't want to have to suffer. I don't want the pain and the betrayal. He's totally honest with God, and yet, he says, yet not my will, but yours be done. This is our model of surrender to God's will, not our own. [00:53:01] (44 seconds)  #SurrenderToGod

Finally, as we follow Jesus along this road, we see that Jesus models for us a life of surrender. After the celebration of Passover that we call the last supper, Jesus takes his disciples with him to pray in the garden at the Mount Of Olives because he is so desperate for communication with his father at this time of extreme emotional and spiritual distress. Luke says in chapter 22, he walked away about a stone's throw and knelt down and prayed. Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine. He prayed more fervently, and he was in such agony of spirit that his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood. [00:52:07] (55 seconds)  #GardenPrayerAgony