Sorin Cigher, the Pastor of the “Zion” Baptist Church in Sibiu addresses a word to all Christians on the eve of the great holiday. Before

Sorin Cigher, the Pastor of the “Zion” Baptist Church in Sibiu addresses a word to all Christians on the eve of the great holiday. Before Palm Sunday, he talks about the significance of the holiday and the week that awaits and prepares the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Below, you can read the pastor’s word in full.

“Say to the daughter of Zion: Behold, your King comes to you gentle and sitting on an ass, on a colt, the son of the one under the yoke”. (Matthew 21:5)

Flowers, a celebration with many unknowns and just as many questions. The world didn’t know what was going on, they were asking questions about the young rabbi who was making noise and causing trouble. Who is this whom the world hails and follows? Whispers and chatter on the corners did not linger, then they moved to the big square and the chorus was easy to learn.

From “Hosanna” to “Crucify Him!” it was a few days away. The flowers of the feast have metamorphosed into the prickly thorns of the day of judgment. The king is not surprised by the man’s change! Although He knows who man is, He loves him and does not shun him!

The king comes to the people, he comes to the place of judgment, He knows everything that happens around, He is the omniscient God. Don’t run away from Gethsemane, come to the cross.

A king who comes riding on a donkey (the animal that symbolized peace in Jewish culture), comes to bring peace, the peace of man’s soul and not military peace. He does not come to restore a Roman political peace or to resolve ethnic conflicts, He comes to reconcile man with his Creator.

Man has moved away from the Creator, but the Son is coming to us… He is coming to be crowned, people prepare the feast, they do it in the first three days, after which comes the revenge. For three days he is king to them, then he is the biggest robber they want to get rid of. For others, Jesus is king for life, and for heaven, He is King forever. For you, Jesus is king? For how long?

We celebrate the coming of the King to Jerusalem, this means more than an official visit by a dignitary. The king is humble, humble and with a concrete plan. The climax was neither the crowning with cheap and improvised laurels of excited people, nor the upper room where they ate the last supper together, nor the garden of tears, of the kiss of His sale, nor the court heated by the fire of suspicions and betrayals, nor the courtroom, nor the cold dungeon as the hearts of His enemies were, but the Cross on the hill.

The king comes to the cross. He does not run from it, he does not avoid it, he does not abandon it, but he carries it on his back with dignity, even if he is tired and broken and crushed by the beatings, He does not give up, he is someone who carries it for a while, but the King does not she wears it the rest of her life. It is put on the cross and pierced by the merciless nails, pierced by the well-sharpened spear of the Roman soldier, pierced by the fierce thorns of the crown placed on the head, an image of a special King, nailed to the cross of Calvary. What image! What a crowning! What an end to a King who gave, offered, did only good! What holiday! What joy in the hearts of those who wanted him crucified for a long time!

Yes, the King who is coming to Jerusalem came into the world for this, for the cross! There the King brought reconciliation between man and heaven. From there man can receive forgiveness! Rehabilitation begins at the cross. The substitute cross is the Good News for me! He came to be put in the middle, in my place. Mine and yours was the place in the middle. For this the King came…, to replace me! Be convinced of this too, celebrate the coming of the King, not on flowers and not on the music of people happy to have a King of their own…, but he comes to receive the thorns, the nails, the whip and the Cross. He comes to us today with a clear message: I came for you, because I love you unconditionally and unlimited! I took the Cross on my back and took it to Golgotha, to bring you forgiveness!

Christ has proved that he loves us in the most sublime way, the only one, moreover, who has shown this to hostile mankind. He died that we might live. He is risen, and this gives us the greatest assurance, we have a living King! This King who has come will return at the hour known only to the Father, but He will keep His Word as He always has! Until then, let’s love Him and trust in the Word He left us! Christ is alive! We have a King coming to us, he’s on his way!”

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