Prepare a place for Jesus as King.

Welcome to the Will to Love Project’s Advent program!

Our Advent Journal is a set of exercises to help you discover one part of your life where you prepare a place to welcome Jesus in. To inspire you in doing these exercises, we will provide six scriptural reflections over the next three weeks. These reflections will help you consider the question - what happens when Jesus enters a place that was prepared for him?

Oddly, for Advent, our first reflection is about Palm Sunday, or Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem. The story appears in all four gospels. The Gospel readings we will focus on are Matthew 21:1-13 and Luke 19:28-48.[1]

Before Jesus entered Jerusalem, a crowd had gathered, and “Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, ‘Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find an ass tethered, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them here to me.’” Mt 21:1-2. The disciples did what Jesus told them.  “They brought the ass and the colt and laid their cloaks over them, and he sat upon them. The very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and strewed them on the road.”  Mt 21:7-8 As Jesus rode into Jerusalem, the crowds proclaimed “Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; hosanna in the highest.” Mt 21:9. Luke recounts their proclamation this way, “They proclaimed: ‘Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.’” Lk 19:28-48.

The disciples and the crowd prepared the way for the King of Kings to enter Jerusalem. Notably, as you will see in our later reflections, Jesus acted first. He told the disciples how to prepare the way for him. When the disciples did what Jesus asked, He entered the place they prepared. Jesus entered Jerusalem being proclaimed a King.

Are we willing to welcome Jesus into our hearts and proclaim him as the King of our hearts and souls? Are we ready to retrieve and prepare the colt for Jesus to ride on – since the Master has need of it? Will we cut palm branches from the trees and strew them or our cloaks on the road for Him? Then what? What will happen when we welcome the King of Kings?

After Jesus entered Jerusalem, he entered the temple area. Mark says, “He looked around at everything.” (Mk 11:11).  Then he “drove out all those engaged in selling and buying there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. And he said to them, ‘It is written: ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a den of thieves.’ The blind and the lame approached him in the temple area, and he cured them.” Matthew 21:12-14.

When we invite Jesus in as King, we invite Him into our own temple. “Do you not know that your body is a Temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been purchased at a price. Therefore, glorify God in you body.” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20.

This Advent, we invite you to welcome Jesus in as the King of your heart, mind, body, and soul. To do what He tells you. To proclaim Him as king. This Advent, let Him cleanse that temple and transform it back into a house of prayer – a house of relationship where you share in the blessed life of God.

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[1] Mark 11:1-17 has a slightly different sequence of events. The parts of this story follow a separate timeline in John 12:12-15 and John 2:13-16.