Palm Sunday
“Look, your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey.” — Matthew 21:5
This week begins with a king on a donkey. Not exactly what we expect when we think of power, is it?
I once saw a story shared online about a visiting artist who came into a school. He placed an image on their desks and told them they would be making copy sketches of it. Then he did something unexpected. Instead of copying the image directly, the children were instructed to turn it upside down, cover most of it with a piece of paper, and draw it one small area at a time.
He told them, “Sometimes when you know what you’re looking at, your brain thinks it’s helping — it fills in the gaps for you. But that can actually stop you from seeing what’s really there. Turning it upside down, slowing down, scrutinising, making the familiar unrecognisable, helps you see what is really there.”
And I thought: isn’t that exactly what Palm Sunday is about?
Jesus enters Jerusalem like a king — but not in the way anyone expected. No war horse. No golden chariot. Just a borrowed donkey and people waving branches. This is power turned upside down. The kind we don’t recognise unless we slow down and really look.
So many of us have learned to associate power with dominance, control, force. But here, Jesus redefines it. His power is humble, healing, peace-seeking. It’s not weakness — but it’s not the power we’ve been taught to see.
Art Journaling Exercise: The Upside-Down Grid
Today, I invite you to try the artist’s method:
Find a picture of something you associate with power — maybe a crown?
Turn it upside down.
Cover it with a piece of paper or several small post it notes.
Draw one area of the image at a time, slowly, mindfully.
When you’ve finished, turn your drawing right-side-up again — and notice what surprises you.
Then reflect:
What did you think you were drawing?
What did you discover by looking differently?
What “power” do you need to see differently?
Study Questions:
What does it say about power that Jesus chose a donkey, not a war horse?
How do I respond when power looks like humility, not control?
Journal Notes:
The donkey is a deliberate echo of Zechariah’s prophecy (Zechariah 9:9). What is Jesus’ intention when he uses these words?
“Hosanna” is both a celebration and a plea for salvation — the crowds wanted liberation, but their expectations were nationalistic. What Jesus brings is bigger but harder: the transformation of the heart and the world through love, not force.
The city's stirring shows how true power unsettles. Jesus’ entry challenges what people expect from leaders — and from God.
