Over 80 years ago, a crowd gathered on a humid August day to participate in an unparalleled event for its time. Hundreds of thousands of spectators, police officers, and soldiers gathered for an event so spectacular, it almost seemed to come out of a fairy tale. The athletes from six continents and 49 nations were represented, wearing clothing with their flag or waving their flag for the crowd to see. However the most obvious flag was the Swastika. And while most of the athletes were present, the main attraction that day was not the athletes who would compete for medals, but the one who would preside over them, Adolf Hitler.
At 3:18 p.m. Hitler left the chancellery in central Berlin, standing upright in his Mercedes limousine, his right arm lifted he saluted tens of thousands of Hitler Youth, storm troopers, and helmeted military guards lined his route. Hundreds of thousands of ordinary German citizens had massed along the way, leaning from windows and waving flags or standing twelve or more deep along the street, again using periscopes to get a glimpse of fuhrer. They extended their right arms in the Nazi salute, their faces upturned, ecstatic, screaming in pulsing waves as he rode by, “Heil! Heil! Heil!” At the Maifeld, where the U.S. Olympic team members stood, the athletes began to hear the distant sound of crowds cheering, the noise slowly swelling and growing nearer, then loudspeakers blaring, “He is coming! He is coming”. “He is coming! He is Coming!” All of this for one of the most evil men the world has known.
The day Jesus entered into Jerusalem, the world was not gathered to receive him, and Jesus wasn’t standing on a Mercedes, or even the ancient world’s equivalent, a chariot, but rather he came on a donkey. The entrance into Jerusalem was an acted parable. It gave the faithful the sign they had been waiting for. It inaugurated the Master’s final mission to his people and was a fitting prelude to the days of intense activity and emotion which were to follow. It focused the whole city’s attention on Jesus, so that wherever he went during that closing week, crowds followed him, and his name was on every tongue. He was the Lord’s anointed. He was riding to the throne which God had given him. He was ready for the last campaign.
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