Follow me

Pastor Juliet Lyons opens by admitting that life often leads us to places we never planned for. She tells how, while working in music and advertising, she received a call inviting her to Sydney for a conference and a month-long stay, with the flight leaving that night. Saying yes meant quitting her job that minute. In prayer she heard two words, “follow me,” and recognized that God had been testing her obedience for two years in small ways, like praying over strangers on the train. That trip became the beginning of the rest of her life, though the vision took years to unfold. The Christian faith, she says, is God repeatedly asking whether we will lay everything down for a plan bigger than ours.

The final journey

Using a map of Passion Week, Pastor Juliet traces Jesus’ route from Jericho up roughly 400 feet of terrain to Bethany and the Mount of Olives, alongside crowds making their Passover pilgrimage. Reading Luke 19:28–40, she points out that the triumphal entry began before the gates: it was the disciples who started rejoicing on the way down from the Mount of Olives, and the crowds caught what was already happening. Revival starts with disciples who tell the world what they have seen.

Five notes from the triumphal entry

First, Jesus chose a never-ridden donkey’s colt, a sign of peace rather than a coup, fulfilling Zechariah 9:9 and ending the veiled disclosure of His ministry; He was now openly declaring Himself Messiah. Second, the crowds sang a hallel psalm, “Hosanna,” meaning save us now, and the timing aligned with Daniel’s prophecy of 483 years from the decree to rebuild. Third, laying down cloaks and palm branches was an Old Testament act of royal homage, declaring, “We recognize you as king.” Fourth, Jesus boldly confronted the Pharisees who wanted it stopped, saying the stones would cry out. Fifth, Jesus was unapologetic with His disciples about the nature of His kingship, which is where the message settles.

They saw only what they could see

The people saw miracles, signs, and Roman oppression, and concluded Jesus had come to fix the physical. Pastor Juliet wonders whether we do the same, walking into church and praying only, “Fix all of this, Lord,” about the economy, politics, and the world. But we are spirit beings first, and God came to save the whole person, spirit first. There is more happening in your day than you see, and Jesus came to give us what we need, not what we think we need.

The parable of the minas

In Luke 19:11–27, just before entering Jerusalem, Jesus tells of a nobleman who leaves to receive a kingdom, entrusts ten servants with one mina each, and is hated by citizens who send a delegation against him. The listeners would have recognized the story of Archelaus, Herod’s son, who went to Rome to receive his kingdom while a delegation protested. On his return, faithful servants who multiplied a few months’ wages were given cities, while one who hid his mina in a handkerchief lost it. Pastor Juliet asks where the other seven servants were, and notes that Jesus was telling the disciples He would leave to receive His kingdom and return. Faithfulness with a little brings more than we could imagine.

Weeping over the city

Luke frames the entry with Jesus weeping in verses 41–44: “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace.” He foresaw Titus barricading and destroying Jerusalem in AD 70. The people were looking for peace in all the wrong places, treating the overthrow of Rome as salvation. When problems grow big enough, we start running to the problem as our savior; they went to the Roman Empire to kill Jesus because they thought Rome could save them. Pastor Juliet prays that this is never said of Elan Church, that we are so blinded by what we see that we miss what God is doing in our souls.

Lay it all down

The closing challenge is to recalibrate at the cross, because worry, financial burdens, weariness, and small compromises slowly become the kingdom we operate from. A time is coming when Jesus will not ride a donkey; His kingdom will come and every knee will bow. Will we be found faithful with what He has entrusted to us? Jesus brought a kingdom nobody wanted or understood and did it anyway, because He was doing the will of the Father.