Palm Sunday
This guide is designed to help your group move from the story of Palm Sunday into honest personal reflection around the image of God each of us carries. The goal isn't to arrive at the right answers but to help people actually encounter the real Jesus. Go slow. Let’s make space for silence and honesty.
Scripture: Matthew 21:1–11
Read aloud together or ask someone to read. Encourage the group to listen as if hearing the story for the first time.
1. Icebreaker — Start Light
Think about a time you ordered something online — or expected something to arrive a certain way — and it showed up completely different than advertised.
What was it? What did you do with the disappointment?
When you picture a king or a hero, what do they look like? Where does that image come from — a movie, a book, a story you grew up with?
2. Back Into the Story — Observations
• Pontius Pilate rides in from the west — warhorses, soldiers, military muscle. His message: we are in charge.
• Jesus rides in from the east — on a donkey, surrounded by a crowd laying cloaks and palm branches. Their cry: Hosanna. Save us. Now.
What details in this story stand out to you that you may have missed before?
The word "Hosanna" is both praise and a desperate plea — it literally means "Save us now." How does knowing that change the feel of the scene?
Why do you think Jesus chose a donkey? What was he communicating — and to whom?
Read Zachariah 9:13 - How does this prophetic message play into the atmosphere on Palm Sunday?
3. The Tension — The King They Wanted vs. The King Who Came
The crowd wasn't wrong to want a king. They weren't wrong to hope. They were just so certain they knew what that king would look like that they couldn't see the one who was actually in front of them.
What does this story teach us about the character of God?
How do these characteristics rub against the Western Church’s image of God?
How does characteristics challenge our Image of God (conscious and subconscious attitudes, expectations re: prayer, healing, inclusion etc)
When you imagine God "showing up" in a difficult situation in your life, what does that look like? Does that image match the Jesus of Palm Sunday?
4. The Invitation — Can You Accept Him As He Is?
The sermon ended not with a call to do more or be better — but with a simpler, harder question: "Can you accept Jesus as he actually is?"
What would it actually cost you to accept Jesus as he is — not the edited version, but the real one?
Is there an area of your life right now where you've been waiting for the "warhorse" version of Jesus to show up? What might it look like to receive the "donkey" version instead?
What's one thing from this story or this conversation that you want to carry into the rest of Holy Week?
Close in prayer. You might pray specifically for the group to encounter the real Jesus this Holy Week — not the one we've constructed, but the one who rode in on a donkey, washed feet and went to a cross.
