This was the only occasion on which Jesus allowed himself to be acclaimed and honoured as the Messiah, the long-awaited deliverer and King whom God would send to save his people.  The patriotic crowd thought that he was going to seize the opportunity of the Passover festival to proclaim himself a national leader and declare a holy war against the Romans, and free his people from Gentile occupation and oppression.

It was not until Good Friday that it became clear that his Kingdom was not of this world and that the deliverance he came to bring was not political and economic but moral and spiritual; that his mission was not to liberate the Jews from the rule of the Roman occupying power but to deliver all mankind from the reign of evil within themselves.

For Good Friday revealed, to all who were given the inner vision to see, that he was the King not of force but of love, and as King of Love his reign continues to this day.