Today is Palm Sunday, the day Jesus rode into Jerusalem with adoring citizens celebrating His arrival with joyous shouts of “Hosanna” and “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” They waved palm branches and laid their cloaks across the road as a show of respect to the Messiah.

Those same adoring citizens could not know at that time that in less than one week, they would turn on Him. They would allow themselves to be swayed by satan and the religious leaders to call for His crucifixion.

But Jesus knew. He was fully aware of what was waiting for Him inside of this week that we call Holy Week. He knew one of His close friends would betray Him for 30 silver coins. He knew His best friends would abandon Him. Worst of all, He knew His heavenly Father would forsake Him as He hung dying on a cross.

Despite this awareness, Jesus chose to ride into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday anyway. That’s because He also knew why He was doing this–to take the punishment you and I deserve for all the bad things we’ve ever done and will ever do. He did this so we do not have to.

Jesus was human, so I’m confident that there were times leading up to this moment when He didn’t really feel like doing this (in fact, later in the week, He prayed for another way to achieve the goal of saving the world). But He went anyway.

Sometimes there are things we need to do that we don’t really feel like doing. It could be something mundane like taking out the trash, or more meaningful like going to work. It could be an activity directly related to our walk with God like going to church, or something seemingly unrelated like calling a friend. When I don’t feel like doing something, sometimes I remind myself of Jesus doing something for me that He probably didn’t feel like doing. Out of gratitude for what He did for me, I’ll usually end up doing that thing I don’t feel like doing, just in case it is part of His plan for my life or someone else’s.

It’s not much, I know, but sometimes it’s all I have to offer.