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You never get a second chance to make a first impression’. So goes the adage and it’s true. At a job interview, networking at a business function, when you walk into a shop or a church, the opinions formed in the first thirty seconds carry far more weight than those formed over the following minutes or hours.

Today is Palm Sunday, the day we remember the first impression Jesus made when he, as King of Israel, entered Jerusalem, his royal city, to be received as king.

Was his entrance a show fit for a king, full of majesty, pomp and ceremony. Hardly! Jesus entered Jerusalem dressed in his everyday garb, sitting on young donkey with his disciple’s cloak for a saddle. King Jesus came to his people, as he always had done, in absolute humility and they received him with joy, laying palm branches and cloaks before him and shouting ‘Hosanna! Blessed is the King of Israel’.

Jesus’ ministry never relied upon making a good first impression. His power was manifest in the all day, every day impression he made and his faithfulness in doing his Father’s will. Within a week, those who received him so warmly would be shouting, ‘Crucify, Crucify!’. It mattered not. Even in his passion, our Lord willingly humbled himself to do his Father’s will.

What’s more important, first impression or lasting legacy? To quote Doe Zantamata, First impressions fade. Make sure every impression has just as much optimism, courtesy, and consideration as that very first one did. It’s better to appreciate how nice someone always is, rather than have to try to remember how nice they once were’.