PALM SUNDAY

[cappie]

Palm Sunday is designed to reflect the dramatic mood swing that accompanies the events of that day when Jesus was triumphantly welcomed into Jerusalem, only to face his rejection and crucifixion a few days later. 

We are here now to make our answer to the invitation of Palm Sunday. Jesus is hailed by the crowds today, And then we have a choice. Many of us will go home and not darken the door of spiritual encounter until Easter Day. But that is a mistake.

He has spent three years on Earth teaching, healing, leading people to God, to liberation, to new life. Today, on Palm Sunday, we all shout out his name with Hosannas. He is clearly top of mind. But he knows that the time is fast approaching when all will desert him, along with the rest of the disciples.  

That is exactly what the chief priests and scribes want. We read in the Gospel of Mark, “The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him, for they said, ‘Not during the festival, or there may be a riot among the people.’”

They don’t want people holding on to their allegiance to Jesus. It’s too dangerous. The Romans are already losing patience with the Jews and their ongoing parade of political Messiahs who cause disturbance and unrest. And Rome solves its problems with violence. The chief priests and scribes know that everyone will be better off, safer if Jesus is simply forgotten.

And that’s the question we’re being asked today. When we walk out of these doors  will we forget Jesus? Will we abandon him? Will the noise and news,  claim our attention for the next seven days, so that the Resurrection is an anti-climax marked only by Easter eggs?

That can’t be all we have to offer. That can’t be all the courage we have.

 Try to stand in Jesus’ shoes at this moment, on Palm Sunday, toward the end of the day. The crowds welcomed him into Jerusalem, waving palms and laying their cloaks in the road before him. Everyone was joyful, exuberant. The disciples felt like their moment finally had come; Jesus was going to take over Jerusalem and show the Romans who was boss.

Now it’s the end of the day. The crowds have gone home  and the pilgrims and others from outside the city like the disciples have found rooms at inns or courtyard corners to bed down in.  

And where is Jesus? The colt has been handed off to someone, and the hundreds surrounding him have dwindled to the Twelve, the women, and a few other friends and followers and no one notices Jesus drifting away out of the warm circle of firelight to stand alone, gazing out at the quieting city under the stars.

 This is where Jesus is at the end of the day on Palm Sunday. The task that lies before him is overwhelming, and he knows that one by one, everyone will abandon him until he is all alone.

But the thing is that we still have a chance. We still have a choice. We can decide that we will be loyal to Jesus to the best of our ability, every day of this week that changed the world.

It may be through coming to worship. It may be through extra time in prayer and meditation every day of Holy Week. It may be through serving others who are in need, or reading the entirety of one of the gospels, or finishing our Lenten intention with special dedication and love. It doesn’t matter what we do to follow Jesus to the Cross. It just matters that we do something.

 It will be difficult. Living Holy Week fully, with integrity, demands that  we have to trust Jesus and follow him into the shadows, for the sake of the promise of the light. If we say yes to the invitation of Palm Sunday, we are committing to being trapped somewhere between the wrenching fear and despair of losing faith, and the ultimate promise that the resurrected Christ will shine forth over the world with love that heals and reconciles all people. We say yes to being stuck between those two poles for seven long days.

  Let’s try to remember Jesus and stay with him from now until Easter Day, because he is not a dead man at all. And that’s all we need to know to get through these days as we wait for the light—he is alive.

Following His example of humble obedience in the trials and crosses of our lives, we know we will never be forsaken, that one day we too will be with Him in Paradise (Luke 23:42).