This Palm Sunday we begin Holy Week in unprecedented times. Many of us, who would be in church today, are in our living room or den, watching online services, reading our Bible, or praying for mercy.
This is the day Jesus entered Jerusalem to great acclaim. The crowd that greeted him, shouted his name, laid palm fronds before him, stared and pointed for many different reasons:
- adoration, believing he was the One, the Messiah, the Son of God;
- desperation, seeking help, a chance for healing or transformation;
- curiosity, to be part of the crowd and witness an “event”;
- skeptical, not believing, chronically disappointed by words;
- fearful, their beliefs and egos challenged by what they had heard or seen;
- or consumed by hate, their power threatened, looking for an opportunity to silence, stop or kill him.
Oh, how fickle the heart!
We come to Palm Sunday for many different reasons. The only difference is we know what he faces, as incomprehensible as it is. This is the time to contemplate what Jesus did for us.
He knew. He came into Jerusalem, knowing he was coming to die. And yet, he came.
He came because he loved us. Knowing what he knew, how these same people who hailed him as king (and we must include ourselves), would doubt him, abandon him, betray him, torture and kill him; he came anyway. Who can conceive of it?This Palm Sunday (and this week) is a day to contemplate His love for us. No matter what our reasons are for acknowledging Palm Sunday, His Love covers us all — because Easter is coming!