Palm Sunday
And so it begins...this week we walk in the steps of Jesus, on his final journey towards the Cross.
His journey has been heading relentlessly towards Jerusalem- towards a clash between the Kingdom of God and the powers of this world. This was never going to be a straightforward journey- from the moment that Jesus turned away from the temptations of the Devil to make it easy, to take the smooth highway of popularity and power.
On this day, we long for it to be simple, so we give branches to the children to wave, and palm crosses for the old folks to tuck into their bibles, and we sing Hosanna!
But when we read the accounts of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem, it's not such a simple story. He rides on a colt, a young donkey, hardly the steed of a conquerer-in fact, could this not have looked foolish? And Luke writes that as the crowds around him waved their branches and sang psalms of praise, Jesus himself wept:
"The whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power they had seen, saying,
'Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heaven!'
As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it..."
Luke 19:38, 41
This week of Passion, let us not flinch from the difficult, the complex, the unresolved- for it is in the struggle that we might well find ourselves closest to God.
His journey has been heading relentlessly towards Jerusalem- towards a clash between the Kingdom of God and the powers of this world. This was never going to be a straightforward journey- from the moment that Jesus turned away from the temptations of the Devil to make it easy, to take the smooth highway of popularity and power.
On this day, we long for it to be simple, so we give branches to the children to wave, and palm crosses for the old folks to tuck into their bibles, and we sing Hosanna!
But when we read the accounts of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem, it's not such a simple story. He rides on a colt, a young donkey, hardly the steed of a conquerer-in fact, could this not have looked foolish? And Luke writes that as the crowds around him waved their branches and sang psalms of praise, Jesus himself wept:
"The whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power they had seen, saying,
'Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heaven!'
As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it..."
Luke 19:38, 41
This week of Passion, let us not flinch from the difficult, the complex, the unresolved- for it is in the struggle that we might well find ourselves closest to God.
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