Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday is an incredible day, and a metaphor for our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. It begins with a procession through Jerusalem with Jesus on a donkey, or on two horses if you wish, with people strewing palms and branches in his way and great shouts of Hosanna! following him on the road. The day progresses to the end with the palms turned to crosses as we remember the horror of Good Friday which will come at the end of Holy Week. Most churches have some sort of enactment of this Gospel on Palm Sunday with parishioners taking the parts and acting out the passion of Jesus. I remember Judas coming down the center aisle and throwing the silver pieces at the high priests and running out of the place. What I remember more than all of that is the scene of crucifixion where Jesus is stripped and nailed to the cross and lifted up over all of us. In that moment, the whole of the day comes home to me and I know the purpose of it: to make sure that I know the depth of the love of God to send his son to die for all of us. God himself come to earth to suffer and to die for all of humanity. With that in place, how we treat each other, and our petty judgement of our neighbors bores into my soul. I can hardly imagine what this depth of love has created and how the pain of God for all of us must intrude on that love. But it doesn't intrude. God's love for us produced out of the exquisite pain of Good Friday the elegance of Easter. The Resurrection is God's answer to our cruelty. That is a wonderful answer that we all need to tuck into our hearts. Think of the last time that you were cruelly treated and think of what a gracious response might have produced. That can change my life, and it might change yours.