palm sunday

I wake up and I know I need this week to be different. In these days of global pandemic, of soul searching, of anxious uncertainty, I know need this week, this Holy Week, to be one where I lean in and linger long and listen well.

I hit play before my feet hit the floor and the words begin to settle my soul. The podcaster puts aside her own words this week and speaks the Words of Scripture. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are her special “guests” today as they begin to tell us what happened in this week thousands of year ago, this Holy Week.

Certain phrases strike me like they never have before:

The crowd gathered.
A simple phrase, yet one in such contrast to our current reality. No crowds will gather on this day, not physically at least. I picture this scene, the complete opposite of social distancing.

If anyone asks you, “Why are you doing this?” Tell Him, “The Lord needs it…”
I consider the ways God has called me, often to things that don’t make sense to others. In words and actions they ask, “Why are you doing this?” and in reality I, like these disciples untying the donkey, don’t really know. The full picture isn’t clear yet, but this much I do know: the Lord asked; I will obey. The Lord needs it.

He went to the temple, and he looked around at everything.
He sees. Oh, he sees. He sees all the thing that break our heart, they break his as well. We can imagine what he saw that day in the temple… his response to come in the days to follow. In this day, he seems to avoid action, but really, he’s taking it all in and as he does, he weeps.

“If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace?!?”
Heartbroken, longing to give his people peace, yet seeing all the ways they turn the other way. Downcast heart, I can hear him asking these words to me as well as I flirt with the things that promise peace and give only the opposite.

Do not be afraid, Your king is coming.
Oh, friends, the King is on the way! He is not absent. He is not turning his face away. He came on that first Palm Sunday and he will come again in ALL his glory and there won’t be enough palm branches to wave or coats to lay down to honor him enough.

“If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”
The Pharisees, they tried to stop the praise, tried to stop the crowds and the disciples from bringing honor to their King. But when a King comes, one worthy of all honor, glory, and power, the praise can’t be stopped. May I live my life in such a way that I make the stones keep quiet. And so we say,

Hosanna!
A cry of honor and celebration. Literally, it means “Save, now!” Yes, this is the collective cry of our hearts this day. Save us! Save us now! Save us as the only One who can. From sin. From disease. From addition. From pride. From broken relationships. From anxiety. From all this and more. Save! Now! Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Hosanna in the Highest!

palm sunday

Today is the day we celebrate Palm Sunday in the church. A day that is somewhat confusing. It has hints of Easter-y, joyful celebration as a big parade welcomes Jesus to town; yet, knowing what is to come in the days ahead before Easter, it is also a somber event. Knowing that some of the same people who exalted him on that first Palm Sunday, were likely in the crowd just days later yelling, Crucify Him!

This story of Jesus entering the town on a donkey as people placed palm branches and their coats on the ground is familiar, yet each time I read it something new sticks. Today I especially noticed the desperation likely in these people. I mean, you don’t just cry out “SAVE US!” (which is what Hosanna means) for no reason. These people either had some hope that maybe, just maybe their Messiah had finally come or perhaps were just simply recognizing their need for a Savior. Either way, they were desperate for something.

From all that I’ve read about the events of this last week, it seems that while some in the crowd likely believed Jesus truly was their Messiah, many believed the Messiah would come and have an earthly Kingdom, not a heavenly one. Perhaps as they saw that Jesus wasn’t coming to kick Roman butt and take His place as an earthly King of the Jews, is what made the shift from “Hosanna” to “Crucify!”…. when Jesus didn’t come as they expected Him to.

But does Jesus ever really come as we expect?

Rarely have I seen that be the case in my life.

Oh, my Jesus ALWAYS comes through… He’s faithful like that! But rarely is it in the ways I expect. So as I enter into worship today, crying out with the crowd, “Hosanna!”, I do come with that same desperation and need that I think was behind the cries on the first Palm Sunday. But I hope that I also come without expectations of how Jesus will fulfill the needs in my heart. Being brutally beaten and killed would not have been in “Bekah’s plan of how God could save the world” … but thank God that He didn’t ask me! He knows what’s best in my life and I choose to give up unrealistic expectations and trust HIS ways are higher than I could ever imagine.

Hosanna! Save Me! Come Soon, Lord Jesus! How I long for the day when you will enter not on a donkey, but on a great white horse… not to be led to a cross to be killed, but to lead us to our Heavenly, forever-home. Hosanna! Come soon, Jesus! Save us! Amen

Tag: palm sunday

“Save, now!” – A Palm Sunday Reflection

Palm Sunday: Giving Up My Expectations of Jesus