a devotion for Palm Sunday

According to the World Book Encyclopedia, Palm Sunday is a moveable feast in the Christian calendar which falls on the Sunday before Easter. The feast commemorates an event reported by all four Canonical Gospels (Mark 11:1-11, Matthew 21:1-11, Luke 19:28-44, and John 12:12-19.)

This Sunday before Easter (also referred to as Passion Sunday) remembers Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem near the end of a public ministry.

When Jesus entered the city with his group of followers, people laid palm branches on the road before him and greeted him as the long-awaited Messiah, shouting, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”

Their celebrating didn’t last long. As they heard his teachings and saw his behavior over the next few days, both religious leaders and people on the streets turned against Jesus. Many in the admiring crowds who were shouting “Hosanna!” turned to shouting “Crucify him!”

So here is my confession. I have a hard time connecting emotionally to Palm Sunday because the Bible text describes people who'd become hypocrites. They were throwing palm branches and praising Jesus one day and shouting for his death the next. But that wasn't hypocrisy - that was just humankind being fickle. Like me, those people were volatile. They praised the Lord on Sunday, denied Him on Thursday and begged for His murder on Friday. The text doesn’t state this, but I imagine that they second guessed their actions by the next Sunday. They were influenced by their peers while in the crowd facing Pilate. They feared for their own safety. They were happy when they were healed, or had their own needs met.

Palm Sunday hooks me because it seems to be the date that humanity's weakness is recognized. Palm Sunday points to people in all of their unpredictability and flightiness. Palm Sunday asks me to examine the condition of my own heart. Palm Sunday gives me the opportunity to examine my own faithfulness to Christ.

It is rather easy to strive towards piety when everything seems to be going well but when unexpected drama happens, what then? When we have to endure incessantly through physical or spiritual pain, what then? When God seems distant and all is dark and dejected, what then? When life seems unfilled and aimless, what then? Has our faith rooted itself deeply enough to help us cope with these situations, so that they do not control us?

Palm Sunday shines a bright spotlight on the fact that I need help. A lot of help. ..right now. I need to know if there is hope.

Palm Sunday points ahead to the hope that is on the horizon…wait for it…