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| ps from psWhy do I love Palm Sunday? I’m glad you asked. I love Palm Sunday because it’s one of the times in church where we tell the longer story. In our particular mission sites, we turn the whole service into the entire passion reading in the gospel, from Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem to death on the cross. All of it, except the empty tomb. We save that for the next Sunday, Dingus Day Eve. We slow it down. Give the bigger picture. Hear/read all the voices, phrases, shouts, questions, prayers. And we do it in the order it happened….so Communion is in the front part of the service. (Last Supper) Prayer is in the middle. (Garden). Confession is at the ending. (Standing at the cross) There is cheering. And there is silence. We live in a sound bite, TikTok, 10 second video culture. We rarely get the whole story. We use a few Bible verse or stories to try and defend our position when it’s convenient for us. Hypothetically like picking out seven sections of the Bible over the other million chapters on love to defend things like our homophobia. Hypothetically. We like bumper sticker life and sometimes faith. But on Palm Sunday (and Saturday), we get to hear it all. Our misunderstanding of what Jesus was doing. Our changing of our minds. Our denial. Our confusion. Our betrayal. And through it all, Jesus keeps going. Jesus keeps going. This coming week, hear and feel the whole story. If you can’t be at a church to do it, read Matthew chapters 26 and 27. Church purists would argue that we do Palm Sunday wrong and it should just be the reading of Jesus entering Jerusalem. And on some levels they might be right. But I would argue it’s worth “getting it wrong” and hearing the whole story to start each Holy Week off. Because we will hear that Jesus keeps going! And that’s why I love Palm Sunday. Lord, thanks for the whole story. Amen Still in One Peace, ps |
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