March 24, 2024 [PALM SUNDAY]

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6.23)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

[Author’s Note: Today is celebrated in the global community of faith in Jesus as the Christ as Palm Sunday, the beginning of what the Christian community has historical deemed to be “Holy Week.” In light of this, I am suspending reflections on Paul’s writing to the community of faith in Jesus Christ established in Ephesus for the next eight days. I will return to reflecting on Ephesians 5.2+ on Monday, April 1…no kidding!]

It was early on the first day of the week when Jesus had decided to make His entry to Jerusalem to begin celebrating Passover. It was not the last time that week He would come into Jerusalem to teach, preach, worship, pray, serve, celebrate and enter into judgment. It was but the first of many entries into Jerusalem that week. However, this particular entry into Jerusalem from across the Kidron Valley having spent His evenings in Bethany would be received as no other. If we stop to think about the events of that early morning, then we would have to consider that the only other time when Jesus would enter Jerusalem to such fanfare will be the very last time. No, not the last time that week on Friday. But, on the Last Day when He will descend from the clouds in glorious revelation to be the full manifestation of Justice and Peace holding all creation and creatures accountable in their faithfulness for or against God. That day has not yet arrived. Each day we are moving closer and closer to His glorious appearing which will strike fear into the hearts of all people for better and sadly for many- for worse. The decision as to better or worse is not dependent upon God’s mercy as meted out by Jesus who is the Christ and Son of God. The decision is ours. It is the business of the Church, not merely the leaders of it nor of certain empowered or ordained or sanctified or self-appointed individuals within the Church but every member of it, to continue to present the gospel to the world so that it cannot say “I didn’t know.” Our first priority as “the Church” is to build up our own members so that they are able to stand up in the full measure and stature of Christ. “The Church” is intended to be the incarnation of the gospel which Jesus presented and fulfilled with His own life in ministry to all of God’s people at God’s behest. Jesus Christ was under command. It was a command of love, faith and obedience which formed and shaped His thirty-three years on earth living as a human being. Regardless of the number of our years, we are to do the same being believers in Him, being called by His Name and by accepting His commission of our lives into the service of God and God’s Word. In other words, we are under command as well. We, as members of the Church, as called to a command performance. But, as I said, that day of His reappearing has not arrived but is coming. As to when it will come, we do not know. Jesus Himself does not know though He and the Father are One in Heaven as they were on earth. This is a reality in life which demonstrates the sovereignty and intentionality of Yahweh Elohim. It cannot and will not be changed.

No more can it be changed than could the journey through that final week in the life of Jesus of Nazareth. Salvation was coming in full measure and in full stature to Jerusalem. For those who were living in that day, which we in this day cannot even begin to imagine nor assimilate, the fulfillment of centuries of hopes and dreams and prayers and prophecies was at hand. And the beginning of that week overflowed with expectation as much as the city itself was overflowing with people from all over the then known world who had anything in common with Judaism. It is said that nearly 3 million people were in Jerusalem that week. Jerusalem itself was a city of approximately a quarter of a million. You can only imagine what it must have been like for such a crowded scene as what greeted Jesus that early morning on the first day of the week. And those people were already gathering together in the week(s) before Passover. Each family group seeking a place in which to make their sacrifice for a successful Passover. All previous Passover celebrations would have ended “Next year in Jerusalem” because the Messiah had not arrived to throw off the yoke of worldly tyranny and established Israel, and Jerusalem in particular, as the invincible center of the universe! The enemy would be cast out and the people of God would dwell in the fullness of His glory and grace. Such was the thinking for this Passover in 29 A.D. because this Passover was unlike any before. What was different? Jesus was in Bethany just a mere two miles from Jerusalem. Jesus was in the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus their brother whom God raised at Jesus’ command from a four day death. This act of resurrection was unlike other miracles of Jesus where the dead were raised to life. In those instances, the dead were recently departed. Lazarus was four days dead and three days in the tomb sealed until the smell of death had departed into the rock. Surely, one who had the authority over death and the grave could easily have authority over Rome and the unrighteous leadership Rome had established in the Temple with those who played God with the lives of God’s people. For those on that first day of the week of Passover in 29 A.D., it was “The Last Day.”

Now, you would have to multiply the image at least a hundred thousand times to grasp what “that day” must have looked like, but I see the scene from “The Quiet Man” as Sean Thornton and Wil Daniher were about to fight to the finish. It was a battle that had been brewing for some time and anticipated with equal fervor. People were coming from all over the countryside to see the fight. Everyone loved a good fight. They were being held back by law officials who were easily outnumbered. Some even entered into the frenzy themselves fighting each other until Micklin O’Flynn fired off his pistol to call the scene to order. Having set everyone straight, the battle continued. Well, the roads, hills, countryside, local towns from Bethany to Bethlehem were occupied by the swell of people far greater than the Jerusalem resource could manage. The road from Bethany was already lined with campsites and makeshift caravansaries. And the people were talking. The Romans knew it. The Temple leadership knew it. The Rabbis knew it. Every family of Israel knew it. It was the final countdown to the big showdown. The Son of David was going to arrive on the scene and set the world straight once and for all. It would be the “insurrection” to end all insurrections. Little did they expect the kind of resurrection that was to come which they hoped was the resurrection of the Golden Age of Israel. In order to understand that sense of resurrection, one would have to admit to the deadness of the old Israel which was ingloriously at hand. The people were not expecting a spiritual revitalization. They were hoping for a political revolution. They were not anticipating an age of righteousness as much as they were longing for the end of the siege of unrighteousness. But, the fever pitch was high in the desire for a change that would deliver them out of the valley of the shadow of death as dwelt in the abyss at the bottom of the Kidron chasm below Jerusalem where the stench of death filled their noses with a good south wind. They went to sleep on Saturday night following the final Sabbath before Passover week would begin with dreams of great joy and deliverance. “Old men would have visions and young men would dream dreams” was the prophecy of Joel as given to him by God for the sake of the people to describe that day. Like children today cannot wait for Saint Nicolas’ gifting on Christmas morning and so they sleep restlessly through the night of Christmas Eve, so did all the people sleep fitfully that night.

And then it happened. As the sun rose over the hills to the east and the light of dawn began to illumine the gold dome of the Temple on the mount, Jesus road in on the proverbial donkey preceded by His disciples who equally with the people anticipated the final showdown with evil and the resurrection of the true righteous of Israel. All was about to be made right on earth as it was in Heaven. It did not take long for the wave of triumph to roll westward toward Jerusalem. The cries of the people echoes across the hills and against the walls of Jerusalem filling the valley below with life as from the dead. Without question the leaders of Rome and their guards as well as the leaders of Israel and their Temple guards were on highest alert. The people cried out “Hosanna (meaning Salvation from on high) to God in the highest, praise be to the Son of David who is it deliverer.” Robes and cloaks were thrown to the ground. Palm trees were stripped of their fronds to be waved in celebration of the warrior king who was coming to take the throne from its usurpers and restore the place of Israel before all the world. Jesus had already cried over this same Jerusalem “How you long for peace and I wish you knew what truly made for peace. As a mother hen gathers her brood under her sheltering wing, I wish that I could do the same.” As Jesus began to follow the winding road leading to the bottom of the valley bathed in shadows of a new day and rise up on the other side to meet the light of that same new day, the Pharisees and Scribes called for a cessation of the celebration. They commanded Jesus, as if they had authority over Him, to silence the disciples. They feared the wrath of Rome far more than they feared God in whom they should have trusted fully and completely. Jesus responded, “If I did silence those who are now my disciples, the very stones would cry out in their place.” Some take His words to be the rocks alongside of the road which could easily be picked up to stone the guilty if commanded just as did the people in Nazareth when Jesus declared “In your hearing, I have fulfilled God’s word.” But, I believe Jesus was speaking of the descendants of Abraham their spiritual father who was given the promise by God “…your descendants will be as numerous as the stars in heaven or the sand by the shore” knowing that the interpretation can allude to the very stones which line the road as those which the builders of the temple rejected as unworthy for constructing a nation of God. Yes, even if the disciples were silent, the very people of God (whom the leaderhip of the Temple feared the most apart from Rome) would declare the truth of who Jesus was, is and will be.

Mighty ones of God, do we see Palm Sunday as a day of liberation; the beginning of the Age of the Church commissioned to take the gospel of Christ into all the world? Against the backdrop of “The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord” are we hearing the call to get to work for the sake of the people for the glory of God? It is and was the “first” day of the week. It was time for the people to get back to doing the work they were called to do- God’s work. Jesus was answering that call to complete the greatest work of all: the salvation of the world and opening the door of heaven to all those who would believe that God so loved them He would offer His only Son as a sacrifice. His death for our lives! Is this not the work of love we are called to? It isn’t about egg hunts, chocolate bunnies, three-legged races and flowery dresses to show how good we are. Isn’t it about acts of humility, integrity to the gospel and sharing the good news that the promise made by God for our salvation has been secured and fulfilled? Take note, that only on “Palm Sunday” did the crowds proclaim Jesus as “Savior, Son of David, Messiah worthy of Hosanna.” On Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of that week they remained silent or, as we see on Friday, turn against Him preferring Barrabas the insurrectionist by violence to go free. They did not see their Messiah in Jesus. Do we?

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, before we were conceived in the womb, You had already formed us in Your love and by Your Spirit spoke us into being. Each one of us is blessed with the opportunity of doing right, being good and producing the fruit of the Spirit so that others may be fed the truth of that same love so that the two will become one. It is our soul’s sincere desire to embrace the oneness You have in mind that we would know that we are Your people and that You are our God. Lead us in that discovery of the truth and the manifestation of that love for us all. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.