Sunday Scripture
Today, we begin Holy Week with the waving of palms and the well-loved story about a borrowed colt, an adoring crowd, cloaks thrown on the ground, and a hero’s welcome. Caught in the present moment, Jesus’s disciples were likely imagining that this was IT, that this event was surely the climax of all they had been working and hoping for.
What they did not (yet) understand was that the significance of Jesus’s life would come from his death. This satisfying and triumphant “end” they envisioned was really just the beginning of a horrible unraveling that would appear, to them, as a failed mission. Even so, the Gospel writers would ultimately demonstrate that they did manage to sort out Jesus’s true purpose and mission by devoting at least a third of their word count to the last week of Jesus’s life.
On Palm Sunday, Jesus Wept
We all remember that Jesus wept at Lazarus’s tomb, but his tears on the way to Jerusalem have a way of getting lost in the hoopla. Preceding his prophecy of destruction, Jesus wails over God’s holy city:
Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.”
Luke 19:42
God’s people were satisfied to continue finding their peace in legalism and the safety of man-made tradition. In their blindness, they would soon crucify their own Messiah.
However, Jesus did not weep for himself. He wept for the city, he wept for those who would carry out his execution, and he wept for us today, because “the Lord… laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).
And this is our peace, but we, like our spiritual predecessors so often prefer to look for it elsewhere. Determined to calm our daily anxieties by relying on our accomplishments, our appearance, our perfect parenting, or the number on the scale, we reject the Prince of Peace, our Messiah, and settle for an artificial truce, a temporary peace that cannot last because it is based on things that are not lasting.
It is in the agony of the cross and the power of the resurrection that we find peace with God.
A Palm Sunday Prayer for Peace
Almighty God, you did not spare your own Son that we might discover a peace surpassing our understanding. Grant that we may fix our hearts where true peace may be found. Enable us to reject the pitiful substitutes that promise peace but serve only to heighten our anxiety.
We bow our hearts before you as our risen Lord who is truly worthy of our heart-felt Hosannas! “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” Amen
Holding You in the Light,
It is in the agony of the cross and the power of the resurrection that we find peace with God. #HolyWeek2023 #PalmSunday
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Living Our Days 
Palm Sunday was always one of my favorite days in the church; second only to Easter and the candlelight Christmas vigil.
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Blessings on this Sunday. I always weep with the story as I am with Him during the journey to the Cross, and then glorious after. Have a happy week.
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You’ve summarized the whole mission of Holy Week, my friend! So good to hear from you !
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I always want to savor Palm Sunday – and Jesus entry into Jerusalem – but then it seems we rush into Passover and are overtaken. Thank you for helping us to soak in this moment. I just want to sit here awhile and think about what Jesus was experiencing – and the disciples, too.
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So insightful, Michele. You’ve got me thinking also of the pressure of anticipation that Jesus must have experienced. Even as the crowds excitedly honored him that Palm Sunday, he knew what was to come less than a week later: the horror of torture, the pain of separation from his Father, the abandonment of those he loved. Yet he bore it all willingly for the salvation of my soul. That old hymn, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” comes to mind as my response: “Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all!” May it be so, Lord Jesus!
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I’m paying attention to hymns like that one during this season, Nancy. May we never take for granted our great salvation!
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Amen to that, my friend!
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“It is in the agony of the cross and the power of the resurrection that we find peace with God.” This is so true, Michele. Sadly we keep needing reminders of it, so thank you! May you and your family have a blessed Easter!
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Blessings to you and yours as you celebrate the miracle of resurrection!
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