Good Morning Friends,
Everything is connected but some things have been connected in scripture in a way to help us to remember the events and themes. As we continue our Lenten journey moving ever onward this Palm Sunday, we begin what has been referred to as Holy Week, and it is good to review the lessons from the palm tree and the message of the colt, tears, righteous anger and passion to come. As for palms, they grow in adversity even in deserts. They break the bond tied around them. In storms they bend but do not break. They will even make it through the typical Florida brush fires. And when it comes to dates…that fruit of the palm grows sweeter and more abundant with age just as we are to grow. At the heart of the palm is life. Its message is that if we are healthy inside nothing can stop our souls growing healthy in conjunction with God’s Spirit. The beauty of the palm is that it can take abuse because its life is protected and when joined with other palms, they form an oasis in the desert. The Palm is a wonderful example of the Christian life…. a victorious life. The events of approximately 2000 years ago with Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem prompted people to cut branches of palms and lay them down on what must have been a messy road. I think it demonstrates that good and evil cannot coexist easily. So, there is tension because Palm Sunday is also Passion Sunday. So, this day in a way hinges on Lent and Holy Week with Jesus as the door to the way to conquer the greatest challenge of all, which is more important than Alexander the Great and the Roman Empire. And so, I give you this message now in advance as an opportunity for it all to sink in, even as I ask beyond just the palms, How Do Passion, Colts, Tears and Palms Go Together To Help Us Prepare For The Week To Come?
Scripture: After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, saying, “Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it.’” So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” They said, “The Lord needs it.” Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!” Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.”
Luke 19:28-40 (NRSV)
The word of the Lord is against the land of Hadrach and will rest upon Damascus. For to the Lord belongs the capital of Aram, as do all the tribes of Israel; Hamath also, which borders on it, Tyre and Sidon, though they are very wise. Tyre has built itself a rampart, and heaped up silver like dust, and gold like the dirt of the streets. But now, the Lord will strip it of its possessions and hurl its wealth into the sea, and it shall be devoured by fire. Ashkelon shall see it and be afraid; Gaza too, and shall writhe in anguish; Ekron also, because its hopes are withered. The king shall perish from Gaza; Ashkelon shall be uninhabited; a mongrel people shall settle in Ashdod, and I will make an end of the pride of Philistia. I will take away its blood from its mouth, and its abominations from between its teeth; it too shall be a remnant for our God; it shall be like a clan in Judah, and Ekron shall be like the Jebusites. Then I will encamp at my house as a guard, so that no one shall march to and fro; no oppressor shall again overrun them, for now I have seen with my own eyes.
Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall command peace to the nations; his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth. As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.
Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double.
Zechariah 9:1-12 (NRSV)
Message: The real story of Palm Sunday which is also Passion Sunday marks the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem as a King riding on a colt as was prophesied but also as a man who cries in anticipation of the events to come perhaps in memory of his tears for Lazarus. But before Jesus entered the City…before the passion, he made an exciting request and since most of the disciples had learned to do as they were told, two of them went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the colt from its owner in town, placed their cloaks on it, and Jesus rode the animal into Jerusalem. However trivial this errand may have seemed; it was full of biblical and theological significance. It demonstrates that Christ had come to be the King, but it also tells us Jesus had a plan that had been put into operation years before, perhaps even before Adam. But before the full triumph came tears. And this is important. Jesus weeps before he enters the city, and it was not at the sight of crowds cheering him on. Indeed, Jesus wept before he turned over the tables of the money changers who were in a way limiting access to those who wanted forgiveness. And Jesus wept before he was whipped and flogged and beaten, even before He was dragged through the streets like a criminal, and before they put nails into His hands and feet, for that would have brought tears to my eyes, but not Jesus. Interestingly Jesus wept before all that and I think it was because he knew the nature of humans in need of a resurrection and the reality that he needed to clear his eyes physically and emotionally for what was to come. For sure Jesus wept because he saw fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophetic words on the horizon, and because His heart was full of sadness at the thought of the destruction that would soon visit the Holy City. And indeed, the destruction of Jerusalem would occur about 40 years from the time of Jesus’ triumphal entry. The Roman Army would tear down the sacred Temple and kill Jerusalem’s inhabitants, crushing the city into a pile of dust and rubble. Absolute devastation was in the future, but this was part of the plan too. Jesus, I think, could see death coming contrasted against the celebration of Palm Sunday but also in Holy History a healing of the nations and a resurrection. So, Jesus wept at the price that would have to be paid and it was a complex biological, spiritual, psychosocial, and emotional event. But the tears were also part of Holy History and evidenced by the palms, the colt, and the passion as something important.
And So, I do not know what makes you angry or brings you to tears, maybe anger is prompted by injustice and maybe tears are prompted by love and joy, or pain or excitement or grief. The reality is that, for now, tears are a part of life that we cannot avoid them, nor should we. Jesus wept and the reasons we weep can be complex too. Maybe we will have poorer eyesight for a time but know that our emotions and what we sense and intuit, if it is true will in time help us to be set free. The thing is that we need to have enough passion in our lives to care enough to be just a little emotional about those things that matter most. And that means we will have to shed a few tears and sometimes be moved by righteous anger. Most great memories last only a generation or two but in today’s text we are prompted to remember something from generation to generation forever, made even more memorable because of the complexity of the images and that we too can praise Jesus one day and then the next sin and reject him. Our only victory is in Jesus as our soul is strengthened by the Spirit, but also the images of tears, palm, a colt and the passion of the events to come. We need a faith that withstands the test of time.
Pray that Jesus makes a triumphal entry into our hearts. Pray he reigns there with peace and love. Pray we use prayer to untie the knots that bind us. Pray we trust in Jesus. Pray we learn to value those things that He values. Pray we realize that we are most vulnerable when we run away. Pray we realize that we must move from Palm to Passion this Sunday. Pray we realize the importance of prayer from both the pulpit and the pew. Pray we prepare to be victorious with Christ. Pray that we weep for the right reasons. Pray we realize that we have the promise of a time when the tears end. Pray that we realize that before sin can be conquered and before death can be defeated there will be many tears. Pray we let Christ share in our tears. Pray in the mystery of the palm and the passion, the colt, and the tears that Jesus be exalted.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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