Pastor's Blog
Hosanna! Posted 3.25.2010
Palm Sunday. One of my favorite days on the church calendar. In about a month I’ll be on that road which follows the route our Savior took that Sunday morning. Somewhere along that route He wept for the city He loved so deeply. Somewhere along that route the crowds pressed in and the cries of “Hosanna” echoed across the Kidron Valley. Somewhere along that route Jesus predicted the fall of the great city of Jerusalem that spread out in front of Him like a blanket on top of the Judean hills.
That evening He retraced His steps back to the East, to the small suburb called Bethany. There He rested with Mary and Martha and Lazarus – fresh back from the tomb. It was quiet there, and He needed it. It was way too hectic in Jerusalem with the arrival of another Passover.
Today, the route from Bethany to Jerusalem is lined with tombs. Graves. The closer you get to Jerusalem, the move graves you find. The hillsides of Olivet are covered with limestone grave markers. It is quite a site to behold. When Jesus looked out across the Kidron Valley to the ground that held the Temple, He knew the need of every person’s heart. As we look across that same valley, with those thousands of graves, we too know the need of every person’s heart. Not much has changed in a couple of millennia. We need resurrection.
Palm Sunday provides the respite to contemplate the majesty of God’s plan. The week ahead would be full of pain and sorrow and grief. But Sunday would come again, and when it did….resurrection! The payment would be final and full and complete. Nothing would lack in the price paid. Life would reign again.
That we can trace the route of the donkey from that Palm Sunday. That we can stand on the steps of the Temple where Jesus preached. That we can gaze over Capernaum and Nazareth and Carmel and Megiddo. That all provides a richness to our lives and a stability to our faith.
When I stand on the Mount of Olives next month, I will think of this day. The excitement of a parade. The pain connected with rejection and ignorance. The righteous indignation over a defiled city. The realization that even the Son of God needed rest and restoration.
But that is not all that I will think about. I will think of you. Your hope. Your love. Your joy in following Jesus. As the struggles of life wash over us, your faith is strong and vital and healthy. I will stand on Olivet and rejoice that there are folks (you!) who still love that Savior and who continue proclaim the story of the events that once filled that landscape. The heart of our faith was enacted in Jerusalem. The Savior will return there some day. Not soon enough, mind you, but at just the right moment. Let’s be ready, as the first century multitudes were not. Sing this morning, hosanna to the highest!
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