Palm Sunday

I have always loved Palm Sunday. As a little girl I always got caught up in the excitement of the event and I imagined being part of the occasion, skipping along beside the donkey and waving a child size palm branch.

I remember being “browned off” about churches that paid only “token” attention to the festival, with the festivities cut short by the reading of the Passion!

To some extent my frustration was warranted. For those who really take time to journey, with Jesus, from the gates of Jerusalem to the place of the cross at Golgotha, there is too much to miss in between. So much happens in the last few days of Jesus life. We are all the richer for being with Jesus in the upper room, where he washed the feet of His friends and shared a last meal with them. And Jesus betrayal by Judas is all the more poignant because we are aware of what has passed between them.

But few people take the time; in fact even many regular churchgoers slip from Palm Sunday to Easter morning, missing Good Friday altogether!

Now I see Palm Sunday in a rather different way. You see, it seems to me the events surrounding Jesus arrival in Jerusalem are more poignant when seen from within the shadow of the Cross.

Now my heart is full of sorrow for our Lord, who knew what was to come, who knew how easily “Hosanna” would become the angry condemning cries to “Crucify him!”

If I were there, what part would I have played? And what of you? Would you also have been swayed? Would our weak and frightened hearts have betrayed our Lord?

Truly, there but for the grace of God go each and every one of us!