Palm Sunday: Luke 19:28-40
From palms to passion, it is the only Sunday in our liturgical year when we get a two for one! The service and the way we worship on this day is so meaningful and symbolic, it is a journey. We begin somewhere else; normally most church communities begin the Liturgy of the Palms in another part of the church property, some in the parish hall, some in the narthex, some in the parking lot, but normally outside the normal space of worship. We hear the first gospel of the day, the story of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, the crowds excited and shouting, waving palm branches like flags as the parade goes by. People cheering shouts of hosanna, shouts of praise, shouts of enthusiasm. “Yes, this is the one we’ve been waiting for, this is the one we were promised, this is the one who will make life so much better!” The gospel we hear first is the gospel that points us to the one who will make life so much better. So, we join in the procession, we take our palm branch and walk along, waving the branches singing “All Glory Laud and Honor”…We are part of the story, we are active witnesses, and for just a fleeting moment we live in the glorious space of triumphant Jesus with palm branches in hand.
In just a matter of minutes, the story turns to a passionate expression of the true Jesus, not the triumphant one riding in the great procession, but the vulnerable one; betrayed, beaten, humiliated, the dead Jesus on the cross. This is the part when we pause for a moment of silence, no more shouts, only the harsh silence that comes when someone is no longer with us. From shouts of praise, to tears of grief and silence, it is the only Sunday we get two for one. And both are what make us Christians.
As followers of Jesus Christ we know that life is good, and we know that life is unpredictable, and we know that life is not always filled with joyful shouts of hosanna. We know that there are times when we feel grief, betrayal, humiliation and even death. There’s no escaping the realities of life for us. There will always be both cheerful moments and tearful moments. Jesus certainly knew what was about to happen to him in that short journey from palms to passion. He cried for the city that was to betray him, he prayed that the cup would pass him up, but still he walked the journey.
It is palms to passion Sunday the day we shout “hosanna!” and before we can catch our breath, we find our praise has turned into a gasp of sadness, which begins the journey of Holy Week for us. As we walk through the days to come, as we meet Jesus in his most vulnerable humanity, may we know that as Christians, as those who claim him as our own, as those who willingly walk into the darkness of this season, we walk together with shouts of hosanna just a breath away…
Meditation by the Reverend Maria Sanzo
Rector, St. Raphael’s Episcopal Church, Brick
Diocese of New Jersey