Palm Sunday, Year A
Deacon Christina Cernansky
I speak to you in the name of Source, God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, mother of us all. Blessed Palm & Passion Sunday, All Saints!
This Sunday, as we roll into Holy Week, is when we get to be reminded of the story of Jesus’ last days. We get to hear, to listen, and we fully embody this pathway of life, death, and resurrection. We join him, his disciples, and many fans as he enters Jerusalem.
When Jesus arrives and cruises through Main Street. He has his entourage, and of course, always shows up in style. This King of Kings arrives via donkey, not a horse-drawn carriage, or even a horse, but on a donkey. Why a donkey, well of course, to fulfill a prophecy laid out in Zechariah 9:9, but I digress.
As Jesus strolls through, he does it with grace, with humility, and without any hesitation or reservation. Because remember, up until this time, Jesus wanted to keep his ministry under wraps. He knew what was yet to come; he also knew that too much commotion would continue to turn heads, and he wanted to gather folks together before he was put to death.
And what did the people declare? They were saying, “Hosanna” over and over again. Now, why were they shouting this word? In Hebrew, Hosanna means “save us.” The early followers of Christ were inviting, calling on him to save them, to lead them towards a new way of living, to deliver them from pain and suffering. The prophecy of Yeshua was being fulfilled, all of God’s people were being saved and being united in the saving grace of the message of love.
You would think that in Roman times, he would have had a fancier entrance…but no, there was no fancy red carpet, but the garments of followers were laid down in his pathway out of respect.
I invite you to imagine ourselves in that scene. Let’s walk into this scene and put ourselves in the shoes of the many early believers in Jesus’ ministry, turning towards mercy and justice and shedding light on the hypocrisy and double standards of the day.
Salvation is being delivered; the people are raising their voices to God, inviting Jesus into their lives to deliver them, deliver us, from a life we know is full of sorrow, pain, and injustice.
And here we are, off to the side, standing patiently awaiting Yeshua. As we stand off to the side, awaiting Jesus’ arrival, you are filled with excitement, hope, and faith, fully embodying the idea that a new day will come, because the Messiah is here to save the world, the Messiah is here to save… us.
Let’s imagine we are like Photini, the Samaritan woman at the well, whom Jesus showed unconditional love for after she was shunned by many others because of her history of multiple marriages.
Maybe, imagine we used to be blind, and through Jesus’ ministry, either him or his disciples, shed light on your faith and showed you the way to see again.
Maybe we are Judas, wanting to follow a Golden deity, in the form of 30 pieces of silver, to follow wealth and power.
Maybe we are Mary Magdalene, who has seen and lived through so many hardships, and feels so much joy that the “good news” is finally out in the open? Maybe we are Simon Peter, who still gets in your own way, and your ego still shies away from true freedom by denying Christ’s love 3 times before the rooster crows?
Every year, we walk together to reenact this day, to remind us of the arrival of the King of Kings; his presence is no longer a secret, and the world is now allowed to know and sing, announcing the Savior has arrived. We walk together as those early disciples did, walking together into Holy Week, announcing Hosanna.
We are not alone in our faith, our practices, or our ministries. Not only are we guaranteed salvation, but our shadow side is also being shown redemption. Our shadow side is being called forth to be renewed, along with all those who stood on those streets in Jerusalem hundreds of years ago.
What about the shadow side of Judas? How many times have we let our desires for worldly things shade us from God’s love as Judas did? Maybe we felt we weren’t meeting people’s expectations and sold out to the highest bidder? How did we let our guilt and shame keep us from God’s love, as Photini did that day at the well? Do our complicated histories blind us to the Holy Spirit? How many times a day do we deny God’s love in our actions, as Simon Peter did that fateful week? We deny Jesus teachings, and shade us from being at one-ment in community? What if we stopped persevering and stepped out of Mary Madeline’s path and got exhausted from having blind faith?
We not only get to walk this path of joy, but also this path of salvation and redemption. We are reminded of those who celebrate the miracles of Jesus’ ministry, and we also get to honor the teachings and become followers of The Way, a new way, of agape and of blind faith.
As we continue to walk this path into Holy Week, I invite you to celebrate and shout for joy at the King of Kings’ arrival, but let us not forget how easy it is for us to turn away from his teachings. Let us plan for the arrival. We also get to remember we are to keep going, with blind faith sometimes, walk into those steps, not away, towards salvation, towards redemption, to share the good news along with Our Savior Jesus Christ.