PALM SUNDAY

Matthew 21:1–11, Mark 11:1–11, Luke 19:28–38, John 12:12–19, Zechariah 9:9

We sing songs of “Hosanna” every Palm Sunday. Kids circle the sanctuary waving palms and spreading joy, but every Palm Sunday ends up being a sobering time for me.

What strikes me as I read the accounts of the crowds gathered to praise and bless Jesus as he came into Jerusalem that day isn’t their faith or the fulfillment of prophecy or the political statements being made by the nature of his entrance. No, what strikes me is, by the end of the week, nearly all of these people will have deserted him. How many remained at his feet as he breathed his last? How many became part of the crowd that called for his death?

I’ve noticed an interesting phenomenon that happens when I go to open mics and sing songs of faith. I’ve experienced this at gatherings in New Orleans, LA and Liberty, MO and places in-between. There is often someone there with ministry experience who has walked away from the work and, quite possibly, the faith. They’ll talk to me like they understand where I’m coming from and expect me to catch up with them in time. They expect that I’ll have whatever experience they had that made them pack it up and move on from the work and from the Lord.

I do not anticipate this will be the case, not because I am some accomplished man of great faith, but because I have laid down my expectations for what God is going to do and opened myself to the mysteries and surprises of following Christ.

These folks in scripture had ideas of what Christ’s arrival was supposed to mean. Jesus had surprises for them in store. The work Jesus was going to do was far greater than their political aspirations. How often do we short-change the work God is going to do in our lives with our own short-sighted expectations? How often do we refuse the hard days, hard weeks, hard seasons and desert Jesus just before he’s about to do something tremendous, something greater than we could ever dream up?

The prayer found in verse two of “Hosanna (Only You Can Save)” is “Help us remain and not forsake…” Life will have rough patches. There will be hardship and suffering that seem like they could not be, and I honestly believe are not, God’s will. There will also be joy and fulfillment and contentment even among the trials.

I hope, and I pray, that I am - that we are - still there at the end of our own figurative Holy Week.