Palm Sunday and the King of Glory

During Sunday service today my mind wandered with thoughts from the scriptures, specifically Psalm 24, “Who is this King of glory” who is riding through the everlasting gates today? I know that symbols and outward signs are intended to help us process the truth, but somehow the slender single palm section clutched limply in my hand and the usual Sunday worship fare did not serve to stimulate my understanding to any great degree. Is this the one whom I have waited for ever since I heard the promise of a deliverer who was to come to me? Is this the very Word of God whom my heart has sought in the dark and troubling times of my life? Why hasn’t His coming changed my life or world more? I know that I am not alone in these internal wrestlings. You’ve asked those same questions, you have endured the world’s taunt in a thousand debates, “Where is your God?” You, like me, have looked on helplessly when confronted with debilitating sickness, brokenness of life, untimely death, shattered relationship, or devastating natural disaster. And your answers, like mine, probably always seem inadequate. The Spirit of God then turned my mind to Psalm 73 as He usually does when I ask these questions that have no good answer. The psalmist laments the fact that there appears to be no benefit in his attempts to live righteously when evil and greed and corruption flourish and grow. And his inner turmoil builds to a verse that goes something like this, “When I thought to understand this, it was too hard and painful for me, until I went to the sanctuary of God and then, I understood….” So here I was, standing in a sanctuary dedicated to my God, the creator of heaven and earth, holding this spindly palm in my hand and I wish I could say that I understood, but I didn’t. But there were two things that I did come away with and they are both from the second passage of scripture quickened in my mind this morning, Hebrews 2:8-9. “You [the Father} have put all things in subjection under His [Jesus} feet. For in that He has put all in subjection under Him, He has left nothing that is not put under Him.” Hence my questions, where is the kingdom and rule of God to be seen? But the passage continues, “But now, we do not yet see all things put under Him.” Bummer! And therein is the first truth of my Palm Sunday journey. Life is not fair, the wrong doers still prosper, the seekers of God are made to look like fools, laws are passed that mock God’s moral code and everywhere I look the curse of sin remains as strong as ever. No wonder the world asks, "Where is your God?" That would have seemed a disappointing take-away from my celebration of Palm Sunday had not the writer of Hebrews continued once again, this time changing his declaration. We may not see all things under the rule and control of God at this present time, he had already reminded me, “but we see Jesus”. And it was then that I recognized this King of Glory one more time. I don’t have all the answers to the challenges of the time and society we live in, but today I saw the promised deliverer, the captain of my salvation, and as I opened up the gates of my understanding He entered like He always has promised to do. Who is this King of Glory? He is Jesus, and today that was enough of an answer for me.

Passiontide, Passion Sunday to Resurrection

Last Sunday was the fifth Sunday of Lent, traditionally referred to as Passion Sunday; and next Sunday is the sixth Sunday of Lent, commonly called Palm Sunday. I understand that many changes have occurred to the liturgical calendar surrounding these last two Sunday’s in Lent, but regardless of what they are called, they have always been the milemarkers in that sub-section of Lent referred to as Passiontide. Denominations mark these two weeks in many ways, some change parts of their liturgy excluding certain prayers, others cover crosses and statues with purple, certainly the content and theme of the daily scripture readings concentrate on the suffering and death of Jesus. These practices are intended to remind us that in the ministry of Jesus there was a turning of a corner and this is similarly reflected in our Lenten observance.

You see that corner within the gospels. It is clearly reflected in Jesus’ change in emphasis in Matthew 16:21, “From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things by the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed….” We can see it in His prayer in John 12:27-28, “Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. But for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Even the gospel reading from this past Sunday alludes to it in Luke 20:19, “And the scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him from that very hour…” This portion of Lent reminds me that there remains a big difference between choosing and living. Maybe those are not the best words to describe what I mean, so let me use part of an old worship refrain instead. "I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back.” Choosing is easy, naming ourselves followers of Christ is not that challenging; but then He turns the corner and all that lays immediately ahead is rejection and the cross and suddenly the reality of our choice become evident. Christ bids us pick up our cross and follow, and once we truly do that, there is no turning back. It’s what Paul meant in the epistle reading in Philippians 3, “Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect: but I press on, so that I may lay hold on that for which also I was laid hold on by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself yet to have laid hold: but one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, be thus minded.” I don’t know how your Lent has been thus far, but I know that last Sunday we all turned that corner I have described above and that it is time to forget what lays behind in the last five weeks and press on now towards the goal of God’s high calling of us in Jesus Christ, allowing it to be made real by the sacrifice of the perfect Lamb of God and sealed by the sending of the Holy Spirit. We’ve all made the choice a long time ago to follow Jesus, it’s just time to start living in the reality of it each day.