PALM SUNDAY OF THE LORD’S PASSION

And so, it begins. 

It begins with exuberant followers proclaiming that Jesus is the Messiah.  People, adults and children alike, lined the dusty roads of Jerusalem, shouting “Hosanna.”  

If you have a smartphone with you, Google the word “Hosanna.”  The Hebrew word literally means “save us now.”  It is the cry you make when you are too deep in water and about to drown.  It is a command, a demand, an urgent plea.  But it is also a shout of praise for a leader believed to be able to bring about change.

Jesus is greeted with palm branches, a symbol of strength and endurance.

• For the Greeks, palm branches were woven into crowns of victory.  The goddess Nike, the symbol of victory, is depicted wearing a crown of palms.
• In ancient times, palm branches were placed on mummies to protect the dead in the next world and to ensure eternal life. 
• Today, palm branches are placed behind crosses in our homes or woven into crosses and hung from mirrors in our cars.

Almost forty days ago, on Ash Wednesday, each of us was marked with ashes from burned palms.  The palms from last year that were once green and fresh, like the ones you hold today, became dry and cracked.  They were burned to make the ashes for Ash Wednesday.     

Burning is a familiar experience in our lives.

• We have all “been burned” when we were taken advantage of, betrayed or misjudged.
• How many times have you felt “burned out,” fed up with a job or worn down by certain people?  When that happens, everything becomes a burden.  Enthusiasm fades.  “Job burnout” is bad, but “life burnout” is far worse and dangerous to our physical, emotional and spiritual health.
• For those who exercise seriously, you sometimes “go for the burn,” pushing your body until you feel it. 
• And how about those "burning” questions? “Doctor, what do the results of my blood test or MRI mean?”

We do not always get what we want in life.  Sometimes you get a boy when you hope for a girl. Sometimes surgery is required instead of a pill, a shot or physical therapy.  Sometimes you have to walk in the rain when you would rather walk in the sunshine.

Scott Peck, in his book The Road Less Traveled, stated it plainly: “Life is difficult.”

The real issue in life is not that things go wrong, that we suffer or that we get burned out.  The problem is that we believe these things should not happen to us.

And yet, how ironic.  They happened to the Son of God, Jesus Christ.  And we think they should not happen to us?

The triumph of Jesus, as He entered Jerusalem to cries of “Hosanna,” was brief. 

A historical novel was written about Woodrow Wilson, who served as the US President from 1913 to 1921.  He was president during World War I, then called the Great War.  When the war ended, many believed it would be the last world war.

Wilson became an international hero.  When he traveled to France, England or Italy, he was was greeted with thunderous applause as he worked to establish the League of Nations, the forerunner of today’s United Nations. 

But back home, his plan met fierce opposition. Gradually, he faded from celebrated hero to isolated and rejected leader. It is a sad story of a man who sought peace but was defeated. 

The title of the book, written by Gene Smith, is “When the Cheering Stopped.”

For Jesus, the cheering also stopped.  The Hosannas stopped:

• When He was betrayed with a simple kiss by a friend and a hand-picked apostle.  
• When He was brought before the cowardly Pontius Pilate, who bowed to the demands of the crowd.
• When He was ridiculed. 
• When He was crowned with thorns.
• When He was mocked with a purple robe.
• When He was condemned as a common criminal.

The soldiers stripped Him, laughed at Him and spat on Him as he carried His cross.   Nailed to that cross, He died. 

His final prayer was simple and trusting:

“Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”

Let this be our prayer each day as we enter this holiest week of our liturgical year.