Palm Sunday

It was Palm Sunday, and the family's 6-year old son had to stay home from church because of a sore throat. When the rest of the family returned home carrying palm branches, the little boy asked what they were for, and his mother explained, "People held them over Jesus' head as he walked by."

"Wouldn't you know it," the boy fumed. "The one Sunday I don't go to church, and Jesus shows up!

This is the only joke I could find which related to Palm Sunday, but after reading it, it did make me wonder how often we go to Church really expecting to meet Jesus, and how often we do that in the rest of our lives.

One of the words perhaps most associated with Palm Sunday is the word ‘Hosanna’, literally meaning ‘Save now’. The people who lined the route that Jesus rode on that first Palm Sunday were looking for salvation, but from what ?

There are a variety of answers to that question – the reality is that different people were looking for different things. Some wanted to have some kind of magical experience guaranteeing them a long and happy life, some wanted a release from the oppression of the Romans, some wanted freedom from the strict religious authorities of the day, others perhaps were simply looking for a fight.

One of the great challenges of Palm Sunday is to decide what we make of Jesus and his journey to Jerusalem today. As the crowds waved their palms and shouted, they were looking for all of these different things, when actually they should just have been looking at and concentrating on Jesus himself. And for us today it is also very easy to get caught up in wanting and expecting different things from God and from the Church, and not all of these are particularly relevant to the message that Jesus delivered that day, and in the dramatic week that followed. Like those people waving their palms with all of their expectations, we too need to take a closer look at Jesus.

The message Jesus came to bring I think was about peace, it was about hope, and about righteousness. It was about love and salvation, and about being content in the knowledge of salvation whatever difficulties we may face on our journey there.

Throughout the world today there are many conflicts going on – some are for good reasons, others for bad, but the most effective conflicts of all throughout the course of history have been fought for peace, and often with peaceful means. Sometimes war is a necessary evil in the world in which we live – war being the only thing that can actually bring about peace, but many, many effective campaigns have been fought without violence, and produced great victories.

As we glance throughout the world today we have all kinds of situations – there is the situation in Ireland with the hope that at long last discussions, however tense, between Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams will ultimately bring about a lasting peace in the country, there are the sailors and marines caught up in Iran, and in political circumstances well beyond anything they could ever control, there is the murder of Bob Woolmer, the Pakistan Cricket Coach out in the world cup, the murders of several young black people in this country, and the still ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan – News is so often made by situations of aggression and conflict, and yet in the most important conflict of all, the conflict between good and evil, while the battle continues to be fought, a victory has already been won.

And it was Jesus who represents this victory – the victory completed on that first Easter Day as he conquered death, but a victory also represented by a gentle stroll into the city of Jerusalem on a donkey. He rode without soldiers, without guards, without publicity agents or without even religious ceremony – he rode quietly in to the city to complete a job that he had been sent for.

So many of the issues we see in the world today involve some sort of quest for power and authority, or perhaps for wealth, but the greatest display of power is Jesus – a man who needed nothing in worldly terms to transform history. The gospels tell of a Christ whose power was based on an incredible outgoing love, in whom the joy and vitality and self-giving in life was so strong that he had a healing quality simply through his presence - the presence of God.

The stones of Jerusalem and of all the cities of the world have cried out in pain over the years, because people did not recognise the importance of love in all life and relationships. The people on that first Palm Sunday were looking for something from Jesus, but they were looking for something other than love - Jesus went on to death because he went on loving.

Today the challenge for us all as individual followers of Christ and churches is, dare we ride with Christ on a donkey? Dare we love? Dare we risk advocating the security of the nation being built on non-violence, a new kind of international debate, a new kind of political future? Dare we risk talking about Jesus as the solution to so many of life’s problems, and the worlds evils ? Dare we risk taking a journey that God is leading ?

If Christians were taking Christ and his love seriously as a revelation of the nature and purpose of God, would we be talking about love rather than negotiation in Northern Ireland? Love rather than weapons and tactical diplomacy in areas of conflict such as the Middle East? Love in sport rather than money-fired competition? Love in the church's action and priorities rather than doctrinal theorising?

Many people will say it’s naïve to think love can overcome evil, but perhaps those were the sort of people who waved the palms and cheered and clapped as Jesus rode into Jerusalem – those same people who had already abandoned him or turned on him before his death – those same people who missed his glorious resurrection.

Christ commanded us to love – to love him and to love each other – Palm Sunday helps to reveal God’s love to us – Made weak and vulnerable in earthly terms, Christ rode on to death, knowing that there was nothing that could ever stop him from loving.

That is the message his Church today must be preaching above all others, and the message his followers must live. AMEN