Palm Sunday Madness!

By Rev. William Dohle

May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Galatians 6:14

Our first Palm Sunday service did not go as I expected.

First of all, I woke up an hour too late. The time I thought I’d have preparing everything was suddenly not there. I left the house without a shower, hoping beyond hope that I had prepared everything well enough in advance. That alone caused some anxiety.

Then...the music recorded on our player piano died on me. Usually I can make it play somehow by putting it in and taking it out, but this time that didn’t work. The disk was completely ruined! I spent some time in the morning just coming to grips with the fact that the music would either be sung acapella or not at all.

Then...during the service itself...I got all mixed up on the song verses. The song which has 7 verses scattered throughout the service wasn’t familiar in the first place. And on top of it I think we sang one verse twice or another verse three times. It was a mess. We never did get all the way through that song. We stopped it two verses to the end.

All of this happened before 9am.

I know it isn’t as bad as I thought it was...but in the end it all made me feel very frazzled. The peace of remembering Jesus entry into Jerusalem and his Passion was lost to my own nerves. I felt very disconnected and lost. This wasn’t how I wanted my first Holy Week service to go.

But ironically those feelings were right in tune with Holy Week!

We who gather for worship some two thousand years later forget what the disciples experienced at Holy Week. We attend church and expect a peaceful, calming service. We forget that Holy Week is itself far from peaceful. The disciples experienced the violent collapse of everything they knew and love. They were there when Jesus was arrested...and they ran! They heard of Jesus before the councils...and they denied! They felt the sting of broken expectations...and they betrayed!

This week their expectations were shattered! They witnessed the messyness of Grace, the pain of separation, and the sin of denial. This week they watched, or heard of Jesus’ crucifixion in the garbage pits outside of town. They saw what horrors were brought upon him. And their whole world shattered!

But looking back after that Jesus had risen from the dead they recognized something else. They recognized God Almighty! Following the death and resurrection of Jesus, the disciples began to understand the lengths to which God would go to redeem His creation! The pain that God endured and how God’s heart was breaking! They understood that it was in the stress itself, in the crazyness of all that took place that Holy Week, that God’s love was made known to them. And that, there on the cross, was God made flesh in Jesus Christ.

This week, as you go about your normal every day activities, look around you and ponder the busyness. Think on the stress is laid upon your shoulders. The day to day struggles we face. Think on the craziness that surrounds you. And know that God has entered into that crazyness. Christ has taken your burden, and the weight of the world, with Him on the cross. And you are free! Peace be with you! Amen.