What is Palm Sunday?
Palm Sunday is the day that Christ arrived into the city of Jerusalem. The day He rode a donkey into the gates of Jerusalem on a rough, uneven, and steep road. He rode into the heart of the world on an unassuming donkey. He didn’t bring stallions and chariots. Even though the work he was about to complete would have deserved that. He rode in on a calm, lowly donkey, an animal that literally is a sign of peace. He rode the donkey, that sign of peace, into the city, or the heart of His people. The point of acknowledging these extra details is the ability to see the beautiful metaphor that was laid out for us. The way Christ entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday is the way He enters our hearts. He brings a peace that is immeasurable and unimaginable. When the days of pain and hurt come, days we think we can’t go on He will carry us through. Just as He did with the cross and our sins. He paid the ultimate price so that we would never have to be separated from Our God and He did it willingly, embracing this fearful day in his future and taking in the celebration of his arrival. The celebration by the very same people who will, just days later, declare Him of wrongdoing and send Him to the cross.
The King of Kings came into the capital city on a donkey; showing His lack of concern for the political constructs of this world. He was there for a reason. A reason, that no one there would understand and many will continue to wrestle with until He returns. He was there for a job that would change the trajectory of the world. They celebrated Him, laying palm leaves and robes down to make each step of the donkey slightly easier, but later condemning Him to crucifixion. Reading this in Matthew 21:1-11; I am continually awestruck that our God didn’t condemn us for our fickle hearted nature, that our God chose to die a horrific death in order to give us the opportunity to spend eternity with Him even though many of us didn’t understand then and many still chose to reject Him.
Have you ever thought of going through something unimaginably painful and the reason being solely to save ungrateful people? People who have willingly sent you to this painful and horrific event but not being upset with them? To go through being wiped, to have your dignity stripped away, to have your hands and feet nailed into a cross all for people who truly do not deserve it. People who will heckle you the entire way you make your climb yet, they are the reason you are hurting? It’s a love so deep it is unable to be understood in worldly terms. That is why we celebrate Palm Sunday. It is a day of remembrance. A day that we stop to remember the inconsistent nature of human beings and how our God knows this and STILL sends His one and only son to the cross for us anyways.
Today, we are free. Today, we can talk with our God because Christ came down to be the ultimate sacrifice so that no longer would there be a separation between us. The veil was torn.Hallelujah! Our sins have been washed away and death has no power but we certainly do not deserve this great gift.
As you enter into this holy week, I pray that you choose to take a little more time to think about this. To think about what this day means to you and how it applies to your life. I pray that if you have not yet accepted God into your heart that this message leads you to that decision or at least opens your eyes for the work that is about to be done in the upcoming days. If you want to accept him into your heart right now, there will be a prayer you can recite at the end of this post that can lead you to accepting Christ into your heart.
Before I move on to the prayer; I want to talk about what to expect on Palm Sunday, roughly. As you can imagine everyone celebrates differently and every church is unique in how they choose to retell the story or explain. The most common practice is having a procession of children come in waving palm fronds down the aisle. Another, would be the passing out of palm fronds that have been folded into a cross and blessed by your pastor or priest. These palms are a reminder of what this day symbolizes and a reminder to lay your hurts, worries, and sins at the feet of the father. Lastly, There will be a select amount of the blessed palms that will be kept to burn the following year to create the ash that is used on Ash Wednesday. The Pastor or priest tie it all together with the connection of the ash being from the same palms that were blessed the palm sunday before. It is a special reminder. You may be at a church that will do recitings of the Palm Sunday story in Matthew or you may be at a church that does a sermon on Palm Sunday. There is no one right way to celebrate. The point is understanding what this week symbolizes and the impact it can have for you.
This is an example to show you the terrain of the area and all the palm trees. This was in the area where Christ preached on the Beatitudes.
Now, for those of you who want to have a relationship with God and don’t know where to begin; I will leave a prayer you can pray that will help you to begin this relationship with God. It can be hard to begin praying on your own and that is why I want to help guide you on this first moment.
Lets Go to the Father in Prayer.
Father God,
We know that you love us so. We know that you created each and everyone of us to be made in your image and with a special spiritual gift. You have handcrafted all of us and then you sent your one and only son to save us. You wiped out sin and death. You removed the power of death and left us with your power only. I want to be a part of this. I know that I have been living a life of sin. I have been living for this world and following the wrong things. I know that in my world, You, Lord Jesus, do not come first. I am busy and I will make time for everything else but you and I don’t want to live like that anymore. I want to be your daughter/son, Lord. I want to live your word out in a visible way. I want to share your love with others and learn to be a bright light for you because I have lived too much of my life without you already. I want to repent from all my sins and work on improving myself to be the best version I can be for you, Father. You are all I need. “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing, He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” Psalm 23:1-4
In your precious name,
Amen
