Hosanna! 

Happy Palm Sunday.  This is the beginning of the most important week in Christian history and the life of Jesus.  Can you imagine that day when Jesus rode into Jerusalem and people paved the way with branches and hailed him as King?  I guess the chief scribes and priests were a bit indignant about all the excitement about Jesus and thought the crowd should quiet down.  Jesus told them that if the people were quiet , that the very stones would shout out! 

As I gave thought to Palm Sunday and (by the way) the wonderful message at church today, I reminisced about the Good Friday service that we used to attend at our old church.  At the Good Friday service, the altar was slowly stripped of all things religious and symbolic as the service progressed.  At the end, all candles were even extinguished and things were barren, and dark, and quiet.  Finally, the pastor would slam the bible shut and it was put away.  We would leave the church in silence.  I would leave church feeling very sad and very frightened actually at the thought of a godless world.  It was cold and dark and unknown.  Did the birds stop singing when Jesus hung on the cross?  Was all of creation silent? 

I can relate to this by what happened when my father died.  My father, or ‘Pop’ as we called him, had quite the collection of tools and things and family trinkets and a cornucopia of little treasures everywhere in the house – especially in the basement where there were shelves of his collections.  Every item had a story attached to it.  I loved hearing his stories.  After Pop died, I remember the day I first went to the basement of his home for something, and it took my breath away.  Here I was in the midst of all of Pop’s treasures and memories and the silence was deafening.  It brought me to tears.  The silence that all these items emitted was so painful.  They would never be held up by Pop again with the special story each one owned.  Everything was dead.  Gone was Pop and gone were the stories that gave each item life.  I still cry at the loss – both of my Pop and of his wonderful treasures.

I cannot bring back my Pop, nor breathe life into his collection.  But thank goodness for Easter and the resurrected Jesus! 

I love when we sing “King of Kings by Hillsong at church.  Everytime, and I mean EVERY TIME we sing the third verse, I tear up:

And the morning that You rose
All of heaven held its breath
Till that stone was moved for good
For the Lamb had conquered death

And the dead rose from their tombs
And the angels stood in awe
For the souls of all who’d come
To the Father are restored

Jesus died on the cross on Friday.  I’m sure the dark and silence was deafening.  I can imagine the emptiness and pain that heaven felt – to be mourning the cruel death of God’s Son on the cross.  “All of heaven held its breath” and I bet you could hear a pin drop.  What a sigh of relief and a shout for joy when Jesus rose from the grave!  I bet the birds sang anew and even the rocks cried out! 

As we journey through Holy Week, keep in mind what Jesus has done for you.  Imagine a world without Christ, without life, and without hope.  It alarms me that our world seems to be going in the way of Godlessness.  That’s frightening.  Jesus offers love and hope and eternal life.  On Easter Sunday, rejoice with all of creation as the birds sing and nature shows the new life of Spring in every blooming plant and warm kiss of the sun. 

1 Peter 1:3 ESV Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

just laurel