Palm Sunday

This Is the Day   MV #122

This is the day that God has made;
We will rejoice and be glad! (2X)
Singing hallelu, singing hallelu, singing hallelu!
We will rejoice and be glad!  (2X) 

Youtube video link can be found on the Texada United Church Facebook page or copy/paste:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boVSvvPQS0c

Mark 11:1-11  (RSV)

When they were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples 
2 and said to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring it. 
3 If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately.’” 
4 They went away and found a colt tied near a door, outside in the street. 
As they were untying it, 
5 some of the bystanders said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” 
6 They told them what Jesus had said; and they allowed them to take it. 
7 Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it. 
8 Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. 
9 Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting,
           “Hosanna!  Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
            Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!
            Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
11 Then he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple; and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.

It was the beginning of Passover and Jews were on their way to the sacred city of Jerusalem to celebrate, Roman soldiers massed to keep the crowd under control and keep order. Jesus came with his disciples and followers.
Passover  (Pesach) and the Feast of the Unleavened Bread  is a seven day celebration that commemorates the Exodus story; the liberation of the Jews from slavery in Egypt. The Passover event refers to Exodus 12, when God gives Moses and Aaron specific instructions for Jews to put goat or sheep blood on the door frame of their houses so that God would spare their first born children and animals. After this terrible plague is visited on the Egyptians, the Pharaoh summons Moses and Aaron and insists that they leave Egypt with their possessions and even more. The unleavened bread refers to the haste with which the Jews left Egypt, so quickly that they had no time to prepared and so had only flat bread or matzah. 

During Passover the story is retold during the ritual Seder meal when family and friends gather to celebrate and remember. This would have been an important event in the life of every Jew and the idea of liberation from domination by an outside power would have been on the lips and in the heart of every Jew there.

The Romans and the Jews contained in Jerusalem made for a volatile situation, add a Messiah who spoke of the coming of the Kingdom of God and who knows what could happen. Jesus had the markings: he preached the coming of God’s Kingdom (that is Yahweh’s Kingdom not the Roman god’s kingdom), Jesus had the power from God to heal, to cast out demons, to raise Lazarus from the dead. Jesus could be the long awaited, always hoped for Messiah and he came riding on a donkey with crowds waving palm branches, laying down cloths and shouting “Hosanna!” Hoping, wishing dreaming “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!”

​

Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem is not just a fulfillment of Zechariah 9:9  (GNT) after the fact.
        Rejoice, rejoice, people of Zion!
        Shout for joy, you people of Jerusalem!
        Look, your king is coming to you!
       He comes triumphant and victorious,
       but humble and riding on a donkey--
       on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Rather the passage gives us insight into the way Jesus always interacted with other people. He was not above the crowd whooshing by on a powerful horse or in a chariot but riding on a donkey - he was right there, in the crowd, with the people, plodding along. Maybe, even in that moment,  he was telling us something about God, about God always being there with us, good, bad, disappointing, exciting, - God is there.  God is here. We are not alone. 

Passover is about the Jews remembering that God was with them in Egypt. But the story continued and included how God worked to get them out of Egypt even when they didn’t want to leave, and God travelled with them in the desert providing, with God the Jews forged a United Israel and Judah, and God was with them when they were exiled in Babylon. God was with them 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem when Jesus came riding into the sacred city on a donkey and God is present now as we continue our journey through Holy Week. 



Rise Up, Rise Up     MV #130

Rise Up, rise up, rise up, O my soul.
Rise up and sing this blessing to God’s name.