2016 Belmont University Lenten GuideSample

Palm Sunday. The beginning of the end of the beginning. This day brings a whirlwind of emotions. Often we are the spectators, just like the residents of Jerusalem. Laying our branches and shouting “Hosanna!” Celebrating the coming of the miracle worker! The one they call the King of the Jews. The difference is, they didn’t know these would be the last days of Jesus’ life on earth. They didn’t know that Jesus was willingly, humbly coming to a place where He would be rejected, beaten, alone. But Jesus knew. How remarkable. Jesus rode into Jerusalem toward His death, through a crowd that greeted Him with praise. Ironically, some of the same folks praising Jesus will be the ones, just days later, saying, “Crucify, crucify him (Luke 23:21)!” And yet, Jesus remains obedient. How must Jesus have felt? We read in the Psalm a song of lament. The psalmist is in distress, wasted from grief, full of sorrow and yet, trusting God in his or her time of weariness. What a picture of how Jesus might have felt coming into Jerusalem that day. Being obedient and still weary. Trusting in God while walking on the branches of those who would later betray Him. How deep Jesus must have felt the sting knowing what was coming. Paul tells us that Jesus didn’t see Himself as equal to God. Jesus saw Himself as a servant. Our own pain can give us tunnel vision. It is all we see and nothing more. It is how we view those around us and how we view ourselves. Pain can be good. It means we feel. But pain that takes away from the rest of our world can be detrimental. Jesus combated His pain with love. A love so deep and so heavy that even when He didn’t think He could take it, when He was physically shaking before God asking for the cup to be removed, He pressed on in obedience. The events of the coming days were known to Jesus in the midst of this celebration of Jesus’ arrival. We celebrate Palm Sunday because we know the end of the story. But the suffering of Jesus should not be lost on us this day. These are the steps that were taken to complete the journey to our own restoration. Let us rejoice in the love that Jesus has for us. Let us remember the suffering that Jesus endured. Let us take on the identity of a servant and live in our broken world in such a way that all who know us will see the one who emptied Himself and took on human form and was obedient to the point of death. We do not lay our branches for just a miracle worker. We lay down our branches for the Savior of the world. KENDRA CRABTREE Alum