Home… For Palms

SUN., MAR. 23, 1997, 6:35 AM
FARM, STUDY

Yes, o son, you’re home, safely and swiftly, as you asked. The convention was worthwhile, but, in some ways, not up to your expectations. The number of Ruminations that you brought back, undelivered, is some evidence that you weren’t as “spiritual” in your approach to people as you expected to be. Yet you also didn’t want this letter to be just another “handout” like those that are so easy to pick up at such meetings.

The morning with your friends and colleagues from the S.H.E.S. study was quite satisfying, but, again, you had some chances to reveal to these who had once been so close, that your life would be heading in more of a spiritual direction. I know you’re not at all sure how this will be, but I’m a bit disappointed when you don’t even suggest that this will be your final focus.

That’s over… and you’re home for the Sunday called Palm. It is the remembrance of My entrance into the City, being welcomed, cheered, and accepted by crowds lining the roadway. The tradition is that palm branches were taken from the trees and laid down for Me to walk on, a gesture of love and respect. It is a strange and even comic story, when put together with what comes later in this week, the basis for your Bible study during this Lenten season.

Here are the people of this City, turning out in great numbers to greet Me, as Jesus. Some did expect that I “would be” the Messiah, and that I would lead the deliverance from Roman domination. Yet I did not come with pomp… and in majesty, and that was confusing. I knew, of course, that My bodily life as Jesus would soon be over, in the painful experience of the cross. And I knew that I would have to cooperate with this destiny of Mine… even “make it happen”.

Knowing this, how did I feel as I rode in on a donkey, on a road strewn with palm branches? Well, it was fun to be so acclaimed, and I could live fully in that moment. Even though I knew it would not last and that these cheering folk would fade away when the forces of their traditional religion… and Mine… and of the government would turn against Me I did enjoy this day, as it happened.

I could live in and appreciate moments of fun, even as I knew how My earth life would end. I knew there would be a Last Supper with the disciples. I anticipated that it would be both joyful and solemn, and I tried to keep it positive. These men of Mine just couldn’t accept and appreciate that I would soon be taken from them and killed, for I was a threat to their religion and its leaders. They had experienced the greeting on this Sunday of Palms, just a few days before. They were on the “winning team”. But I wasn’t acting like a “winner”… completely.

Just as you know, in your tradition, that this Sunday is followed by Maunday Thursday and, then, Good Friday… an attempt, in name, to anticipate the resurrection coming up, so I knew that this apparent triumph would not last. Can you enjoy events for their positive value, even as you appreciate a mix with the negative?

These classes of yours now may well be the last that you’ll have. After these enjoyable years it is sad to know that the end of a career cometh. Yet you also know that you shall move on to another form of the “good life”, more suited to your age. The end of My earth life, as Jesus, was quicker and more dramatic than yours is likely to be, but, I say, enjoy this transition and see its positive nature. You are retiring to, even though it also is from.