The Sunday Called “Palm”

SUN., APR. 16, 2000, 5:55 AM
FARM, STUDY

This is the Sunday that moves the season of Lent into Holy Week. Lent has not been an important part of the year for you… or for most Presbyterians. Perhaps this week called Holy will be, for you, this year. But let Me, Holy Spirit, introduce it to you, afresh, this day.

Palm Sunday is the recollection of My entering the Holy City, as Jesus, riding on a donkey. I usually walked, humbly, but on this day I “accepted” the “stature” of riding, but on a small beast of burden. In the world of today it would be comparable to entering the city on a motor scooter. There was considerable cheering of Me, which became, as the week developed, an example of crowd behavior – cheering and then, suddenly or gradually, feeling a complete change of mood, even to the point of calling for My crucifixion.

It is the “beginning” (in a way) of this unique story of God and man, the Creator and His creations. You are at least partially aware of publicists today, whose task is to make the public like, even cheer, a product, a group, or a person. And reports of the riots that occur somewhat “regularly” around the world (Washington, D.C., awaits such a demonstration, comparable to an earlier one in Seattle). The interesting question, in this Palm Sunday “recollection” is whether this adulation, of palm leaves and clothing strewn in My path was a “natural” response to One with some positive reputation… or a demonstration encouraged by some who wanted Me to be the leader of a revolution… or just the way I, as Almighty God, wanted it to be.

And this, of course, raises the more fundamental question that I have answered for you before – I, as Jesus, was here on earth to be, finally, a sacrifice for the souls of all of you humans who accept Me as Lord and Savior. Your culture sees death as undesirable, but does honor (at least in some instances) those who sacrifice their lives for a “greater good.” Some of the casualties in any war are of this sort – sacrifices for what they see as a greater cause – “it is a far, far better thin that I do…”

And so, today, you and your church brethren will recall the triumphal entry, even as the “ride” was on an insignificant beast of burden… not on a noble stallion or on a “ship of the desert.” If one were explaining this in a non-spiritual way it could come out that it was a form of suicide, a negative term that Christians hate to use for these events. There had to be news of Me that was inflaming the orthodox Jews, for I was claiming to be their awaited Messiah, and the imposed government had to see this as the possible start up of a revolution So, just as it now would seem foolish to hear that a Confederate soldier was killed in defense of a Southern plantation, the government of My time had to kill in order to put down those who would incite revolution.

I had to get the Jews to demand that I be executed, for I was a “false Messiah.” Thus they had to create enough uproar so that the government had to see this as threatening to their “well-being.” So it was political and religious in motive and perception, but for Me it was the sacrifice of something good, My earth life, for something better, this mystical salvation of many souls.