Looking At Palm Sunday

As I did the last few weeks, as I come across items that speak to me about the text, I'll post snippets and links here.

We could all wish this were easier. The fact is that this is desperately hard. Individually and collectively we always fall short of being the kind of people and community God desires. It's not easy to follow Jesus, not on Palm Sunday and not on Fig Tree Monday.

Come to think of it, following Jesus in the week ahead will finally wind us up at a place called Skull Hill where a cross will be sunk into the flesh of the earth like a dagger through God's heart; like a dagger through all our hearts. That will be Jesus' ultimate solution to helping bring you, me, and as many people as possible to God.

So we follow this week. We follow. We watch. We weep. We repent. And when it's all over and the worst has happened, we sit quietly for a couple days fearing that maybe death is the end only to find out come Easter that Jesus is not finished yet. He'll arise. He'll keep going. And he'll call us to keep following, dragging the world behind us and praying we'll find room for them to pray, too.

From Here

This one would have fit right in with last week's text as well. Powerful insight. I've highlighted what struck me the most.

Here was a man who could raise the dead! This is what completely frees us from the addiction to wealth and power. The reason we strive for these things is we think that with them we can prevent the loss of our dreams, health, relationships, jobs, and all the things that make up a life. But the message of Jesus Christ is that the way you get over your fear of losing your life is not by collecting more money and power, but by going ahead and dying to this life. Die to having the life you expected. Only then will you be able to receive life as a grace.I know, I have mentioned this thing about grace once or twice before. Some have wondered if I do not need to speak more about sin as well as grace. But the thing that prevents us from receiving grace is not our sins, but our insistence on achieving life on our own. The Pharisees were great at avoiding sin...but they had already determined to kill Jesus and Lazarus, again, because Jesus viewed their self-righteousness as one thing to collect like power and wealth. Thinking that we have cleaned up our lives and are now avoiding sin is just one more way to delude ourselves that we have secured the future.

Cheap grace, according to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, is grace that does not bid you to die. Costly grace asks for everything: your money, power, dreams, family. Everything, and especially your ability to be moral and religious. Give it all up. Give it to Jesus so that you can discover a whole new life, that is finally free to use everything you are holding for stewardship. Otherwise you are going to waste life worrying if you will lose things that you certainly will lose. Trust me on this: one hundred percent of all people eventually lose their jobs. One hundred percent lose their marriages. One hundred percent lose their loved ones, their health, and their lives. One hundred percent of our bodies will eventually return to dust. You are not going to beat those odds, no matter how much wealth, power, or righteousness you collect. Whatever it is that you are afraid of losing, you will lose. So why do you want to waste your fleeting days worrying about when it will happen? Get it over with! Choose today to die with Christ, that you may spend the rest of life receiving his sacred mystery day after day.

From Here

This week's text - Palm Sunday

Mark's account of Jesus' entry to Jerusalem has Him coming in with fanfare, but leaving the city pretty quickly.

Interesting that the NLT 2.0 chooses to use "garments" here.

Oh if we could only learn "When Love Comes To Town" in time to do it Sunday. :)

1 As Jesus and his disciples approached Jerusalem, they came to the towns of Bethphage and Bethany on the Mount of Olives. Jesus sent two of them on ahead.2 “Go into that village over there,” he told them. “As soon as you enter it, you will see a young donkey tied there that no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here.3 If anyone asks, ‘What are you doing?’ just say, ‘The Lord needs it and will return it soon.’”
4 The two disciples left and found the colt standing in the street, tied outside the front door.5 As they were untying it, some bystanders demanded, “What are you doing, untying that colt?”6 They said what Jesus had told them to say, and they were permitted to take it.7 Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their garments over it, and he sat on it.
8 Many in the crowd spread their garments on the road ahead of him, and others spread leafy branches they had cut in the fields.9 Jesus was in the center of the procession, and the people all around him were shouting,

“Praise God!

Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
10 Blessings on the coming Kingdom of our ancestor David!

Praise God in highest heaven!”

11 So Jesus came to Jerusalem and went into the Temple. After looking around carefully at everything, he left because it was late in the afternoon. Then he returned to Bethany with the twelve disciples. Mark 11:1-11 (NLT)