Palm Sunday Devotional by Rev. Jason Shank
Mark 11:1-11
Growing up as a pastor’s son, I couldn’t wait every spring to get to Palm Sunday. Yes, part of it was the joy of running around the church waiving palm branches with my friends. But even as a kid, I knew this Sunday was the beginning of something very important. In the churches where I grew up, the Sunday School classes would make crosses out of the palm branches because we were preparing for the events of Holy Week and how this day was a part of a bigger story. Early on in my life I learned that Palm Sunday was a day to prepare ourselves for what is to come.
Each Gospel tells the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem a little differently and each have a specific concentration. Every year, we get to ask the question, how is this Gospel, this story, this Palm Sunday preparing us for the most holy week that is to come?
In Mark’s Gospel it is obvious that the focal point is Jesus as king. We see this as he enters into Jerusalem and the crowds lay branches and cloaks on the ground while shouting the name of King David. Symbols of royalty that would be used to welcome a king and the name of the greatest King of Israel being exclaimed. The crowds in some way or another saw Jesus as their king.
But was the crowd ready to accept Jesus and the kingdom that he represented? Jesus was not entering Jerusalem with power and prestige. This was not a military parade with a lot of fanfare or violence.
Jesus entered Jerusalem that day on a colt. Symbolizing peace. Jesus entered into Jerusalem knowing what was before him. The kingdom of life being made known through death on a cross.
Palm Sunday raises a question that also gives us a focus for the week ahead. Are we ready to accept Jesus as our king and by doing so, ready to embrace the kingdom that has been ushered into this world by Jesus? Are we ready to follow Jesus into this week and to truly be his disciples?
As we enter into Holy week are we ready to be present with Jesus at the table, to have our feet washed and understand our role as servants to those among us?
Are we ready to travel with Jesus to the cross and to see him lay down his life in order to defeat the powers of sin and death forever? Are we ready to answer his call to come after him by denying ourselves, picking up our cross and following him?
Are we ready to sit in the silence of Saturday and to trust that even in that moment of waiting, God is still present and the story is not over?
Are we ready to travel with the women to the tomb, to experience the promise of new and unending life and then to give witness to the hope of resurrection?
Palm Sunday truly is a day to celebrate Jesus as king and to remember what his kingdom really looks like in this world. A kingdom of service and of peace. A kingdom of the cross and the empty tomb.
But, it is also a day for us to ask ourselves are we ready to fully embrace Jesus as our king, and ready to answer his call to participate in the kingdom that he has brought into our midst? Are we ready to follow Jesus as his disciples, and by doing so, travel with him, from Jerusalem, to Calvary, to Easter morning and ultimately into the world to give witness to his life, his death and his resurrection?
The kingdom of God has come near. Jesus our king is in our midst. He has called us into this Holy Week to follow him as his disciples. Are we ready?