Today is Palm Sunday. We observed it at Blacknall by processing in with Palm fronds singing a wonderful spiritual with the refrain, “Ride on Jesus, ride on.” It was great. As I was walking in, frond in hand, I was struck by the irony of Palm sunday. It is the perfect picture of the fickleness of my own heart.
The crowd waves Palm branches and throws them before Christ as he enters Jerusalem atop a donkey. Then less than a week later, some of those same greeters are calling for blood. Crucify! Crucify! In the span of a week from adulation to contempt.
Its hard to feel REALLY good about frond-waving, when in the back of your mind you know that this celebration forms part of the larger story of humanity’s rejection of Christ. Ah, but then again, even through this pain, suffering, and injustice, God is working to redeem us.
All that being said, today was a good time in church.
Jeff Gissing 