Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting, "Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!"
Mark 11:9-10

Next Sunday is Palm Sunday. It's the day when Christians remember Jesus marching into Jerusalem just a few days before his death. Palm Sunday leads us into Holy Week... we'll spend Thursday remembering Jesus' last meal with his disciples, Friday remembering his crucifixion and death, and come Easter Sunday we'll celebrate the empty tomb, and our hope that life is stronger than death. Palm Sunday is often a day of celebration, worthy of the important events that follow it. Children march down the aisle waving their palm branches; we sing "Hosanna."

It's a nice ritual; I always enjoy Palm Sunday. I wave my palm branch, and imagine the people that welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem. I think of those folks shouting "Hosanna, Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord." It all seems very wonderful, and, for that morning, it is. We should welcome Jesus, and we should be excited about welcoming him.

But if I imagine myself as one of those original palm-wavers, shouting in the streets of Jerusalem, things start to get complicated. A few short days later, the palm branches are long forgotten. The crowd no longer welcomes Jesus, but demands his death. By the time Jesus is on the cross, he has been deserted not only by the crowd, but by his disciples. He cries out: "My God, my God: why have you forsaken me?" And when Jesus prays that agonizing, anguished prayer, I can't help but wonder: where are those palm waving folks now? Have they gone back to their routines, comfortable and complacent? Are they bothered by guilt? We don't know where they are when Jesus dies.

It's at this point that I stumble on to the painful question: when Jesus is on the cross, am I still with the crowd? Why would I think that I would have been more faithful then they were?

Let me be clear: I don't doubt the sincerity of those early hosannas. It's great to welcome Jesus. Moreover, it's easy to welcome Jesus into town when we think he's bringing a new Kingdom, when we think that he'll turn everything around, when we think that he'll save us from all that troubles us. It's easy to welcome Jesus when our expectations are so high.

But Jesus didn't do what the crowd wanted him to do. Perhaps, if we're honest, then we could say that there are lots of days when Jesus doesn't do what we want him to do. Somewhere between the expectations of Jesus and the real Jesus, the crowd discovered that they didn't really want to welcome him anymore. They weren't willing to walk with him. They weren't going where he was headed.

Where are those in-between places for you? Where do your expectations of Jesus differ from what you actually experience of him? And where is your faith -- our faith -- in all of that? How far will we walk with Jesus? Where do we find it difficult to continue on with him?

As we come nearer to the end of the journey of Lent, I pray that you will continue to wrestle with your faith, especially in the moments when it feels the hardest. You are not alone in your journey; God's mercies are there, new each morning, ready to help you through. May that grace give you the strength to leave the crowd when the road is hard.

Peace,
Sara