Palm Branches

We see pictures of them, have them as part of outdoor landscapes and have then as decor in our homes. We see them as we pass them in our neighborhoods...and as backdrops for a significant entrance....they come in varieties too many to list...but on Palm Sunday, we often see the branches in the very churches that we worship in. This past Sunday, as many of you witnessed as well in your own churches, our precious children paraded down our aisles at church waving these branches in recognition of a tradition started over two thousand years ago. But why the palm branches.... because palm branches were a significant symbol as recognition of triumph.

Jesus began his journey into Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives...and there as he looked down among the people...he wept....not out of appreciation for the crowds who had come to honor him but our of the sadness for those who had not accepted his messianic message of peace and hope that he had tried to express over his past three years of ministry. The ones who were cheering and bowing and waving the palm branches and laying their cloaks and other branches before him....had accepted his charge of glory and authority....they had seen the deeds he had done....they had watched as he healed the blind, and the deaf, and the lame and even brought life back to dead. They were grateful for this Savior who had come to earth...and words to them were not enough....their hearts were filled with gladness and joy and a true appreciation of Jesus. To exemplify their gratefulness....they waved their branches....and shouted "HOSANNA"...in jubilation and in hope....God save us....!

This is the beginning of Holy week...a week that signifies the conclusion of Jesus' ministry on this Earth. This would be his triumphant entry into the city of Jerusalem....but this would not be where his story ends. This would where His story and all of His glory finally gains the attention and the credibility that he has been building for years past. The story will plunge deeply and remorsefully only to resurface in a way that none could conceive or imagine....in spite of what they had been told.

But as I recounted the precious image of children waving their palm branches...I couldn't help but wonder: do we in this generation have even a tiny glimmer of the magnitude of their love and appreciation for their Lord Jesus....and the hope that he has filled their hearts with. They did not have the distractions that we have today...Life was simple...not easy, just simple...and the disciples and many of these followers saw the miracles that Jesus performed first hand....and they were able to plant their faith in what they had seen or from others who had seen first hand. We are no different....just generations later....our initial faith is planted on what others have seen and have experienced and have shared....and then as we exercise our own faith we see what Jesus has done and is doing in our own lives...

JOHN 3: 16-17
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. God did not send His Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it"

Easter is a time for recounting...and remembering the time that Jesus ministered, in human form, on this earth...but it also is a time for sharing what Jesus has done in our lives and is able to do in the lives of any others who chose to believe in His name and have faith in his power.

They laid down their palm branches before HIM.....to glorify his name and in love and respect for what he has done. We might not have palm branches in our reach...but what we do have is our hearts, and our ways, our habits...and our will. This Holy week....think about what you could lay down at the foot of Christ to show him honor and glory and appreciation for who he is and what he has done.

I have to ask myself...How much do I love Jesus...really? Am I as sold out to Him as those folks who were bowing down to him and waving palm branches as he triumphantly entered Jerusalem?....Am I committed to following Him and trusting his ways and adapting my life to His ways? (I had originally worded that last phrase backwards "His ways to my life" and then I realized that God's ways do not change it is mine that must be adapted)

Have I accepted the HOPE that he has offered...the hope to be a better person, the hope to have enough strength to avoid temptations, the hope that overcomes trials that may seem overwhelming, the hope to be able to live life in honor of Jesus whose body was literally nailed on a cross and killed for me....the hope that my sins, all of them have been forgiven....and a path of righteousness that has been paved, through Christ for me to have eternal life......my answer is YES...what is your answer? I have accepted that HOPE....but with Hope comes Faith....not just a casual kind of faith that is fleeting...but a faith of strength and commitment and trust....in spite of all circumstances...and in lieu of all distractions...

It is HOLY WEEK...a week to truly consider what God has done through His son...and continues to do through Him....and then consider what it is that you believe and who it is that you believe in? ....and does that belief show up in the way you "live" your everyday life? Jesus was sent to this earth to be the sacrificial lamb on each of our behalf...he sacrificed his life so that we could have everlasting life....that is gift too big to fit in an Easter basket....but a gift too grand to not accept. It is an everlasting gift of love and grace. How blessed are we who know Jesus...let us share the story that we have been told and that we have learned to trust personally.

Dear Lord, Oh how we celebrate this week and the passion that you had and have for saving your beloved children. May we accept your gift of hope and love and grace...with humble appreciation. Thank you Lord....for the submitting to the grief that you must of had to endure as you watched Jesus suffer in ways that we can not fathom...for the sake of our everlasting life. Amen

Praise God wherever you are or whatever situation he has allowed you to be in...for His glory will shine through.
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