Palm Sunday
Making Tangible the Way of Jesus
Stones will shout out. Silence is not an option. Jesus is coming into Jerusalem after three years of agitating the establishment’s hold on the people and their imaginations. He has not held back on his critique of the systems that oppress and do harm, and now the tipping point has arrived. People have gotten a taste of what is possible and are no longer willing to let the way things have always been continue to be the way things are.
I wonder if they knew the power of the words, as they cried out, “Hosanna, Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord”? When proclamations of Jesus’ lordship roll off our tongues this morning, are we aware of the radical claim we are also making?
Sometimes, after years of saying and singing these words, we may forget that we are proclaiming our allegiance to God above all other commitments. This isn’t just an opportunity to sing our favorite songs. This is a call to remember our individual and communal promises to be the light of Christ in the world. As Christians we are invited into a life that speaks of Jesus, in every breath we take, to make tangible for all creation the experience of love, which has so transformed us. The claim we make that Jesus is Lord is still radical. We lay down those things that cover us before Christ and welcome him in, hoping to be transformed.
A Christian life is marked by the impact of our lives that brings closer the kin(g)dom of God for all. The power of people changed by God’s transforming love is amazing to behold, and it cannot be held back. May we continue to be caught up in the compelling vision that moves us ever closer to the Way of Jesus.
Rebecca Craver, Director of Congregational Development
Moravian Church, Southern Province