SUNDAY, MARCH 16, 2008

PALM SUNDAY

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Dear Friends in Our Lord Jesus:

It all happened so suddenly. The crowds were growing larger by the minute. The excitement was building to a feverish pitch. And the expectations were climbing to the level of euphoria. So many people. So many expectations.

To the revolutionaries in the crowd, there was hope for an immediate uprising against tyrannical authority. To the common working people, there was hope for deliverance from oppressive taxes and bureaucratic domination.

To the spiritually hungry, there was hope for enlightenment and consolation. To the sick, there was hope for healing and restoration.

To the societal outcasts, there was hope for forgiveness and reinstatement. To the religious authorities, there was hope for more profits at the temple coffers.

To the foreign soldiers, there was hope that a disastrous confrontation could be avoided.

So many hopes. So many expectations. So many dreams. So many needs. So many desires. So many demands.

And all of them were placed onto the shoulders of an amazing prophet and teacher from Galilee, a carpenter’s son named Jesus. A man barely 30 years old, who at that very moment -- on this very day -- was riding into Jerusalem on the back of a small donkey.

The crowds were shouting with joy. The air was electric with energy.

And underneath it all, there was the unmistakable smell of death in the air.

-- The Very Rev. Dr. Steve Sellers +