Lenten Meditation: April 13, 2025
Palm Sunday
Daily Scripture Passage: Luke 19:28-40
No one expects the Palm Sunday procession to be terribly orderly or solemn. Most years, the weather has finally taken an irreversible turn away from winter, and walking around the grounds waving palm branches makes people a bit giddy. It’s liturgical fun. But then, just like that, things take a turn. Isaiah mourns because God’s servant is struck on the face and tormented. The Psalmist’s neighbors are plotting harm. Jesus’ disciples sleep while he faces his mortality, Peter denies him, and the Lord dies on a cross.
The collision of joy and pain is jolting but it isn’t unusual. Life is often like that. It is joy and pain flowing from one into the other and back again. A heart formed in Christian community is large enough to hold both joy and sorrow at once. When you walk through this striking juxtaposition year after year — literally walk through it — you learn not to cling too firmly to the good times or to run in a panic from the bad. We have walked the Way of the Cross before. We know where this road leads.