Luke 9:51

Now when the days drew near for him to be taken up, Jesus set out resolutely to go to Jerusalem.

Luke 19:35-44

… And throwing their garments on the colt they set Jesus upon it. And as he rode along, they spread their garments on the road. As he was now drawing near, at the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” And some of the Pharisees in the multitude said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” And when he drew near and saw the city he wept over it, saying, “Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace! But now they are hid from your eyes. For the days shall come upon you, when your enemies will cast up a bank about you and surround you, and hem you in on every side, and dash you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another in you; because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

 

An excerpt from Frederick Buechner’s “A Room Called Remember”. 

“Blessed be the King who comes in the name of the Lord,” the cry goes up. There is dust in the air with the sun turning it gold. Around a bend in the road, there suddenly is Jerusalem. He draws back on the reins. Crying disfigures his face. “Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace.” Even today, he says, because there are so few days left. Then the terror of his vision as he looks at the city that is all cities and sees not one stone left standing on another – you and your children within you – your children. “Because you did not know the time of your visitation,” he says. Because we don’t know who it is who comes to visit us. Because we do not know what he comes to give. The things that make for peace, that is what he comes to give. We do not know these things, he says, and God knows he’s right. The absence of peace within our own skins no less than within our nations testifies to that. But we know their names at least. We all of us know in our hearts the holy names of the things that make for peace – real peace – only for once let us honor them by not naming them. Let us name instead only him who is himself the Prince of Peace.

 

“He shall judge between the nations and shall decide for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” That is our Palm Sunday hope, and it is our only hope. That is what the palms and the shouting are all about. That is what all our singing and worshiping and preaching and praying are all about if they are about anything that matters. The hope that finally by the grace of God the impossible will happen. The hope that Pilate will take him by one hand and Caiaphas by the other, and the Roman soldiers will throw down their spears and the Sanhedrin will bow their heads. The hope that by the power of the Holy Spirit, by the love of Christ, who is Lord of the impossible, the leaders of the enemy nations will draw back, while there is still time for drawing back, from a vision too terrible to name. The hope that you and I also, each in our own puny but crucial way, will work and witness and pray for the things that make for peace, true peace, both in our own lives and in the life of this land.

 

Despair and hope. They travel the road to Jerusalem together, as together they travel every road we take – despair at what in our madness we are bringing down on our own heads and hope in him who travels the road with us and for us and who is the only one of us all who is not mad. Hope in the King who approaches every human heart like a city. And it is a very great hope as hopes go and well worth all our singing and dancing and sad little palms because not even death can prevail against this King and not even the end of the world, when end it does, will be the end of him and of the mystery and majesty of his love. Blessed be he.

 

Song: Matthew Clark – Walking to the Cross

Vs. 1

The way has been prepared 

And now the way must be walked 

There’s so much good you’ll dream to do 

But I am walking to the cross

 

The world is full of withered hands 

And the world is full of lonely souls

You may not understand what love can do 

But I am walking to the cross

 

CHORUS 1 

They’ll sing Hosanna 

Oh Lord come and save 

They’ll sing Hosanna

Oh Lord come and save

But the palm branches will only briefly wave

 

Vs. 2  

Here I am Jerusalem 

Like the mother that you wouldn’t have 

So lost and yet I love you still 

I am walking to the cross

 

My mind is set I will not stop 

Till they break the bread and fill the cup

And every secret sin and misdeed dark 

Is nailed upon the cross

 

CHORUS 2

So sing Hosanna, Well the lord has come to save 

Sing Hosanna 

For the broken and enslaved

For the saviour of the world

For the shackles have been shed

 

Hear the children they are singing praise

With voices clear and hearts are raised

And when my work is done I’ll bring them home 

I am walking to the cross

 

And I will walk until my time has come 

Until the river from the temple runs 

Until the hope of men is all but quenched 

I am walking to the cross

 

CHORUS 3

So sing Hosanna Well the lord has come to save

sing Hosanna For the death of the grave 

sing Hosanna For the Holy One of God

sing Hosanna For the blood of Jesus Christ

sing Hosanna Cause I am walking to the cross

Poetry: Malcolm Guite – Jesus Weeps

 

Jesus comes near and he beholds the city

And looks on us with tears in his eyes,

And wells of mercy, streams of love and pity

Flow from the fountain whence all things arise.

He loved us into life and longs to gather

And meet with his beloved face to face

How often has he called, a careful mother,

And wept for our refusals of his grace,

Wept for a world that, weary with its weeping,

Benumbed and stumbling, turns the other way,

Fatigued compassion is already sleeping

Whilst her worst nightmares stalk the light of day.

But we might waken yet, and face those fears,

If we could see ourselves through Jesus’ tears.

Collect: Brian Brown – Collect for Palm Sunday

Almighty and everliving God, who, of thy tender love towards mankind, hast sent thy Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon him our flesh, and to suffer death upon the cross, that all mankind should follow the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may both follow the example of his patience, and also be made partakers of his resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

*The artwork featured on this page was created by Shannon Steed Sigler.