Hosanna

Hosanna!
“And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!’” -Matthew 21:9

 This coming Sunday is Palm Sunday. It’s one of my favorites of the year. You all know how I love the kiddos, and to see them enter with palm branches waving always fills me to overflowing with happiness. It’s so many things. It’s the celebration of Christ, the commemoration of the day that he rode into Jerusalem, gentle and humble, on a donkey. It’s the beginning of Holy Week, truly the most sacred and important week of the Christian year. And it’s the passing on of the faith. Those palm branches waving in small hands, the energy and the excitement and the sheer joy of it all—to know that the Church has a future, and that as long as the Lord chooses to tarry, there will be those who hand down what they were given by their own parents and grandparents--there isn’t much that’s better.
 
But it’s also Passion Sunday. What comes after that entry into Jerusalem, after the praises and the cheers and the shouts, is enough to sober anyone. And if we are going to follow Jesus into the city, we have to follow Him all the way. We have to follow Him into the temple, where he angers the religious leaders with the truth. We have to follow Him into the upper room, where He humbles Himself at the feet of His disciples. We have to follow Him to the Garden, where He prays for deliverance and finds instead acceptance. We have to follow Him through betrayal, denial, and a mock trial. We have to follow Him to the cross.
 
As we approach this coming week, may we do so in reverence, in repentance, and with a deep sense of gratitude for the inexplicable, overwhelming grace of a Savior who walked this road for no reason other than love. He gave Himself for us, so that we could be forever with Him. So that we could know the freedom His mercy gives, and the joy that comes with it, and pass it on to our children and their children after them.
 
And that my friends, is something to celebrate.
 
Hosanna!