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palm sunday

So it is palm sunday today, and don't ask me what that is supposed to mean. I just thought I would share that fact. No, but really... I find myself more and more skeptical of traditions in the church. SOme traditions are beautiful, but if we are going to celebrate palm sunday, lets look at it from Jesus´perspective. This guy Jesus, who by the way was God, had been living on this earth filled with all the wonder and pain that comes with it, for 33 years. For the last 3 years, He had been travelling the country, living with His 12 best friends, and telling people that He has (or IS) the key to the Kingdom that they have been waiting for. So Passover is coming up and He tells two of His friends to go pick up this random donkey off the side of the road and bring it to Him. He knows that the religous guys in Jerusalem are pissed at Him, but that doesn't seem to matter. He, who has been telling all the peeps that He is this King of a long awaited kingdom, gets on the back of a donkey and starts His "triumphant entry". Now this whole thing reminds me of that scene in Aladin (yes, I am refering to the Disney movie). Remember when Aladin comes into town as a "prince", and the whole show is over the top extravagant. Like the animals and the dancers and the colors and everyone was so impressed by this guy because of all the hoop la over Him.
Now, imagine the people who came see Jesus. I am sure they had heard their friends talking about this rabbi. Word had gotten around that this Jesus guy was something else. And the people wanted to believe that Jesus really was their new king. But imagine them seeing their new king, maybe expecting something that looks like Aladins entrance, and all they got was a donkey. Now, I think this would be a good time remind ourselves that Jesus told His disciples that they had to be like little kids to get into His kingdom. So what do little kids do when they see someone they truly believe is important? They get pretty excited (and hopefully not too excited and pee in their pants). So these people with the faith of children, decided that it didn't matter that this guy who claimed to be king came into town on a donkey. So what if he didn't have dancers and a band in front of him? So what if nothing about His entrance seemed like a royal entrance, they would make it seem it a royal entrancee. They grabbed the palms from the trees they were standing next to and started waving them.
How beautiful to see that faith can help us see past appearances. I am trying to remember just how radical the Gospel is. My cold heart has heard it so many times that it refuses to really be taken in awe of the majesty of my Lord during this time. So family, friends, and random people who somehow stumble on this blog, remeber that Jesus did not seem like the glorious King, and our kingdom is not one of stone and bronze, but of love and grace, peace and mercy. And maybe try to remember what all of the stuff that we celebrate really means. It's not just a holiday for plastic colored eggs with candy in them.

Comments

Anonymous said…
well said becka well said.
is it not ironic that a week later the same pslam bearers would say "crucify him!" i agree, jesus was(is) definantly a rebel, indeed the gospels..quite radical, what so you of all these people coming up with counter ideas about the Passion and life of Christ..sensationalizing it in books and so forth?

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