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Palm Sunday…

Writer's picture: Justin Scoggins, Th.D.Justin Scoggins, Th.D.

An odd name. Really. We have a precession of lambs into the city of Jerusalem for Holy Week and then Jesus on a donkey at the end.

The crowd shouts “Hosanna!” And lays the palms down as he approaches. Palms have been found on coins to commemorate Judah the Hammer’s revolt against Antiochus Epiphanes. The coats were for the poop. At best, this is the celebration of the supposed revolutionary warlord taking on the revolt against the Romans. The palms are laid to signify such a thing.

But he rides on…right in front of the priest who is there to pick out the Paschal lamb. The one that would be the most perfect and spotless for the sacrifice and atonement of a nation. Then, here comes Jesus. Riding sideways, feet dragging the ground…almost sarcastically. He is saying, rather emphatically, that I am that very Lamb. The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. I can imagine the disdain he received from the Pharisees.

He does something surprising at the end…he turns towards the city and weeps. “If you only knew the things that make for peace…because you didn’t recognize God coming to you.” The humanness of this moment gives us a sense of his solidarity with creation and a people that he loves deeply and dearly. It is a very real human emotion that God shows.

If we only knew…2000 some years later we still don’t know. But in his grace and mercy, he visits us time and time again. He’ll continue to do so because that’s what love does in spite of our failures and faults…He keeps riding in with unassuming fashion hoping that now we know.

Icon by OLEKSANDR ANTONYUK



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Artwork credit: The Last Supper, Sadao Watanabe ,1977

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