Throwing Branches

Blessed New Calendar Palm Sunday, the time when we commemorate Christ’s triumphant entrance into Jerusalem, declaring his role as Messiah and King by calling out “Hosannah to the Son of David! Blessed is He Who comes in the Name of the Lord!”
Christ defeated the materialistic and secular expectations of power and violence, and overturned the self-aggrandizing and self-prioritizing expectations of religious people, and undermined the laziness and sinfulness of the common man. Instead, He came and offered Himself up as a sacrifice for the sins of the world, and in so doing, He purchased our salvation and eternal life!
We join with the people of Jerusalem crying out praises to Jesus, but knowing what to expect in Holy Week, as Christ institutes the Last Supper, goes to the Garden to pray “Not my will but Thine be done,” and is lifted up onto the Cross, to declare His love for the world, and make death into a pathway for new life. He embraced Kenosis, self-emptying, and we embrace it with Him this week.
We will wait with him this week, die with Him this week, and rise again with Him on Saturday night/Sunday morning, proclaiming the most powerful words ever spoken to all humankind - “Christ is Risen! Truly, He is Risen!”