Palm Sunday marks the beginning of the celebration of Holy Week. The Gospel of Luke this Sunday describes how Jesus spent his last days here on earth. Palm Sunday is also called Passion Sunday because it remembers the suffering and death of our Lord.
Did Jesus know he was going to die? He did. One biblical scholar proposed that Jesus predicted his own passion, death and resurrection three times during his public ministry. These predictions were not conclusions based on His knowledge of the growing hostility from those who are against his teachings. But Jesus describes in detail his future suffering, death, and resurrection. Jesus knew the divine plan of salvation since he was God. He is both human and divine.
For about a month I worked as a chaplain in the Lung Center of the Philippines. Everyday I encounter patients suffering 4th-stage lung cancer and given only a few months to live. I can only imagine the pain they go through physically and spiritually. What would you do if you know you only have a few days to live?
In celebrating Palm Sunday we are confronted with a paradox - we are filled with joy and sing Hosanna to welcome a king riding on a donkey walking on clothes laid before him by the people and waves of palm leaves over him as he passed through the crowds. But we also know that eventually this road leads to Jesus’ passion - a sorrowful story of rejection, suffering and death. How can this day be filled with both joy and sorrow at the same time?
The reason is that what seems to be Jesus’ defeat is actually a victory - the victory of love. Jesus once said that "A man can have no greater love than to lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13). His death is proof of that love. This is the reason why we use palm leaves today because in Christian art - martyrs are mostly shown holding palm leaves as symbols of victory. Their victory is their death in martyrdom just as the passion of Jesus Christ is his victory. Like the martyrs who are able to rejoice in their suffering, may we be able to rejoice, knowing that we are loved by Christ no matter what, even in the midst of sufferings - this is the beautiful paradox of Palm Sunday.
This Sunday is the beginning of the holiest week of the year, the week we call Holy Week. Two thousand years ago, Jesus was victorious over sin and evil at the first Holy Week. This time Jesus wants us to share in His victory - bring the parts of our lives that need healing and conquering. Jesus wants to come into our lives and into our hearts just us he came into the city of Jerusalem humbly on a donkey.
In the synoptic gospels (Mark, Luke and Matthew), Jesus sends two disciples ahead to get a donkey that had been tied up. Donkeys are not known to be gentle animals. Jesus then rode the donkey into Jerusalem.
The donkey had a purpose in God’s plan. Everything aligned for the donkey and God made sure it has a purpose in Jesus’ life. What seemed to be a simple and meaningless job for an ordinary donkey teaches us some lessons in life:
1. Each one of us was created for a unique purpose in life like the donkey.
2. We need to untie whatever is keeping us and tying us down (guilt, anxiety, pain, loss and addition then God can use us to fulfill our purpose in life.
3. God can use me in many amazing ways even with my imperfections and weaknesses.
4. Whatever the love of God touches - God transforms for the better. Give God the chance.
5. There are some things in our lives we need to untie ourselves from. These things may hold us back from God’s plan for our lives. Then we can be free to live a full and satisfying life.
Jesus is now at the gates of our hearts. Will you allow him to enter? How will you spend your Holy Week? We can spend less time online and more offline in prayer or in communion with others which means we reduce the time we spend bending our heads over our phones and instead look up and see others. Often times these days we are tied to our smartphones, jobs or the pursuit of success.
Let us take the steps in faith like the disciples to untie and let go - for there is nothing that can stop the love of God expressed in the suffering and death of Christ. He wants us to learn to die so that we may truly learn to live.
This Holy Week, let us give Jesus the time and attention he deserves.