Not Just Another Palm Sunday Please!

I love doing what I do as a minister. But one thing that seems to weigh me down is the cycle of sacred holidays that we celebrate, yet after a life time of focus and celebration, I think they just might lose their impact. Please don’t get me wrong, but by rote practice we’ve dulled the edges of so many sacred moments that the sacerdotal motions seem nothing more than just a shadow puppet show. Forgive me.

As I approach my active calling for tomorrow, I really don’t want to just have another Palm Sunday, just another day when fronds are passed out and we sing hymns and choruses celebrating the humble yet triumphant entry of Christ into Jerusalem all they while we’re symbolically waving the branches in the air and don’t really know why.

I wonder, if we could actually have another REAL Palm Sunday and usher in something so spectacular that we’d all send Him away, because He disrupted everything that we hold so dear? Oh did I say that? What I meant was we celebrate this event, with little concern over event that followed the morning after. Remember, what came after the ride into town?

The number one reason Jesus came was to provide a portal back to Father God, for anyone who is willing to travel that path. Yet all through history, to include up to this date, we tend to make Kingdom access something profound and difficult, if not impossible. Oh I’m not saying we don’t toss out the weekly altar call so as to garner a few more decisions in the form of notches in our gospel gun handle, but what I’m saying is, Jesus’ zeal for His Father’s House hung upon two very important elements that can easily be missed, on a good and decent Palm Sunday.

Those two elements were PRAYER and ACCESS. That’s right, on the heels of the colt that He road in on, were the scathing swings of His Words or the Words of the Father. For missing in most Palm Sunday parades are the fearful looks of wayward worshipers being put in their place; and the place of the desired being opened by the whipping cords of the Master.

Father God is deeply concerned with PRAYER and ACCESS for any and all who will come to worship Him. And the curious thing about this second cleansing, not unlike the first, was that human obstacles were put in the way of gentiles, women, the handicapped, and worse. That is what TICKED Jesus off with such a degree of indignation, that His very behavior and words were the fulfillment of prophecy.

So what should we be thinking about when we think about Palm Sunday? I believe we should be considering the morning after, when the Master gets about the Father’s Business and SETS ALL THINGS IN ORDER, so as to provide worship access for the least among us. That’s right, forget the palm fronds and clothes tossed on the road, but take note of the violent action taken to MAKE WAY for the least among us. Take note of the fact that Jesus was JUST and when anyone or anything got in the way of the Will of His Father, He was ready to give His very life.

Even if it meant, offending throngs of religious elite. Are you ready for that kind of Palm Sunday celebration? I know I am.

Where’s my whip?