Holy Week 2016 - The Cost of the Day – Opening Thoughts

Greetings Dear Reader,

It is Palm Sunday.  We celebrate the day that Jesus made his triumphant entry into Jerusalem.   I plan to view Holy Week this year recounting the cost of the day for Jesus.  We do not ponder this enough.  At least I know that I do not.  

We view Palm Sunday as a day of celebration.  Jesus rides into Jerusalem to celebration and praise.  Thousands of people cheer him.  The religious rulers insist that this is dangerous.  The crowd calls him blessed and verifies that he comes in the name of the Lord.  They call him King.  They worship him.

This all looks so amazing in the moment.  The problem is that they have it backwards.  They will make him king IF he will defeat their enemies.  Jesus message is that they must accept him as king for their enemies to be defeated.  They could have done so.

Jesus knows differently.   He knows he rides into the city to die.  The cost of the day for him is that he is being lauded for the wrong reasons.  He created everyone there and they do not see him clearly or really hear his message.  They want to use him to get what they think is their right. 

We need to see Jesus in this moment as one willing to ride to his death for all of us.  The only triumph about this day is that we catch a glimpse of how it should be.  The cost of the day is the understanding that we should not celebrate the entry but prepare our hearts and minds for the horror to come. 

Time is full.  Since a birth in a cattle shed some three decades ago all of creation has waited.  In seven days the glass will be turned again and things will resume their march toward the real triumphal entry.  For now, however, we have a very difficult week to get through.  Please walk with me Dear Reader.  All of creation hangs in the balance.

Hosanna – Andrew Lloyd Webber

CROWD:

Hosanna

Hey Sanna Sanna Sanna Hosanna

Hey Sanna Hosanna

Hey JC, JC won't you smile at me?

Sanna Hosanna

Hey Superstar

CAIAPHAS:

Tell the rabble to be quiet, we anticipate a riot.

This common crowd, is much too loud.

Tell the mob who sing your song that they are fools and they are wrong.

They are a curse. They should disperse.

CROWD:

Hosanna

Hey Sanna Sanna Sanna Hosanna

Hey Sanna Hosanna

Hey JC, JC you're alright by me

Sanna Hosanna

Hey Superstar

JESUS:

Why waste your breath moaning at the crowd?

Nothing can be done to stop the shouting.

If every tongue were stilled

The noise would still continue.

The rocks and stone themselves would start to sing:

CROWD AND JESUS:

Hosanna

Hey Sanna Sanna Sanna Hosanna

Hey Sanna Hosanna

CROWD (alone):

Hey JC, JC won't you fight for me?

Sanna Hosanna Hey Superstar

JESUS:

Sing me your songs,

But not for me alone.

Sing out for yourselves,

For you are bless-ed.

There is not one of you

Who can not win the kingdom.

The slow, the suffering,

The quick, the dead.

CROWD and JESUS:

Hosanna

Hey Sanna Sanna Sanna Hosanna

Hey Sanna Hosanna

CROWD (alone):

Hey JC, JC won't you die for me?

Sanna Hosanna Hey Superstar

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

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