Do Not Lose Heart – Celebrate

Holy week begins on Palm Sunday. Recently, the church has started to refer to this day as Palm/Passion Sunday instead of just Palm Sunday.

On Palm Sunday, we enjoy the waving palm branches and the songs of praise as Jesus enters Jerusalem. The following Sunday, Easter, we sing the most joyful songs of the church.

However if we are not mindful, we can entirely miss the struggle and desolation that takes place between those two Sundays, and it is very easy to miss that pause as we hide Easter eggs and prepare for Easter dinner.

Easter shines most brightly in contrast to the darkness. So we end Palm Sunday with a reminder of what will happen between now and Easter.

The pace of events picks up, the destination seem more and more inevitable. The crowds that sang “Hosanna” are chanting “crucify]” by the end of the week. We remember though, that for Jesus this moment has always been not the end, but the goal of his ministry, and it has always been freely chosen.

The struggle is real, but so is God’s love for us, which is the source and the motivation for this stunning end and beginning.

• Palm Sunday: Jesus enters Jerusalem on a donkey, welcomed by crowds with palm branches, commemorating his Messianic entry.
• Maundy Thursday (Holy Thursday): Jesus shares the Last Supper, washes his disciples’ feet, institutes the Eucharist, and suffers in the Garden of Gethsemane before his arrest.
• Good Friday: Jesus is tried, sentenced to death, crucified, and buried, marking his sacrifice.
• Easter Sunday: Jesus rises from the dead, proving his divinity and victory over death. 
  
   

Prayer
Lord, as I receive the ashes, teach me humility without despair, repentance without fear, and hope without presumption. Create in me a clean heart. Turn my wandering back to You. And as I walk the Lenten road, shape my dust into something that reflects Your glory. Amen.