By: Erin M Diericx and Pastor Brian Krause
Erin M Diericx says…
I can’t believe it’s Palm Sunday. There are many traditions that come to mind, memories that make me smile, words that are engraved in my memory. I am trying to grasp the fact that it is Palm Sunday; the beginning of Holy Week. My calendar is empty; I do not have to be at church daily; no insane schedule between school and church to juggle with my godson, and honestly it makes me sad since its his first Holy Week as a baptized Christian. There is so much I wanted to shared with him during his first Holy Week. I want to walk with my godson; shouting hosanna, folding the palm into a cross, washing each other’s feet, stripping the alter, praying at the cross, waiting and finally shouting … It all feels a bit disjointed. I still feel as though Lent has been extended for an unknown time period. I just want to escape the wilderness, the chaos; and shout Hosanna.
Pastor Brian Krause says…
It is really hard to be separated from our loved ones right now. This is the time that people would be looking forward to getting together for Easter services, Easter dinner at grandmas house, and those Easter egg hunts. This year, however, those things have been called off for many because of this deadly pandemic. We know that Easter is just a week away, but it hardly feels like there will be an Easter this year.
Erin M Diericx says…
And I sit here wondering if maybe the first Holy Week was just as disjointed. We know there are two groups: 1) Jesus’s followers, and 2) the religious authorities, especially the Pharisees, who want Jesus to be killed. I wonder if there isn’t a third group who do not really know or care who Jesus was; they just happened to be in Jerusalem that week. This year I feel like I am apart of the third group. I mean, how can it be Holy Week in the midst of a pandemic?
But that first Holy Week was not that nice planned out week. It was probably just as chaotic and confusing as of right now. Passover, a Jewish tradition celebrating the Israelites escaping Egypt, is taking place. Hundreds of Jews are making their yearly pilgrimage to Jerusalem to make their yearly sacrifice. The scribes, priests, and the Pharisees are all busy with their plans for Passover, just as we would be, when Jesus comes riding on a donkey and a crowd leads him into Jerusalem throwing down their cloaks and shouting,
“Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
Matthew 21:9 NRSVl
Jesus’s followers are excited to see his entry into Jerusalem. Their king has finally entered their city and has come to set them free.
Pastor Brian Krause says…
We are all looking for someone to set us free, especially now. The people in Jerusalem were looking for someone to set them free. The cry Hosanna is an Aramaic word which means, “Lord, save us.” The people were crying out for God’s salvation and as we cry out Hosanna this year we too are crying out for God to come save the world so full of suffering and death right now.
Erin M Diericx says…
The Pharisees are asking why are people going crazy; throwing their cloaks down for the donkey to trample upon? On top of it Jesus’s followers are calling him Son of David, a king, and the one who comes in the name of the Lord. To the Pharisees, this sounds like blasphemy. It goes against all of their teachings and beliefs. Over the coming week, the Pharisees in Jerusalem will spread rumors about Jesus in order to protect what these individuals think they know to be true. In the coming week, we will learn why the Pharisees want to kill him (Jacobson, et al. 2011).
As Christians, we have the challenge of watching Holy Week unfold. Why would a loving Father send his only begotten Son to experience rejection, betrayal, and a painful death? This Holy Week may be more difficult than we have experienced. Why is God allowing this pandemic? We are living in fear of an unknown enemy; praying that it does not harm our loved ones but knowing no family will escape it either. This Holy Week may feel more like the actual Passion story. We are pleading with God, Hosanna in the highest; Lord, save us; to escape the fate of the pandemic, just as Jesus pleaded with the Father to have his fate changed, but only if it was his will. Now I personally do no think the pandemic is God’s will, but I do think he has a plan to bring order to the chaos, light into the darkness, and eventually heaven will be on earth.
Pastor Brian Krause says…
When I think of what Jesus did on Palm Sunday and Holy Week I think that God showed up for the world in a big way. Can you imagine if your washing machine breaks and you call the manufacturer to get it repaired, and they send out the C.E.O. of the company. That would never happen in our culture, but that is what happened on Palm Sunday and Holy Week. The world was broken by sin, death, and the devil. Who comes to save us, but God in the flesh. The one whom we say in the Nicene Creed, “Through him all things were made.” The one who created Heaven and Earth came to us that first Holy Week to fix what we had broken through our disobedience and sin. That same God is coming to us again today in the midst of this crisis to give us the promise of salvation. We don’t know when this pandemic will end, but we do believe that God has a plan for our world that eventually leads to new creation and eternal life with God.
Erin M Diericx says…
For now, we have to keep our focus on God and how he is working in the world. We have to hang onto the promise of eternal life. We have to shine the light of the world in the darkness. We have to spread the good news of Jesus Christ until he comes back.
Pastor Brian Krause prays…
Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for letting us greet Jesus in Jerusalem with shouts of Hosanna. Help us to share in the enthusiasm of Jesus’s followers and not to jump right to Good Friday, even if it seems to loom over us. Guide us with your light through your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.
Works Cited
Jacobson, Rolf, Karoline Lewis, David Lose, and Matt Skinner. “Brainwave 170: Lectionary Texts for the 17th of April 2011.” Working Preacher. St Paul, March 10, 2011