EASTER 2020

Palm Sunday 2020 – no hymns sung together and no palm crosses to take home.

But there is a good idea from our Catholic friends, that we could cut a small branch of greenery and place it in a window, as a reminder of Palm Sunday. Or maybe you have a palm cross from a previous year.

And what is Palm Sunday? It is when Christians remember Jesus riding into Jerusalem, seated on a donkey, a humble animal in contrast to a military war-horse, and a symbol of God’s peace, mercy and justice which he was showing to people. The crowds got excited and cut branches to throw on the dusty road in front of him. Hosanna – Praise God – they shouted. Blessed is the one who comes in the name of God.

Of course there were very different shouts soon after, when crowds were howling at the Roman Governor that the man Jesus should be crucified. I used to think that those two crowds were same, that the mood of the crowd had swung right round and turned violently ugly. I’m not so sure now. Perhaps some of the people were the same ones praising then screaming for the death sentence. But I suspect there were always some who hated the idea of their own power and certainties being challenged and could whip up their own mob. And there were always people who could see God at work in the rabbi Jesus, who grieved at the sight of seeing him crucified. What do you think?

With prayer and blessing for this coming Holy Week as we live through Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. We have much to pray for, a world of nations groaning together, lives in danger, and some who are grieving the deaths of loved ones. We do have the promise that God suffers beside us, and does not abandon us, as we hear again the stories of Holy Week and Easter.

Revd Stephen Lewis

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