Palm Sunday Reflections (shared during the reading of the Passion)

REFLECTION 1 – before Prayer of the Day

Please be seated.  But keep a hold of your palm branch.

I invite you really to examine your palm.  Look at its colors – the pale yellow, the bright green.  Palms are the color of hope.  And smell your palm.  It has the faint odor of spring, of freshness – the smell of optimism and promise.  When the people greeted Jesus with palm branches, they were filled with joy for they believed Jesus was God’s promised king who would bring freshness and renewal to their country and to their lives.  Reflect upon your palm branch . . . and let yourselves be filled with hope.

The cheer of the crowd (and the word we, too, have just uttered) was Hosanna. It was a word of praise, and also a word of supplication.  It means “God save us.”  God save us from violence.  God save us from bloodshed.  God save us from ill health.  God save us from misfortune.  God save us from our enemies.  God save us.  And in that moment, as Jesus passed by, I imagine that it felt like everything was going to be okay.   I imagine that they believed that God had things under control and that everything was going to be okay.

As people of faith, we, too, believe that everything will be okay.  Hold onto that hope.  And keep holding onto your palm – that emblem of hope – hold onto your palm as we begin to move through our worship.  Because the mood of the story which we remember this day quickly turns from joyful anticipation to the realities of suffering and death.  So hold onto your palm.

REFLECTION 2 – after prediction of betrayal

Are you still holding your palm?  Examine it once more.  Remember the feelings of joy and triumph that had coursed through the disciples’ veins just four days earlier on Palm Sunday.  I wonder:  were the disciples still feeling all that adrenaline as they sat down with Jesus for the Passover meal.  I imagine they were, especially since the Passover was also a joyful celebration of the way God had saved God’s people in the past. 

But when, at the celebration meal, Jesus began to speak of his betrayal, a shadow fell over the room, and the joy turned to confusion.  Imagine how that must have felt.  I invite you to put your palm branch on the floor.  Our time for rejoicing has come to an end.

REFLECTION 3 – after praying in the garden

Jesus’ betrayer was at hand.  The time of suffering had come.  Receive now the symbol of his suffering, and hold onto it as we tell the rest of this story.  (Pass nails.)

REFLECTION 4 – after Pilate hands Jesus over to be crucified

I invite you to examine your nail.  Look at its color – the dull gray of disappointment.  Smell the nail.  It has a hard, metallic smell.  Grip the nail tightly, in disappointment, because the one we thought was our king is not what we expected at all.  The one we thought was our Savior seems nothing but a poor, beaten down, helpless man.  Squeeze the nail more tightly – he hasn’t saved us from anything.  He doesn’t even seem able to save himself.  Clench your hand even more tightly.  Feel the hardness of your anger.  From this vantage point, it is easier to understand how the crowd could have shouted, “Let him be crucified.”

Keep holding your nail.  Let it represent all the disappointment you have ever felt, all the anger that has ever raged within you, all the pain you have experienced, or perhaps are experiencing in this moment.  Feel the nail.  Feel your feelings as we continue the story.

SILENCE – at the death of Jesus.

Put down your nail.  Let your hand be empty.  And sit, for a few moments, in that void.

REFLECTION – at end of Passion

“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, assuming human likeness.  And being found in appearance as a human, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross.

“Therefore God exalted him even more highly and gave him the name that is above every other name, so that at the name given to Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Let us confess, with our tongues, that Jesus Christ is Lord.  Please stand, as you are able, to sing our hymn.