Palm Sunday

Happy Palm Sunday, From John 12:12-19:

The next day the great crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting,

“Hosanna!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord—
the King of Israel!”

Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it; as it is written:

“Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion.
Look, your king is coming,
sitting on a donkey’s colt!”

His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written of him and had been done to him. So the crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to testify. It was also because they heard that he had performed this sign that the crowd went to meet him. The Pharisees then said to one another, “You see, you can do nothing. Look, the world has gone after him!”

"Look, the world has gone after him!" And so it has been, since that day. Whether as followers or critics, this Rabbi from Galilee has touched the entire globe with his message of love of one's neighbor and love of God. And humans have taken the message to heart, have twisted it, have misinterpreted it, have died for it, have killed for it. But the whole world has heard of that message, and of him.

Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest! King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and yet the First is also the Last, and the Lord of All becomes such by being the servant. He arrives not on a palanquin carried by slaves, but as a humble teacher, riding an ass.

The ninth-century Buddhist master Lin Chi is supposed to have said, “If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.” Today, we make a king out of this man who told us to love one another. We raise him up, we put palms at his feet, and proclaim him King. We make an idol of the Man, and say he is God.

In five days, we will take Lin Chi's advice.