This Sunday is either called Palm Sunday or Passion Sunday or Palm/Passion Sunday, depending on the traditions of your church. It's a very special time in the church, a time when the final week of Jesus' life on earth is highlighted, if not celebrated.
So why the differences in what the Sunday is called? Well, it's not so much that they are called different things, it's that they really are celebrations of different things.
Palm Sunday celebrates Jesus' final, and most triumphant, entrance into Jerusalem. He is being hailed as the Messiah, the one whom all of the Jews have been waiting for throughout their long, albeit troubled history. The Jewish people have been waiting centuries for the return of the one who would free them from the oppression they have been living in since, well, since the days of Moses. This Jesus, with all the stories they have heard of his healing touch and his ability to amass crowds of people, must be that Messiah.
Passion Sunday celebrates the final moments of Jesus life, the moments in which he was betrayed, arrested, put on trial, tortured, beaten, and finally put to death. This is a part of Jesus' life when we see just how far his love goes. These are the moments we are to finally and fully understand what it means to live and die for a love greater than no other.
This week I'll do my best to touch on both. I'll be taking the Psalm and the New Testament readings for both the Palms and the Passion and give you what I think they are saying to me. Tomorrow and Wednesday will be a focus on the Palms, Thursday and Friday will be for the Passion. I won't be posting anything next week, instead taking the time to more fully pray and prepare for the Easter weekend.
I hope you'll join me on this final Lenten journey for me in this place until Easter.
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