PASSION AND PRAISE: PALM SUNDAY REFLECTION

PASSION AND PRAISE

Passion is derived from the word that means “suffer.” As we reflect upon the significance of Palm Sunday during the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, we do so with excitement, praise, anticipation, and renewed hope. While our hearts and minds are catapulted into spheres of joy, praise, and pregnant expectation, they must also be tempered by imminence of the clandestine presence of suffering that resides within the corridors and shadows of praise, not for the purpose of suppressing our joy, but to remind us that where there is no cross, there is no crown.

While the masses gathered to welcome Jesus, many had no inherent idea what he was really about. Many had hoped that he was the Messiah, which in their minds meant a political leader, who would bring salvation from political and societal oppression and debauchery, and overthrow the Roman aristocracy. After all, Jesus had raised the dead and performed many miracles recorded and not recorded, thus, the populous assumed that Jesus would restore the kingdom of David and free them from Roman rule.

While there was veracity in the hopes, expectations, and dreams of the masses, many had misunderstood, fallen short of comprehending, and recklessly overlooked that the necessity of the fulfillment of The Passion of Jesus Christ of which Psalm Sunday was the precursor; i.e., suffering would still unfold before authentic praise would be perfected and fulfilled. For we know that “God moves in mysterious ways his wonders to perform” and the word of God reminds us “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord, For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9.

In essence, the plan of God was operative on a higher plane not yet understood by the hearts of men and women. Regarding the manifestation of perfected praise, perfected praise is a profoundly deeply-rooted honor and reverence of thanksgiving that Believers lift up to God, who has saved and blessed them by his grace through the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Perfected praise is also birthed by purification through the fire of trials where joy and peace are the Believers’ companion where hopelessness and despair should otherwise reside.  

Thus, while Believers, Witness Bearers of The Faith, must approach Palm Sunday with joy and shouting “Hosanna,” which means “save now,” we must also do so with a sober reverence to God because within “The Cup” that overflowed with praises bestowed upon Jesus, were bitter dregs of suffering of which Jesus was aware. In essence, while the focus of the masses was on the material world, the focus of Jesus was on a mission of a higher call and vastly more enormous than one place and one time, for it was a mission that would transform all that was, all that is, and all that shall be! Glory to God in The Highest!!! God is the Alpha and the Omega and within the Passion of Jesus, “the Beginning and the End” were reconciling themselves that the excellency of Christ would be made manifest!

Importantly and ironically, the masses who shouted Hosanna during the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, were comprised of the same masses who displayed the fickleness of the human heart just a few days later in their angry and insulting vulgarities and chants requests to Pilate to “Crucify Him!” This dynamic causes the Believer to keep ever present the question that Jesus proposed when he stated, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Mark 8:36. Place not your hope and faith in accolades of men and women, but God Almighty Beloved of God! An important point to mention here to us as believers is that we must resist the temptation to place God in a box as well! The Lord is doing a new thing!!! Just as Jesus was not finished with the plan of God during his triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, God is not finished with you yet nor his plans for your life Beloved of God! Keep the Faith and continue to press forward to the mark of the high calling in Jesus Christ!

While our eyes are fixed on Easter morning and the joyous outpouring of grace and gratitude that was is manifested through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, let us not forget the rough and rocky precipice that Jesus took and that we must take to get there. Christian Lyric Writer, Jennie E. Hussey, echoed these sentiments in a hymn that she penned in 1921, “Lead Me To Calvary.”

Lead Me To Calvary

King of my life, I crown Thee now,         Thine shall the glory be;         Lest I forget Thy thorn-crowned brow,         Lead me to Calvary. Refrain: Lest I forget Gethsemane, Lest I forget Thine agony; Lest I forget Thy love for me, Lead me to Calvary. Show me the tomb where Thou wast laid, Tenderly mourned and wept; Angels in robes of light arrayed Guarded Thee whilst Thou slept. Let me like Mary, through the gloom, Come with a gift to Thee; Show to me now the empty tomb, Lead me to Calvary. May I be willing, Lord, to bear Daily my cross for Thee; Even Thy cup of grief to share, Thou hast borne all for me.

Be Blessed

Reverend K. Mason

(c) 2017
For your convenience, all of the links to Plethora Ministries sites are listed below.
All you are required to do is "click" and be blessed!
Please pass this on family members, friends, co-workers, and other travelers on their journey to spiritual integration and wholeness.
BlessingsPlethora Ministries
Plethora Ministries

Click here for Web log
Page contains additional reflections not sent via mail and pictures
Comments may be entered in any entry of your choice

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/i/t/i/itiswell.htm

Click here for "IT IS WELL" Musical Midi
plethoraministries@yahoo.com
Plethora Ministries

Please feel free to write Plethora Ministries with your comments:
plethoraministries@yahoo.com

K.Mason (c) 2017