They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Blessed is the king of Israel!”

John 12:13

Happy Palm Sunday, Friends!

For many, today marks the first day of Holy Week. A week of remembrance and celebration. A week of choir cantatas, church services, communion, Passover reenactments and more.

Between preparing, presenting, and partaking in services, I will be at church 6 of the 7 days between today and Easter Sunday. It is a blessed week but it is also a busy week. A week when I can become so absorbed in what needs done to celebrate God’s saving grace that sometimes I overlook the Savior Himself.

Aware of my tendency to allow busyness to make me miss the Savior, I am reminded of another group of people centuries ago who were too focused on what they saw as needing done, that they too missed the Savior.

Sweet friends, when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on what we now call “Palm Sunday”, the people cried out “Hosanna”, meaning “Save us! Intervene for us!”.

On that day the Israelite people were looking for a physical Savior, a king to overturn Roman rule and return them to a mighty nation. This was how they had interpreted prophecy, and a physical King with an earthly kingdom was the focus of their hope and the source of what they believed would be their salvation.

But dear heart, we know our Lord and Savior came to do so much more than kick the Romans out of the Promised Land! He could have done that with a simple thought had He so wished.

Brothers and Sisters, we know that God had a much bigger plan than overturning a pagan empire.

We know that God sent His Son Jesus to overturn death itself!

We know Jesus came to return us to fellowship with God Almighty!

Beloved, this Palm Sunday, we may not face the same troubles as the people of old, but we are still very much in need of a Savior.

Today, let us cry out:

"Hosanna! 
Save us!
Save us Lord from our daily battle with worldliness!
Intervene for us Lord when our fleshly nature leads us to sin! 
Blessed are you Lord who died once for all, who rose again that we might live abundant and free!"

Have a blessed week dear friends!

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