{"id":12164,"date":"2020-04-05T05:42:21","date_gmt":"2020-04-05T10:42:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=12164"},"modified":"2020-04-05T05:42:31","modified_gmt":"2020-04-05T10:42:31","slug":"not-the-usual-pomp-on-this-palm-sunday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=12164","title":{"rendered":"Not the Usual Pomp on this Palm Sunday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Growing up, I was always so thrilled for the start of Holy Week on Palm Sunday. The readings, the story of the shouts of praise and hosannas, the palms, and the pomp. I loved it because Palm Sunday led to Easter Sunday when I would get to wear my new Easter ensemble. attend the Easter egg hunt in the afternoon and amidst it all — be overjoyed because of the resurrection of Jesus. Up from the grave He arose!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, enters 2020\u2019s Palm Sunday \u2013 one like we would have never imagined. We are confined to our homes. No way we could be a thronging crowd waving our palm branches today! We don\u2019t have a choice. My pastor sent out a message to us that recalled Jesus\u2019 Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem where people cut branches from palm trees, laid them across Jesus\u2019 path and waved them in the air as he entered Jerusalem the week before his death. He went on to tell us that in ancient times palms symbolized goodness, well-being, grandeur, and victory. I like to think they still mean that to us today. My pastor went on to ask us to hang some greenery or a drawing of a palm on the doors of our homes in celebration of this Palm Sunday because we are still proclaiming God\u2019s goodness and victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I had already hung my Easter wreath. This year, I included the picture of Jesus \u2013 Divine Mercy \u2013 that represents the blood and water poured out for us on Calvary \u2013 with the words: \u201cJesus, I trust in You\u201d. That is my way of applying the blood of Jesus on the doorposts of my home for protection as the Israelites did the night the death angel struck all the Egyptians\u2019 homes. I profess that \u201cI am covered by the blood of Jesus, and “no evil shall befall me or plague come near my dwelling.\u201d (Psalm 91:10).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here we are in a set of entirely new circumstances. Today, the crowds were thronging and their cheers were proclaiming \u201cHosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest.\u201d BTW, \u201chosanna\u201d means \u201cSave us now!\u201d Doesn\u2019t that make us want to raise our praises today and shout \u201cHosanna in the highest?\u201d If ever we needed saving — it is today. Not just from this pandemic but saving us from our failures, our doubts, fears, and unbelief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It doesn\u2019t matter if we\u2019re in our churches this Palm Sunday \u2013 processing in and waving our palm branches, or we have a palm branch likeness on our front doors or if we are confined to a prison cell, a hospital room, a tent or a palace, we can stand silent with depths of emotion or shout it from our rooftops — “We praise You and thank You, our Savior and Lord!” I rejoice today because of such love from my Savior. Our Lord is no longer riding a donkey facing a horrific death. He is our risen Lord and Savior, soon coming on a white horse as our King of Kings and Lord of Lords. (Revelation 19:11-16)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let’s symbolically wave our palm branches today — right in the midst of this pandemic crisis — knowing that God is in control. He knows all the things that concern us, disturb us and have disrupted our plans. God knows the things we have dreamed about and are now grieving about as we let them go. He takes all of that into account as He executes His plan in the present moment. All we need to do about it today is proclaim: “Hosanna in the Highest, blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord.” Lord, save us!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Growing up, I was always so thrilled for the start of Holy Week on Palm Sunday. The readings, the story of the shouts of praise and hosannas, the palms, and the pomp. I loved it because Palm Sunday led to Easter Sunday when I would get to wear my new Easter ensemble. attend the Easter…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16989,16988,16987],"tags":[16986,1210,3461,873,3361,8595,3365,16984,16799,15849,859,877,16983,193,16985],"class_list":["post-12164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hosanna","category-palm-branch","category-palm-sunday","tag-blessed-is-he","tag-blog","tag-confined","tag-easter","tag-hosanna","tag-palm-branch","tag-palm-sunday","tag-palms","tag-pandemic","tag-pomp","tag-praise","tag-resurrection","tag-save-us-now","tag-symbol","tag-triumphal-entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12164"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12167,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12164\/revisions\/12167"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}