Good Palm Sunday Morning,
Palm Sunday begins Holy Week with celebration and great rejoicing. As we know, “they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” John 12:13. And as we also know, as Holy Week progressed on, however, the festivities waned and the mood turned a bit dreadful. The end of the Holy Week reminds of us of when Jesus was betrayed, abandoned, arrested, and sacrificed on the cross . . . but, hang on, it gets better . . . much better . . . and yes, I know that you know that . . . sure as Annie told us that “the sun will come out tomorrow” . . . Easter will follow the difficult days of the latter part of Holy Week (like it has done so for more than 2,000 years).
To me, Holy Week is an illustration of life. It can be applied to an entire life, for example - we celebrate our birth, we go through life and have good times and struggles, eventually our life here on earth will end, but then, thereafter we receive eternal life.
You can also apply it to much shorter portions of your life, for example, say (at least for me) this last January 23rd. On that day, I woke to a beautiful layer of fresh snow, we headed to the mountains and had a good day, but it was not all wonderful . . . the high temperature was just 1 degree, by the end of the day we were quite cold and worn out and we then had what turned out to be a 4+ hour drive home, but when we arrived home, dinner was waiting, there was a warm shower, and eventually a comfortable bed.
My point being, the lesson of Holy Week (well, maybe not “the” lesson, but one of the lessons) is that we will never be forsaken by God. If your day, month, or week (and yes, this past week has been an exceedingly difficult week) is not going the way you would have designed it, hang in there. I’m not suggesting that you forget the past, but I’m suggesting that you focus on the day at hand and the tomorrow to come.
My apologies for those that were hoping for a bit more levity in this message . . . the week we had, and the Holy Week ahead, do not lend themselves to such but do not despair . . . for in the immortal words of our dear friend Arnold – “I’ll be back.”
Until then, pour yourself a cup of coffee, sit back, relax . . . think about today, the future and experiencing them both with God at your side . . . and then take solace in knowing that the Lord has made this day; may you rejoice and be glad in it.
Jeff Bergstrom
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P.P.S. And I do want to leave you with some good news. Enough time has now passed to know the truth, and since I’m still here, apparently Phil was wrong.
