Today is a fun day:

• Processional led by the children waving palm branches
• Hymns we love but only sing once a year
• Shouts of Hosanna
• Proclaiming Jesus Lord and King
• Pledging our undying loyalty and devotion 
• Easy for us to fall in line and take our place in the cheering crowd

So much fun in fact that we can lose sight of the deeper meaning and significance of this day

Make no mistake about it: today is an inherently political day

Jesus is riding into Jerusalem is a radical and subversive act

He, as he always has, is holding before the people an alternative way

of living and ordering their lives

A way that is just and equitable for all persons, but especially

for those who have been marginalized, oppressed, and 

victimized by the powerfully exploitative systems and rulers of their day

That is why the people poured into the streets that day

That is why they lined the street not only with palm branches but also

with their own clothes

The people on the street that day saw in Jesus the hopes and dreams of

all their years and the longings of their people for freedom, peace,

and security that had been held in the hearts of their people for so

long. 

Now they think all that is about to come to fruition.

Here comes THEIR king

Here comes the one who will set the people free.

Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna indeed.

On this day, it was pretty safe and risk-free for them to do that.

They were just part of an enthusiastic, excited crowd.

No harm in that.

Again, it was a day filled with hope, anticipation, excitement, celebration, 

and joy

But as soon as there was even the possibility that there would be a price to be paid for taking a stand, watch how quickly they change. As soon as the powers that be saw them and saw how many of them there were, as soon as those same powers began to feel that their power and standing was being threatened, as soon as it was decided that something had to be done to disperse and disempower them, as soon as the crowd began to feel that it was no longer safe for them to hail Jesus as Lord and King, and give him their ultimate allegiance and loyalty, it all began to fall apart.

Once the crowd began to cave into their fears and insecurities it was easy for them to be flipped and for their shouts of Hosanna to be turned to calls to crucify him. And we know what happens after that pivot is made. 

Don’t we?

So what about us? How steadfast and loyal are we? 

How resistant are we to forces that seek to turn us and make us fall in line?

How fast do we hold to what we say are our core values and principles when there is a price to be paid not only for living out of those but simply for proclaiming them?

Let’s look at a few recent examples who dared to hold fast to what they knew to be right despite mounting pressure to do otherwise:

• Politicians who dare to speak out and hold fast to their core values and principles, even when they know that there will be a political price to be paid for it, for some it even means doing so knowing that it will end their political careers. Still they do it.
  
• Doctors who are struggling with how to provide health care, sometimes life saving health care, to patients given the new prohibitions on abortion & limits to providing reproductive care
  
• Clergy who refuse to be bound by unjust, discriminatory policies and extend the full ministry of the church, including weddings, to their LGBTQ+ members and constituents. Some of whom have been put on trial and have been stripped of their ministerial credentials, even for officiating at the services for their own children
• Pastors who dare to preach timely, important messages, KNOWING that there will be those in the congregation, often powerful people in the life of the congregation, who will not want to hear what they have to say and will actively resist and push back
  

In all these cases, and in so many more that I am sure you can all think of, the persons KNEW that there would be a price, often a hefty price, to holding fast to their values and positions, saying what they knew they had to say, and doing what they knew had to be done. They all knew, and they did what they had to do anyway.

The people in the crowd ON THAT DAY may not have known all that was at stake when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey. But Jesus did. In fact, time and time again he tried to warn those closest to him as to what was about to happen. He knew. But he refused to back down or turn away from what lay ahead of him. He may have prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane that the cup be removed from him but nevertheless he was determined to do God’s will no matter the cost.

As you all know I grew up in and spend a lot of time in WI. In fact, I will be retiring there in less than 3 months. There is a saying in WI, first coined by the beloved and renowned Packer coach Vince Lombardi: “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”

Holy week will test and try us. It is a hard week. The going will get tough. And it will demonstrate not just how tough we are but, more importantly, how loyal and faithful to Jesus we truly are. Let’s be honest. This is not a fun week. It is a hard and painful week. One many of us may well prefer to avoid. 

It would be so much easier and more comfortable to just skip this week and go straight from today’s hosannas to Easter’s the Lord is Risen; He is Risen indeed. But that is not what our faith calls on us to do. We are to go with him all the way. Not just when it is easy, comfortable and fun, but when it is challenging, difficult, painful, and hard. That is where the truth of who we really are at our core will be revealed.

This week, let us take our place at the table with Jesus, 

let us kneel and keep watch as he bows down in anguished 

prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, 

let us walk beside him on the Via Dolorosa as he stumbles and falls under 

the weight of the cross he is forced to carry, 

let us stand with the women at the foot of the cross as they bear witness in 

horror and grief to his torture and death. 

On Saturday, when it seems like all hope is gone and the world has gone totally black, even then may we hold fast to our belief in the promise of new life that Jesus came to bring even when, especially when, we do not yet know what this is going to mean for us or for our world.

How tough can we be? How faithful will we be? This week will be the test that will reveal the answers. May we have the courage, fortitude, strength, and faith to stay true to our faith and to go with Jesus all the way.

Amen!