Catalyst Question
How do you identify the heroes in your life?
Joy Amidst the Sorrow
We’re at a turning point in the season. The long journeys we’ve been on are finally coming to a conclusion, identifying the heroes and champions, as well as the wannabes and villains. Though the wait has been long, we can finally see the finish lines.
This could be about sports. After all, we just wrapped up both the Men’s and Women’s NCAA tournaments, crowning two champions (Florida and UConn, respectively). With few cinderella stories and the top-8 seeds in both Final Fours, these playoffs felt like money and pedigree were the most important factors to victory. Whether you consider the final victors heroes or villains likely depended on your rooting interest before the tournament began.
Of course, that’s not the only season that’s wrapping up. We’re headed through the final days of Lent, into Holy Week, and culminating with Easter. This Sunday’s reading from Luke 19:28-40 shows a different approach to recognizing heroes. Jesus didn’t enter Jerusalem as a top seed, but as a backwater preacher. Yet, peopled hailed his entry. His arrival didn’t require fine chariots pulled by thoroughbred horses, but just a donkey. The crowds didn’t cheer for him because he was the odds-on favorite. These everyday people cheered him because he, too, was an underdog, and they were looking for liberation from oppressive influence of Rome’s money and pedigree.
You see, while we hail Jesus as King on Palm Sunday, we do so in the shadow of Holy Week. Even that first Palm Sunday was a revolutionary moment, because Pontius Pilate was likely arriving to Jerusalem on the other side of town. The simplicity of Jesus entry was a counterbalance to the extravagance of Rome’s arrival. What power do palm fronds have over spears, or peasants over centurions? Yet, in Jesus, the people found the hero they needed, however unlikely he was.
There’s still much more to the story, with a last meal with friends on Maundy Thursday, followed by abandonment by those very same friends before his death on Good Friday. For now, though, take note of how people in real need identify their heroes. Rather than the ones that have all the money to buy allegiance and all the power to force submission, they cheer a man who healed their illnesses and fed their hungry bellies, all while forgiving their faults. That’s the hero that we welcome on Palm Sunday. That is Jesus Christ.
Ask Yourself
It’s fun to root for underdogs, though we often don’t expect them to win. How does the unlikely nature of Jesus’ ultimate victory make you think differently about Palm Sunday?
Ask a Friend
Who are the people in our lives that we’ve written off because they didn’t seem like they had a chance to succeed? How might we reconsider their role given Jesus’ cinderella story?
