Honoring those who risk their lives on Palm Sunday
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
April 12, 2020
For many Christians, today is Palm Sunday. (Sorry fellow Greeks but ours is next week.)
I spent most of the day thinking about Jesus and wondering what was going on in His mind when He was greeted by the crowd and palms laid down on His path. He knew His time on this earth was almost over and this day would be the turning point.
Matthew 21 New International Version (NIV)
Jesus Comes to Jerusalem as King
8 A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.
9 The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,
“Hosanna to the Son of David!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
10 When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”
11 The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”
Jesus at the Temple
12 Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves.
13 “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’”
14 The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them.
15 But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant.
16 “Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him. “Yes,” replied Jesus, “have you never read,“‘From the lips of children and infants you, Lord, have called forth your praise’?”
Yet knowing what was going to happen to Him, He still reacted with love and compassion. He still did what He could to heal those who needed Him. Nothing about Him changed.
His Love redeemed all of us!
Today we see so much suffering all over the world. No country has been spared from the pandemic. We see greedy people try to make whatever money they can, much like the money changers confronted by Jesus. We see hoards of people taking whatever they can, leaving many to leave with nothing they need. We see crowds of people who want to see an event, even though they can become infected with the virus, spread it out into their own homes and communities.
There is a greater infection among us, and that is when people decide what they want to do is all that should matter to the world. They are special in their own eyes. Everyone else suffering for what they do is someone else's problem. Yet these same people will be the first ones screaming for other people to take care of them.
Today we also see more people acting like Jesus, risking their own lives to save strangers. We see them show compassion and courage. We see people act out of pure love doing whatever they can to make someone else's life better.
Too many times we hear people say that there are no more miracles. We see them all around us everyday when some decide to do what they want for themselves, and others, with the same ability to be selfish, turn around and do selfless acts, no matter what price they may pay...even if it costs them their own life.
