Palm Sunday

Today is Palm Sunday, which marks the beginning of Holy Week, the most solemn week of the Christian calendar. Palm Sunday is also known as "The Entry of the Lord in Jerusalem" because it marks the day that Jesus triumphantly entered Jerusalem with people welcoming him by waving palm leaves. Ironically, within a couple of days, the same people who welcomed him in would be calling for his execution.

In the church bulletin today, Paul Kahn wrote a thought provoking piece about the symbolism of the palms which hadn't crossed my mind before, especially since the ceremonial aspect of Ash Wednesday was something I only got recently acquainted with:

"... However the very thing that first got me excited about every Sunday before Easter - those palm fronds - was something I never much considered. They were just a prop in the Bible account, like they were just a prop for me as a child on a yearly Sunday of fun. That all changed on a Good Friday night, three years ago. Not only did I learn then that the fronds from Palm Sunday were saved to be burned (their ashes used during the following year's Ash Wednesday service), but Pastor Dave volunteered me to help him with this very task just before that night's service. Outside Highrock's previous church building, I discovered just how hard it was to burn those dried out, year-old palm frond. Inside a metal pan, they insisted on smoldering instead of burning, and produced lots of smoke but little ash...

"We eventually got enough of those dessicated leaves to burn, and collected just enough for the evening. But that incident always struck me, and not just because of the randomness of that night. Twice every year, on Ash Wednesday and Palm Sunday, I think about the palm fronds' year-long wait from the celebration of Palm Sunday to their being reduced to ashes. For me, it brings to mind the waiting in Jesus' own life, between His celebrated, angel-heralded, star resplendent birth, and the start of His ministry, thirty years later; one which culminated in His death on a cross..."