Passion Week Begins

Today is Palm Sunday which marks the beginning of Passion Week. Today we commemorate Jesus’ triumphal, yet humble, entry into Jerusalem. Today we join the ancient multitudes by waving our palm branches and raising our voices with shouts of, “Hosanna to the Son of David; Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord’ Hosanna in the highest!” Today is a day of celebration!

But how quickly celebration shifts to crucifixion. Before the reverb of “Hosanna” had gone silent, our Lord was betrayed, arrested, denied, and tried on unfounded charges. Victorious shouts of “Hosanna” became violent cries of “Crucify Him” and Jesus was mocked, severely beaten, and nailed to a wooden cross—a Roman method of capital punishment for the vilest of criminals. The scene brings to mind Billie Holiday’s lyrics, “Southern trees bear strange fruit. Blood on the leaves and blood at the root. Black bodies swinging in the Southern breeze. Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

While I know that we see life with a Post-Resurrection view, I would invite all of us to sit in the strangeness of the crucifixion—Jesus’ broken and bruised body. Allow yourself to feel the weight of Friday—the confusion, despair, and hopelessness of the moment—with the recognition that no one took Jesus’ life, but that all He endured, He did for you and for me.

In Christ’s Love,

Pastor Donna Owusu-Ansah