For we have the living Word of God, which is full of energy, like a two-mouthed sword. It will even penetrate to the very core of our being where soul and spirit, bone and marrow meet! It interprets and reveals the true thoughts and secret motives of our hearts. (Hebrews 4:12 TPT)
I’ve read these Holy Week scriptures so many times: I’ve studied them, written plays, created worship services, and I’m having trouble hearing anything new from God. It’s not that the Bible is boring; it is, after all, alive and full of energy! But today I’m having trouble finding the “highlight” of the Spirit.
After Jesus gives instructions to his disciples, he rides into Jerusalem on a donkey on a road covered with the crowd’s coats and palm branches. Check. Riding on donkey.
The crowd around him praised him because of all they had seen, shouting repeatedly their praises. Check. Crowd shouting praises.
The religious leaders told Jesus to order his followers to stop saying these things, and Jesus responded that if the people didn’t praise him then the rocks would cry out in praise. Check. Threat of crying rocks.
But if we read farther, the parts of Palm Sunday we usually focus on – high praise of Jesus – meld quickly into a harder place.
When Jesus caught sight of the city, he burst into tears with uncontrollable weeping over Jerusalem, saying, “If only you could recognize that this day peace is within your reach! But you cannot see it. For the day is soon coming when your enemies will surround you, hem you in on every side, and lay siege to you. They will crush you to pieces, and your children too! And they will leave your city totally destroyed. Since you would not recognize God’s day of visitation, you will see your day of devastation!” (Luke 19:41-44 TPT)
How fast the mood changed!
Now Jesus is weeping uncontrollably over the people who cannot see what he offers. He knows that the Romans will crush and destroy the Jews in just a few decades. He warns them about the day of devastation that is coming because they don’t recognize the day of visitation that is upon them. He laments their inability to recognize that Peace would be within their reach, if only they could – would – see it.
This isn’t a side of Palm Sunday that is easy to check off.
Do we, like Jesus, see the persons around us who do not yet know the Peace he offers? Do we lament for their blindness and eventual destruction if they do not recognize him as Savior? Do we try to help them see God’s Truth and avoid that devastation?
Worse yet, are we as moody as this crowd? Do we give high praise when it looks and feels good, and then turn our backs on Jesus, as the crowd did at his trial on Friday – “Crucify him, crucify him!”?
If the Living Word of God “interprets and reveals the true thoughts and secret motives of our hearts,” then Jesus knew what this crowd would do. He knew what his disciples would do during his trial and crucifixion. He knew the secret motive of every heart, and the true thoughts of every person. There’s no hiding.
Despite knowing all our double-mindedness, our weakness, our tendency to follow the crowd into harmful places, our failure to keep promises, and every other aspect of what it means to be human in this sin-filled world—into all of that, Jesus came. He healed, he taught, and he ministered to people. That is what Love looks like. That is what Mercy looks like. That is what Grace looks like.
Marvelous grace of our loving Lord,
Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt,
Yonder on Calvary’s mount outpoured,
There where the blood of the Lamb was spilled.
Sin and despair, like the sea waves cold,
Threaten the soul with infinite loss;
Grace that is greater, yes, grace untold,
Points to the refuge, the mighty cross.
Grace, grace, God’s grace,
Grace that will pardon and cleanse within;
Grace, grace, God’s grace,
Grace that is greater than all our sin.*
Jesus,
This Holy Week we are grateful for the path of death you took in order to give us life. Help us know your grace that pardons, cleanses, and is greater than all our sin. May this week not be simply going through the motions or checking off the boxes, but may we experience the fullness of the Abundant Life you call us to. Help us to share this Good News with all those around us, we ask in Jesus’s name, AMEN.
“Grace Greater Than Our Sin” by Julia H. Johnston (1910)