A Prayer for Palm Sunday
Written by Nicola Colhoun. Presented originally at our Palm Sunday service but just too good to not post here for those who may have missed it.
Dear Jesus,
Matthew says that before you entered Jerusalem, you gave sight to two blind men and they followed you. They followed you right to this bizarre impromptu parade. It must have been a strange and beautiful thing to witness - all those people gathered along the road to see you and cheer for you, singing bits of a Psalm and throwing branches and cloaks on the ground. This crowd had seen and heard of you before - healings, miracles, words that seemed breathed by the Divine. They wanted to claim you as theirs - their King, the One who came to them from God. We want to do the same. And like them, we don’t quite get it.
Their songs and the road of branches they made for you, that you wouldn’t touch the ground that you yourself had made, they were exuberant and a little awkward and misguided. But you redeemed them. You rode on a donkey, and wept over the city and the blindness of those who wanted to follow you. And when the religious leaders told you to quiet the crowd, you told them that the rocks would cry out. Creation was bursting with You - who you are and what you were about to do. But you let people try to find the words, even the wrong ones.
When you were born, the angels announced peace on earth. When you came to die the people thought they could announce peace in heaven.
Forgive us when we miss what you are doing, when we put our own words in front of yours. Redeem our efforts as you did then. And help us, always, to rejoice in your presence as those people did on the road so many years ago. And, even though your crown doesn’t look anything like we think it should, let us greet you as our King.
Amen