Tuesday 4/12/22

Read Luke 19:28-44; 23:18-23

This week we are at a crossroads: we’ve shouted the “Hosannas” of Palm Sunday, but we know that the “Crucify” of Good Friday is only days away. Praise and palms will give way to pain and passion. This story of our Lord Jesus in this Holy Week invites us to admit the twistedness of our hearts, the fickleness of our decisions, and our tendency to go unthinkingly along with the loudest crowd.

You and I were not there to shout ‘Hosanna,’ and we were not there to shout ‘crucify,’ but we carry both shouts in our hearts. Hosannas ring loud and clear when we proclaim the good news, selflessly care for the poor and the widow, when we forgive, and when we helplessly place ourselves in God’s care. We shout ‘crucify’ in our sin, cowardice, oppression, and our attempts to mold God into our own image.

Thank God that Jesus did not choose between the two crowds, casting lots for precisely whom he would or wouldn’t carry the cross, pour out his blood and empty himself. He doesn’t choose between praise or pain—he receives both. He doesn’t choose between the procession of palms or the passion of the cross—he makes both journeys. God so loved the whole world, and in this act of Jesus, love finds its purest embodiment. Jesus embodies the love of God so that you and I could see it more clearly. We are loved more than we can imagine.

  • Our question today is this—which shout will rise louder from our lives on this day?