Sharing Love, Seeking Justice: Palm Sunday

April 13, 2025

Welcome to our 2025 series of Holy Week devotionals, a gift from New Brunswick Theological Seminary, eight days of devotions leading to the Feast of the Resurrection.

Palm Sunday

The Eastern and Western Gates to Jerusalem

Jesus and his followers came up to Jerusalem from Jericho, and so would have entered the eastern gate of the city. Pontius Pilate would have come up from Caesarea Phillipi with a contingent of troops to enforce peace in Jerusalem during the Passover, entering by the western gate.

Jesus went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.

When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, saying, “Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it.’ ” So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” They said, “The Lord needs it.” Then they brought it to Jesus, and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. Now as he was approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying,

“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!
Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!”

Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.” _{Luke 19:28b-40, NRSV}

Out of the west came Pilate
on horseback, flags unfurled,
to hold Rome’s power inviolate,
unchallenged in the world.
He came to keep things peaceful,
preserve the status quo,
to keep the locals mindful
of how life ought to go.

The eastern gate met Jesus,
upon a donkey’s back
to show he meant to save us
(a calculated act!).
The peace he brought subverted
the status of this place
where God had been abandoned
in favor of false truce.

With Pilate came foundations,
accountable and sure,
to make these messy nations
one empire, stable, pure.
Authority brought order,
unquestioned, quick, and clear,
each well-seen, well-known border
enforced by gold and spear.

But Jesus knew true concord
was oneness with God’s will
and wept, for we could be more
than what we buy and sell.
A riot in the Temple,
creative disarray,
was proof that he brought trouble:
this rebel had to die.

What convoy might we follow?
Are strength and certainty
the qualities we value?
Or would we dare to try
the path of brave surrender,
sedition siring loss
when we share Christ’s meek splendor
by taking up our cross?

Prayer:
Help us, O God, to follow the way of Jesus,
the way that challenges the brutal certainty of the world,
that rejects oppressive safety for brave surrender.
Walk with us through this Holy Week
as we seek the way of your cross in all of life.