Journey towards the cross

​This past Sunday we began a journey towards the cross and then onto the resurrection. In this week we praise, break bread, wash feet, make promises, and then break those promises. We deny, betray, condemn, abandon, grieve, despair, disbelieve, and celebrate. All in this week called Holy.  

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If we are not careful, we can take the celebration of today, the palm waving and such, the triumphant we are told about, and then skip those other days of Holy Week. We can go from the praise of one Sunday to praise of the next.  

We can skip Maundy Thursday, where Jesus shows once again what love looks like. We can skip the pain and passion of Good Friday as we hear about the crucifixion of Jesus.  

And dare I say that we don’t always like those days. So, I invite you to carve out the time to experience this Holy Week.  

Like many of you, I grew up celebrating Palm Sunday with loud, festive processions. As a child, I carried palm branches down the center aisle of my church as we sang, "All Glory, Laud, and Honor” with everyone in the congregation and shouted “Hosanna.”   

No one ever really explained to me what Hosanna meant. Hosanna was a churchy word and I just thought that it was some church word that meant “You’re awesome!” or “We love you!”  

In Hebrew, it means something far less festive. It means, “Save now!” As in, “Lord, we’re desperate. We’re frantic. We’re in trouble. Our praise is steeped in need, want, loss, and lack. 

Hosanna, Jesus. Save us. Save us now.” 

It changes the cries of the people from cries of triumph and conquering to cries of desperation.  

“Hosanna! 

Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! 
Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! 
Hosanna in the highest heaven!” 

Save Us… Save us Now…  

If you resonate with this plea as we come to the end of Lent, may I offer a word of reassurance? It’s okay. All of this -- all of this authentic hope wrapped in all of this honest fear -- is okay.   

It is what Holy Week is about. If the Palm Sunday story is about anything, it is about dazzling hopes and disappointed expectations. It’s a story about what happens when the God we want and think we know doesn’t show up, and another God — a less efficient, less aggressive, far less muscular God — shows up instead, and saves us in ways we didn’t know were even possible. 

Welcome to Holy Week. Here we are, and here is our God. Here are our hosannas, broken and earnest, hopeful and hungry. Here is all that is unbearable, and all that promises to end better than we can imagine.   

Blessed is the One who comes to die so that we will live.  

Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest. 

Peace, 
Travis Segar
​Pastor for Care and Community