Scripture Reflections for Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion
Year C, Lectionary 37
God has taught and shown us that the journey to the cross is full of suffering. In first welcoming Jesus we may show excitement but we may often turn away from Christ the more we follow him. We no longer cheer Jesus but call for him to be crucified. May we pray for the strength to always remain at Christ's side, next to him in Paradise.
Hate feeling lost on Sundays at church? Searching for a better explanation of the Bible than what you hear from your pastor's sermon? Check out the following collection of audio, video, and text commentaries from various Christian experts for a better understanding of today's scripture that deal with: Admit • Change • Community • Covenant • Cross • Death • Division • Donkey • Follow • Forgive • Forgiveness • Gift • Herod • History • Holy • Hope • Humility • Innocent • Journey • Judas • Judgment • Justice • Kingdom • Last Supper • Limit • Mercy • Mob • Palm • Passion • Passover • Persevere • Peter • Presence • Prophecy • Purpose • Rock • Servant • Sin • Speak • Suffering • Trust • Understand • Victory •
“I believe that these, these early Christians they're trying to tell you and me that you are called to carry Christ into the city”
“So Paul's writing to this church at Philippi and what does he do? In one breath he both upholds Jewish monotheism, right, by quoting Isaiah 45 and at the same time makes clear that, implicitly, he doesn't say it, that Jesus is Lord and, who's not lord? Caesar.”
“So the name of Jesus is very powerful, it tells you both who he is and what he's come to do, it reveals his identity and it reveals his mission”
“Humility means to be grounded, to be grounded. God is certainly humbling us at this time and we're called to keep our eyes fixed on that humble Jesus who takes up that cross and embraces it and walks these days that we know lead to victory”
“Sisters and brothers, how many of us have grumbled as we've carried our own crosses?”
“Before you pass your final judgment on Judas remember how we started, he was the trusted treasurer but became a traitor”
“As you take on the sins of the world I know what I deserve but I know even greater your mercy, your goodness, your love”
“Jesus in the very midst of his passion, everything he's about to face, everything he's about to undergo, he's still looking forward beyond the cross to the role Peter is going to play as the chief of the apostles”
“Jesus is proclaiming the kingdom of God and he has made it clear that this kingdom will be established by means of rejection, death, and resurrection”
“Hope is not naive, it does not deny the pain. No, it does not. Hope looks at the mess and says 'I'm going to show up anyway, I'm going to love anyway, I'm going to walk into it anyway.'”
“With confidence and hope, humility and joy, let us join Jesus Christ on his ride into the loving embrace of our victorious God”
“Give everything of darkness, every suffering into the hands of our Lord. Give your whole self, your whole being to him. Breathe out the pain in order to breathe in new life.”
“Which kingdom will you be loyal to? Which king will you follow? And will you follow from Palm Sunday to Holy Thursday to Good Friday? Will you follow him all the way to the hill of Calvary?”
“We are no better than Judas Iscariot when we stand for Jesus in the church and then we step outside we hide our identity”
“The good news on Palm Sunday is that God has not abandoned us”
“And so we're called out of ourselves to take this road with Jesus, to take up the gift of the reign of God we are called to bring, while knowing that there will be murderous opposition to that gift”
“Church, there will be no healing unless each of us learns to forgive everybody that has ever hurt us, talked about us, slander us”
“So we have this exchange, we give up our self and we gain Christ. And when we gain Christ we gain victory over self. And when we gain victory over self, we gain the Kingdom of Heaven.”
