Palm Sunday - Just the Beginning for the Easter Person

Today we celebrate Palm Sunday.  It will be the first time I have ever preached on Palm Sunday and I am a little nervous today.  Palm Sunday is a very special day for me...it is the one time of the year that Rhonda B. and I sing the song, "Via Dolorosa".  This year I will sing it three times...today at the Arbor, today at Waverly...and Friday at our Good Friday service.  I love this song...Via Dolorosa if you are not aware of it...is translated as the Way of Suffering/Pain.  So what exactly is Palm Sunday in the Christian world?  Well, it is on this day, Palm Sunday, that  Christians all around the world will celebrate the Triumphal Entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem on a donkey, the week before his death and resurrection. For many Christian churches, Palm Sunday, often referred to as "Passion Sunday," marks the beginning of Holy Week, which concludes on Easter Sunday. The Bible tells us that when Jesus entered Jerusalem, the crowds greeted him with waving palm branches(hence the name Palm Sunday), and by covering his path with palm branches. In church today there will be a procession of the children into the sanctuary/Arbor carrying palm leaves that they will lay at the altar. This is a dramatization that represents the palm leavs that were strewn along the path when Christ, himself, entered the city.  On Palm Sunday, Christ was able to reveal himself as a King and all the people in Jerusalem were given the opportunity to worship him as a King. Immediately following this great time of celebration in the ministry of Jesus, he begins his journey to the cross. This is the beginning of a very challenging process that Christ was going to have to experience.  Christ knew the master plan and knew that he was going to have to die and be raised from the dead...and He began preparing for his work, with no fear, even though he knew the pain would be intense.  I have to pause and say I find it amazing how one man....could go from entering a town and having palm branches laid at his feet....to carrying a heavy cross up a hill in the space of a week.  So, I asked myself on this Palm Sunday morning in 2010, "Karen, just what are you celebrating?"  This has been a challenging year for me...and I have felt like I have lost every battle I have faced this year....and then...I stop for a moment and look at Christ, and it all seems so irrelevant.  I am a Easter Christian...and so I am going to celebrate him today regardless of the difficult times I may be experiencing. I am celebrating because Christ is my King, my Savior, and my God. In him, I have my hope.  I am the one singing “Hosanna to the sound of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.” (Matthew 21:9)
We, the world, are more than conquerors in Him who conquered death.  Let us celebrate the victory and the freedom we have because of what Christ did. God Bless you all real good today.