I Raise My Palm…I Bend My Knee

This is Holy Week. The week when we remember the pivotal moments we see in scripture leading to Easter Sunday…the Resurrection. 

Today we remember the Triumphant Entry. It’s Palm Sunday. It’s a good day. 

The Messiah is here! We raise the palm!

“Hosannah in the highest!” 

I learned a couple of years ago that Hosannah actually means, “Save us” or “help us”. I always thought it was a word of adoration and praise. But, it is a cry for help. 

I think about this… 

The crowd’s desperation…The hope they must have felt in crying out….

He is here!! He will make it right…it will all be good! 

I think about me…how I so often cry out to Jesus… the Messiah…my Savior…for help, having a preconceived idea of what that help should look like. 

The crowd on this day recognized Jesus correctly as the Messiah. They knew who He was and reached out to Him. But they totally missed the whole thing later in the week. Very soon, many of these same people will cry “Crucify him!”

Somewhere in between, the palms and Pilate they got disappointed, disenchanted… and angry. If he really was the Messiah…this is not how things would be going…no way this is right! 

And I can quickly judge them, because I have read the rest of the story… 

I would like to think I would have been at the foot of the cross as Jesus suffered…at the tomb on the morning the stone was rolled away… but would I have? How many times do I raise my palm and ask for help, and still miss His saving goodness, looking for it to come another way?? 

On bended knee, I pray…

“Lord help me to raise my palm with a Hosannah that trusts in all your ways for me,

for you are always Good…even when I don’t understand.”

…“The LORD always keeps his promises;

he is gracious in all he does.b

14The LORD helps the fallen

and lifts those bent beneath their loads.

15The eyes of all look to you in hope;

you give them their food as they need it.

16When you open your hand,

you satisfy the hunger and thirst of every living thing.

17The LORD is righteous in everything he does;

he is filled with kindness.

18The LORD is close to all who call on him,

yes, to all who call on him in truth”

Psalm 145:13-18