March 23, 2005
Wholly
This is the week of the palms.
I’ve never been so sure whether there were palms handy for the crowds to strew (straw, strow, struw?), but that something was strewn seems to be a fact, even if it was old tires. The point of the week seems to be that those who were for him last Sunday won’t be come Friday. Judas, the palm artist, has seen to that.
But we have palms. It is ours from which the tree was named. It is ours that we hold out for help and hold up in praise and press down in disapproval. It is ours that we slap with and clap with and palm off and greet with and pat with. We are the same ones who welcomed and who condemned. It is in our spiritual DNA. We’ve got to live with it, worship with it, plead and honor with it.
No wonder. Come Sunday, if we’ve really been there when we crucified our Lord and done our part, we should be wholly weak.