Palm Sunday is essential to our experiencing the true power of Holy Week.  Holy Week is one of the most celebratory weeks of the Christian year and the time when God can prepare our hearts to move deeper and grow closer to Him. In the four Gospels, Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem takes place about a week before His Resurrection, which is what Easter is all about. Growing up in this church, as I child, I just loved Palm Sunday.  It was a time of festivity – party time at church. No one needs to convince a child that a holiday is a good thing, just the name sounds like Disneyland.  Some of my best memories were of all the excitement surrounding what God was doing in our church every Holy Week. Yes, little kids are very observant and can see when God is working in their family, friends and church community.

For Christians (Catholic, Protestant and Eastern Orthodox) Zechariah 9:9 rings prophetically true during this holiday.  “The Coming of Zion’s King - see your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”  We believe that Jesus was declaring he was the King of Kings on Palm Sunday.  I have entitled my message - King of Your Heart.  That is what over a hundred of us have all been praying for 10 minutes each day for the last three weeks.  Praying that something significant would take place in the joy of each heart at Washington Cathedral as we come to realize that we are in this “#Together.”

Springtime in the heart cannot take place until people come together.  When the church experienced Pentecost, it was because they were following the wishes of their beloved Jesus that they stay together until God’s Spirit came upon them in power.  And wow - were they all amazed when the first church was formed.  People loved one another so much that it pointed to the coming of Jesus Christ.

After Palm Sunday, when Jesus was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane and the guards came to arrest him, Jesus said…”am I some kind of dangerous revolutionary that you would come to get me with knives and swords?”  The answer actually was “yes”.  Jesus’ courageous love started a revolution that is still changing the world. Won’t you join the party this week.  We join Christians all over the world recognizing Jesus as King of our hearts.  For parents, please don’t deprive your kids of the life changing joys of Holy Week.  As one who was raised in the church. I can’t tell you how foundational these experiences are to the character of our beloved children.

Your friend,

Pastor Becca McCary