From the Bishop: What are our lives shouting about our faith?

B. Michael Watson

Palm Sunday and Easter are days of glorious celebration that surround a week of testing, prayer, betrayal, trial, pain, and sacrificial suffering for Jesus. For Christians, remembering Holy Week is a central part of our annual liturgical journey through the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.Palm Sunday through Easter is a high and holy week for us. Like the crowd on Palm Sunday long ago, children and adults still celebrate by waving and wearing palm branches acknowledging our Savior. We then are invited to spend the week seeking to understand what Christ’s saving, graceful, and redemptive love really means and what it cost. We remember that the first Palm Sunday crowd fell away as the week wore on.

In many instances those who lovingly prepare palms for today’s worshippers to wear make them into the shape of a cross! We know something that the biblical crowd did not know. We know about the cross upon which Jesus died. We know that Palm Sunday is not really the day of triumph. Easter Sunday is the triumphant day, and it takes a Cross to get to Easter.Drawing a crowd doesn’t prove everything. Winston Churchill was once asked what he thought about the large crowd that had come to hear him speak. Churchill is said to have responded by predicting that the crowd would have been much larger if he were being hanged. The Palm Sunday crowd that cheered for Jesus on Sunday was replaced by the crowd that jeered at Jesus a few days later. Shouts of hosanna were replaced with shouts demanding crucifixion.

We must be very careful about criticizing that first Palm Sunday crowd’s shallow commitment to Jesus until we have shown more commitment ourselves. We are the crowd today. What are our lives shouting? Are we willing to follow Jesus and remain his disciples in a sinful world that often rejects the divine love of a merciful Lord? Here are some discipleship questions for all of us. Are we willing to love our enemies as Jesus did? Are we willing to forgive those who curse us as Jesus did? Are we willing to feed the hungry, cloth the naked, heal the sick, and visit the imprisoned as Jesus calls us to do? Are we willing to give one day in seven totally to the worship of God? Are we willing to joyfully tithe to God’s work? Are we willing to serve our Lord Jesus Christ without thought of being honored for our service by others? Are we willing to spend time alone in prayer as Jesus did? Are we willing to study the Word of God and apply it to our lives as Jesus did?

Holy Week is a wonderful time for holy reflection on the life of Jesus and on our lives of discipleship. Easter is the time to celebrate that God’s grace is greater than the world’s sin. All who follow Jesus can celebrate the victorious life available to us through Christ’s saving act and marvelous resurrection. We have been empowered to overcome failure, sin and death because we have Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Glory hallelujah!

Mike Watson Resident Bishop South Georgia Area The United Methodist Church.