It is Tuesday afternoon, almost 2 p.m. This issue of the Cook County News- Herald will hit the stands on Saturday, March 24th. The next day is Sunday, Palm Sunday in Christian circles, the observance and remembrance of the day Jesus of Nazareth rode into the ancient city of Jerusalem to cries of “Hosanna!” and palm branches waved in celebration by a crowd convinced he was their long promised king come to rescue them from Roman oppression.
I sit down to write and I find myself asking, again, how does this 2,000-yearold account of Jesus meet us in our life experience today? Earlier this morning there was another school shooting, this time in a high school in Maryland. Two are wounded. One is dead. We are all in pain. The current presidential administration remains in personnel turmoil. Storms and tornadoes ravaged the southeast last night, near my father-in-law’s Alabama home, bringing damage, destruction, and to one person, death.
And those are just the national news headlines. Scenarios like these play out to greater or lesser degree across the globe.
And here we are, hours away from Palm Sunday, focusing on the arrival of Jesus into the city of Jerusalem 2,000 years ago. Why? What does this spiritual, historical event have to do with us? It’s a fair question. It’s a good question. It’s a question that opens the door to seeing our time, our lives, our experiences against the backdrop of a larger history.
The relevance of this occasion traces back to God’s plan for all of history, past, present, and future. God created this world and human beings in it to live in loving fellowship with Him and with one another; that fellowship has been severed; God acts in time and history pursuing reconciliation and the restoration of lost fellowship, not out of necessity but out of love. The coming of Jesus to the world, to Jerusalem that day, and to the cross just six days later is an active expression of God’s self-sacrificing love for people, for you and for me.
Today, some people seek to appease God with their personal efforts or sacrifices. Some think that if they are just “spiritual” enough, or kind enough, or holy enough, or good enough, or moral enough, or generous enough God will respond favorably to them. But God is not seeking appeasement. God is no bill collector pursing an unpayable debt of perfect obedience or devotion from you.
Some people choose to approach God with indifference or denial, convincing themselves that they ignore God long enough, loudly enough, adamantly enough, with enough determination and conviction, that He will simply disappear and leave them alone, give up and go away. They undervalue themselves in light of God’s love. Just as God does not require a trade of sufficient value from us to love us, He does not accept our resistance as grounds to dismiss us.
God neither seeks appeasement nor accepts indifference. God pursues, God desires, God acts to secure restored fellowship with you, and He does all this at His expense. God does what He does in and through Jesus Christ, His life and His death, to bring you back to where by virtue of your existence you belong, into relationship with Him. God pursues you not to get you to do more stuff for Him but to give you the opportunity to experience and share in His indescribable joy, His unshakeable love, His insurmountable wisdom, His unhindered compassion, His unfettered forgiveness.
Why did God come to them, riding on a donkey? For the same reason God comes to us: to do what is necessary to bring us back to Himself so that, once our hearts are at peace with Him, we can begin to find peace with one another.
Each month a member of the Cook County Ministerium will offer Spiritual Reflections. Pastor Dale McIntire has served as pastor of the Cornerstone Community Church in Grand Marais since April of 1995.
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