Palm Sunday 2026

THE REV. E. WAYNE ROLLINS

​ This day always confuses me. It dashes from shouts of victory to death and burial. Hopes are lifted, only to be shattered when nailed to a tree. It’s a bit like life is being condensed into an hour or so of collective memory. 

I won’t go into centuries of mistranslations of the word “hosanna,” except to remind you that it meant “save us, we beg you” in Jesus’ native language. Remember that a bit later when you sing “hosanna in the highest” and what you might be praying for when you sing. 

Today seems to make more sense when I step back and remember all the things we’ve celebrated over the past five months. Maybe, instead of victory parades, today’s “triumphal entry” is the culmination of the Incarnation we celebrated a few months ago. When Jesus entered Jerusalem that day, he didn’t just go into the city. He entered fully into our lives. He has something to tell us, which he will do by showing us. 

Jesus has been called a prophet, a title given to those who see the reality around them and tell the truth about what they see. They might express anger, even rage, such as when Jesus overturned the tables of merchants in the Temple and drove them away. “Zeal,” some politely called it. 

It takes a lot of energy to keep overturning tables, especially when there are those ready to reset them as soon as you’re done. Initial anger often turns into empathetic sorrow as tears cleanse the hearts and souls of those who see others caught in webs of oppression and deceit meant to extort their very lives. 

Jesus shows us a different way. He enters a city whose very name means City of Peace, not to change its structure or overthrow its rulers. Well, not literally in the heavenly military sense many expected of the Messiah. Jesus’ ride is not a forerunner of Paul Revere’s, nor is it Dr. Strangelove’s hitching a ride to destruction. 

Jesus’ ride is a journey into our own lives, our joys and sorrows, our health and our suffering, our hopes and our disappointments, to show us that God understands that these things are both sides of the coin of life, and that we are not alone when any one of them dominates the others. He will carry these things when life overturns our own tables, and hold them near as they are transfigured into unity with him, because he knows firsthand these same life-defining moments. 
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What he does with them, and with us, is show us how ministry is done. And he will show us the possibilities of Almighty God when it seems all is lost and we release all we hold dear into God’s loving embrace. But for that, we’ll need to walk with him through this city of life where peace is in such short supply. We can do that by imitating his own faith in the One in whose name he comes to us, and who gives himself to and for us so that our own journey will be complete as his will soon be