Sunday, March 28, 2021
PALM SUNDAY/ SUNDAY OF THE PASSION
Palms and passion hardly seem to fit together but in Jesus they do. The palms welcomed Jesus to the triumph of suffering that paid the full price of our sin, and the hosannas cried out to Him who exchanged His life for death that we might live. There are no palms and hosannas that do not end in the cross, and there is no passion that does not lead us to faith and to rejoice in what His suffering accomplished. Our Lord came to the cross not as an unwilling victim but as the One who alone surrendered His life into death. We do not come to the Lord under coercion or as people compelled but at the bidding of the Gospel and by the power of the Holy Spirit! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.
READINGS
Old Testament: Zechariah 9:9–12
(The prophet foretells of the humble King.)
Psalm
Psalm 118:19-29
Epistle: Philippians 2:5–11
(Humbled to death on a cross that we might be exulted with Him.)
Gospel: Mark 14:1-15:47 (He humbled himself to the point of death)
PRAYER OF THE DAY
Let us pray. Most merciful God, as the people of Jerusalem, with palms in their hands, gathered to greet Your dearly beloved Son when He came into His Holy City, grant that we may ever hail Him as our King and, when He comes again, may go forth to meet Him with trusting and steadfast hearts and follow Him in the way that leads to eternal life; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen