The Ashes of Palm Sunday
Jill Carattini

昨天在世界各地的教堂、孩子们挥动棕榈叶,在过道上舞蹈,欢庆第一个棕榈星期天. 人们挥舞象征胜利的棕榈枝,来欢呼忠城和歌颂胜利. 棕榈也用来为荣耀和显赫的那位铺路. 所有四个福音书的作者都报告说耶稣享受了这样的敬意. 当耶稣来到耶路撒冷,骑着毛辂,人们以国王的礼节相迎. 把棕榈枝和衣服铺在他的面前.欢迎和跟随他,大声欢呼:

Hosanna!
祝福的是,以上帝的名字到来的那位!
以色列的国王!
Hosanna在最高位!

我自小喜欢庆祝这个节日. 它是教会里很特别的一天. 通常我们要求安清入坐,而这一天我们可以自由欢呼,游行,成为大家注目的中心.年轻人是不会忘记棕榈星期天的胜利.

象许多童年的故事, 随着章节的继续推进,而变得复杂.人们对星期日棕榈节的回忆也远非只是基督胜利地进入了耶路撒冷. 庆祝这个节日所彰显的讽刺在于,每一次胜利欢呼都变成一种重击,因为我们所扮演的角色,在短短几天之内将发生巨大的变化.刹那之间,欢呼声"Hosanna!"将被"钉死他"的叫骂声所取代.人们用棕榈和赞美所赢得的荣誉将很快被束之高阁. 胜利的棕榈星期天,所表达现实问题在于,我们确信,十字架还没有到来.
......

In churches all over the world yesterday, children danced among the aisles with palm branches, a jubilant commemoration of the first Palm Sunday. A symbol of triumph, the palm branch was waved to welcome royalty and extol the victorious. Palms were also used to cover the paths of those worthy of honor and distinction. All four of the gospel writers report that Jesus was given such a tribute. As Jesus came into Jerusalem, riding on a colt, he was greeted as King. The crowds laid branches and garments on the streets in front of him. Multitudes went before him and followed after him, crying out:

Hosanna!
Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!
The King of Israel!
Hosanna in the highest!

I loved celebrating this story as a child. It was a day in church set apart from most others. In a place where we were commonly asked to sit still, it was extraordinary to have permission to cheer and march and draw attention. The triumph of Palm Sunday is not lost on the young.

But like many stories in childhood that grow complicated as the chapters continue, Palm Sunday is far more than a triumphant recollection of Christ's entry into Jerusalem. The convicting irony of the holiday we celebrate strikes with each cheer of victory, for we reenact a scene that dramatically changed in a matter of days. In little time, cheers of "Hosanna!" became shouts of crucifixion. The honor they extended with palms and praises was forgotten shortly after it was placed before him. The troubling reality to the triumph of Palm Sunday is that we know the Cross is yet to come.

But it is also more than this. With Palm Sunday comes the arrival of holy week in all its darkness, in all its brilliance. Each year as palms are waved in the aisles, I imagine my place in this drama. Would I have been with the marching crowd that cheered him as King only to cheer again as he was marched to Golgotha? What I long to imagine was a fickle crowd--an illustration of the power of mobthink, or a sign of a hard-hearted people--only reminds me of my own vacillations with the Son of God. How easily our declarations that he is Lord become denials of his existence. How readily hands waving in praise and celebration become fists raised at the heavens in pain or hardship. Like a palm laid down and forgotten, the honor we bestow on Sunday can easily be abandoned by Wednesday.

Such are the thoughts my adult mind carries through the story in which I once took only delight. With palms in our hands, we carry the burden of awareness that Jesus himself carried through that first crowd. Though we recognize the Messiah before us, we will turn from him. Though we labor to follow his ways, we will fall short. Riding through the streets of Jerusalem, Jesus knew then what he knows now: this honor will be abandoned, praises will cease, and these branches will be trampled to dust. The Cross will still come.

How fitting that in many churches the remains of Palm Sunday literally become the ashes of Ash Wednesday. The palms are burned and the ashes collected. Then on Ash Wednesday services, the ashes are used to mark our foreheads with the sign of the Cross.

This week we remember the one who comes into the midst of our defeat. He comes near to our unfaithfulness, near the ashes of what was meant to be obedience or praise. Despite our oscillating thoughts, despite the sin we cannot leave, he comes to make us holy and pure. He comes to bring us to the Cross.

Here we do well to glean from the excitement of children: Palm Sunday is a jubilant commemoration that the King is here and the Cross will come. The Son has made his triumphal entry. We must lay more than palms at his feet.