lm sunday everything changes in jesus journey

#Lm sunday everything changes in jesus journey series#

Despite all the calls to physically distance ourselves and keep away from our sanctuaries, we are not called to abandon who we are and become a people totally different. It’s worth remembering as a church community, as well as individual people of faith, that we’re not asked to be something we’re not. All she knew was ‘one foot in front of the other.’ More on Broadview: How I grapple with sacrifice during Lent and COVID-19 She didn’t know what an important task she had, what impact her journey that day would make upon a nation of people or the future of a faith. She didn’t know enough to put on airs, to pretend to be something other than what she was - a pack animal. The donkey did something that ended up being wonderful and powerfully significant, but what she actually did in the moment was simple and unremarkable. Here we have the ordinary called to extraordinary things, yet nothing required extreme effort or hardship. The Palm Sunday donkey offers valuable theological insight into our identity as people of faith. Donkey scientists think this is due to a highly-developed sense of self-preservation: you can’t force or frighten a donkey into doing something it sees as contrary to its best interest. She was a blue-collar worker with a reputation for stubbornness. She was a beast of burden, expected to do menial chores of transporting and hauling.

Jesus, on a donkey, ambles into the great city, navigating a crowd waving branches and shouting “Hosanna!” Donkeys don’t do this every day.

The Palm Sunday story features this ignoble creature when an impromptu parade ensues. This common pack animal carries the Saviour to his birth and to his death. In a fitting bookend, Jesus rides a donkey into Jerusalem before the first Easter.

#Lm sunday everything changes in jesus journey series#

This piece is the first in a series of reflections on Lent and Holy Week.Ĭhristian tradition imagines young Mary and her unborn infant riding a donkey into Bethlehem before the first Christmas.