litlover12

Seems like I see some version of this conversation play out in social media every year:

Atheists: "Hey, you Christians! Your big holiday is named after a fertility goddess! And it has pagan traditions!"

Christians: "Um, yeah, we know."

The next year:

Atheists: "Hey, you Christians! Your big holiday is named after a fertility goddess! And it has pagan traditions!"

Christians: "Yep, we still know."

Some people have very short memories. 

To this place He’s led, death awaits the Living Bread;
Dark hill of Calvary, cursed tree meant for sinners such as me,
He will die instead.

Here hangs the King of kings, Love’s redefining, 
bearing my suffering, Light of life dying.

His love, how can it be, He should die for one like me?
Thorns crown His regal head, in my stead,
Living Word among the dead,
This the price for me.

Darkness all around quakes upon this bloodstained ground.
Sun in the desert sky, light denied,
Holy Lamb now crucified,
No mercy found.

Here hangs the King of kings, Love’s redefining,
Bearing my suffering, Light of life dying.

Giver of life now dies, “It is finished,” is His cry!
Jesus has paid the price, sacrificed,
Blood of Christ alone sufficed;
Only Love knows why.
Only Love knows why.

"Journey to Calvary," lyrics by Randy Vader

"Does not every movement in the Passion write large some common element in the sufferings of our race? First, the prayer of anguish; not granted. Then He turns to His friends. They are asleep — as ours, or we, are so often, or busy, or away, or preoccupied. Then He faces the Church; the very Church that He brought into existence. It condemns Him. This also is characteristic. In every Church, in every institution, there is something which sooner or later works against the very purpose for which it came into existence.

"But there seems to be another chance. There is the State; in this case, the Roman state. Its pretensions are far lower than those of the Jewish church, but for that very reason it may be free of local fanaticisms. It claims to be just on a rough, worldly level. Yes, but only so far as is consistent with political expediency and raison d’etat. One becomes a counter in a complicated game.

"But even now all is not lost. There is still an appeal to the People — the poor and simple whom He had blessed, whom He had healed and fed and taught, to whom He Himself belongs. But they have become over-night (it is nothing unusual) a murderous rabble shouting for His blood. There is, then, nothing left but God. And to God, God’s last words are 'Why hast thou forsaken me?'

"You see how characteristic, how representative, it all is. The human situation writ large. These are among the things it means to be a man. Every rope breaks when you seize it. Every door is slammed shut as you reach it. To be like the fox at the end of the run; the earths all staked.

"As for the last dereliction of all, how can we either understand or endure it? Is it that God Himself cannot be man unless God seems to vanish at His greatest need? And if so, why? I sometimes wonder if we have even begun to understand what is involved in the very concept of creation. If God will create, He will make something to be, and yet to be not Himself. To be created is, in some sense, to be ejected or separated. Can it be that the more perfect the creature is, the further this separation must at some point be pushed? It is saints, not common people, who experience the 'dark night.'”

From Letters to Malcom: Chiefly on Prayer by C. S. Lewis

Now I can never forget how much you mean to Me
'Cause I will always remember whenever I see
Where I carved your name into My tree
Where I wrapped My heart around your name
When I took your arrow through My heart

Just to say I love you
Just to say I love you
I really love you

(From "My Tree" by Chris Rice)

Easter seems to come at just the right time for me every year. There's something about this holiday and all that comes with it (including being in my church Easter pageant) that knocks the dust and grit off my soul and refreshes my faith. That's why it's my favorite. I love Christmas, but I need Easter. Birth is a great thing, but resurrection -- you can't beat that!

So for Holy Week, I'm going to do a short post every day -- either a biblical quote or a song lyric or something else that speaks to me. For Palm Sunday . . .

Lift up your heads, O you gates!
And be lifted up, you everlasting doors!
And the King of glory shall come in.
Who is this King of glory?
The Lord strong and mighty,
The Lord mighty in battle.
Lift up your heads, O you gates!
Lift up, you everlasting doors!
And the King of glory shall come in.
Who is this King of glory?
The Lord of hosts,
He is the King of glory.
(Psalm 24:7-10, NKJV)

I was supposed to read that in a school pageant once when I was a kid, but I got sick and my best friend had to do it for me. (Story of my life -- I ALWAYS used to get sick for big events.) Still, I'm fond of the passage, and it's usually what I think of first when I think of Palm Sunday.