March 29, 2010
 
DEVOTION: What Happened to the Crowd?
 
By Beth Bondurant
 
The sixth Sunday of Lent is traditionally called Palm/Passion Sunday and begins with the Messiah riding into Jerusalem on a donkey amidst a crowd of jubilant followers waving palm leaves and shouting... "SAVE US NOW!"
 
Thrilled with the expectant hope of a life free of Roman dominance and again becoming world leaders in their own right... some in the crowd were flinging their cloaks under the donkey's feet and chanting... "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord."
 
What happened to the crowd?
 
As Holy Week begins, we too, are anticipating the CELEBRATION... so much like those early advocates who are lost in the dust of blown away dreams.
 
From one Sunday to the next is a lifetime lesson of "a trail of tears"... the agony of rejection and desertion ... pain and suffering... darkness and disaster before the dawn of resurrection.
 
We haven't changed much over the centuries... and those who cheer for instant gratification today will see their footprints disappear just as did all of those following the young colt.
 
Foggy mornings and frigid nights remind us that God's presence with us means we will walk "through the valley of the shadow of death"... before "the morning comes".
 
What happened to the crowd?
 
"Peace is the parting gift I give to you. I don't leave you the way you you're used to being left---feeling abandoned, bereft. So don't be upset. Don't be distraught."
 
The One on the colt road away alone... to suffer alone ... to die alone but promises to those of us lost in the dust... "I will be you always!"
 
"Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage."
 
Holy Week is a week of waiting... wondering... feeling the pain and recognizing the infinite gift of sacrificial love God freely pours out to us ... even in the darkest night.