It Is That Time Again

Well, full disclosure, I did not make it to church this Palm Sunday. I got up, not feeling great, and had to go back to bed. Then one of the kids got sick to her stomach. So we’ll rest and gear up for Easter. Just one of those days.

But it is also Palm Sunday and Holy Week and those of you who are new to this need to note something. This week, no politics around here in my morning posts.

The President might resign, Ron DeSantis might officially declare, etc. and I’ll find a way to sneak in a blurb, but the main focus must not be that but Holy Week.

Over the last two decades of writing, I have found it necessary to force myself to think about the bigger picture than the news of the day. And so I want to start here, now, with Palm Sunday.

Six days removed from a school shooting at a church school in Nashville, Tennessee, we have seen the world turn even more to madness. The national press corps has made the shooter of the children the most sympathetic mass murderer in history. More ink was spilled, and words poured out from the Biden Administration about sympathies to the trans community than the families of the victims. The national press corps wrung its collective hands more about misgendering the shooter than about the children murdered.

As scripture admonishes, you can be angry, but do not sin.

A growing movement of people on the right who can quote scripture and never darken the door of a church are gravitating toward the Jesus who chased money changers out of his Father’s house. They want to be the fists of Christ against a world defiantly against God.

But Christ told us the things of the world will hate the things of God. We should see affirmation of our faith in the fallout of the shooting this week. The things of the world rallied to the shooter, and the people of God mourned the dead.

Today, Christians remember Christ’s entry into Jerusalem on the way to his execution. Jesus Christ did not fight to save his way of life. He cleaned out his Father’s house, but otherwise, he laid down his life for those he loved. Be angry, but do not sin. Do not decide that in becoming Christ-like, you are becoming the guy who throws punches in Jesus’s name. Jesus was more likely to turn the other cheek. Do not so want to wage war against the world in Jesus’s name that you co-opt a few lines of scripture to justify behaving like the world.

Satan did that to Christ in the desert, selectively quoting scripture.

The whole of scripture is this — Christ Jesus loves us so much that he willingly laid down his life for all of us and conquered death so that we might have eternal life with Him. Any who put their faith in Christ can have that life.

Be angry, but do not sin. The Book of Life is already written. The story has already been written. The conclusion is already known. Christ wins, and those in Christ win. Do not trust your own actions over the sovereignty of God. He has a plan. It is being executed. Do not lose eternity to own the left.

Christ has entered the city. In a few days, those who placed palm branches in front of Him will instead choose to send Christ to the cross in exchange for the life of a political rebel who scratched their itch for a fight against the government.

Do not want to own the other side so bad, you crucify Christ and free Barabbas.