Palm Sunday: In Remembrance of Me
Table Talk
Setting the Table
You are welcome here. Find a quiet place to center down for a time of reflection and prayer. Take a deep breath. Check in with yourself. Allow yourself this moment to sit away from the stresses that surround you, and simply be present.
Healing and restoration are born of memory - remembering, reorienting, and renewing.
”Awareness is like the sun. When it shines on things, they are transformed.”
- Thich Naht Hahn
“The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.”
- Henry Ford
1 Corinthians 11:23-25
“In remembrance of me...”
John 12:12-16
The next day the great crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting, "Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord-- the King of Israel!" Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it; as it is written: "Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion. Look, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt!" His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written of him and had been done to him.
Food for Thought
Memory is a funny thing.
I remember so much detail from my childhood and less of more recent years. Even more strange are the kinds of things I remember - some that have no bearing on my life whatsoever, and yet linger in my memory. I remember the entire section of dog breeds covered in our WorldBook Encyclopedia, and the time my science teacher threw a graduated cylinder into the ceiling fan of our classroom to see if she could propel it out of an open window.
There are the sweet memories that I wish I could return to - sitting on a porch swing with my grandmother, feeding the ducks at the lake, nursing my firstborn in the wee hours of the morning while watching Nick at Night.
And there are troubling memories that remain with me as well. The most troubling for me are the times I was too judgmental or not careful enough with my words or actions toward others. Even now, these moments are unsettling to me. They say that mistakes are only mistakes if you don’t learn from them, but even if we learn from them, we still have to live with them, and so do other people.
There is a deep truth to the power of remembering - of looking back. There is a lot that we don’t understand or comprehend as we are moving through the day-to-day of our lives. Much of it we do not understand until we can see a fuller picture of what has been and what is now.
In this story of Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem, we are told the disciples did not understand at first; but then they remembered that these things had been written of him and done to him. Jesus’s ride into Jerusalem on a donkey sparked a memory of the prophet Zechariah’s words, “Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey (Zechariah 9:9).”
I wonder what else Jesus’s disciples remembered looking back. What moments did they carry with them? What did they wish they could change? We know, looking back, that a whole crowd of followers that welcomed Jesus and celebrated his entrance into Jerusalem, were not a week later chanting him to the cross; we know, looking back, that at least one of his closest disciples betrayed him to that end.
Sometimes we make mistakes that are irrevocable. Perhaps even harder to process are those hurtful actions that are intentional on our part, their implications not fully understood until much later. Those are difficult memories and realizations to come to terms with.
I don’t know that my mistakes have been the devastating sort, but there are certainly things I would redo, or change about my choices if I had the chance. There are moments I would have lived into a little bit differently, with a little more love, a little more compassion, a little more forethought and temperance.
Holy Week is a time of remembering. If we are able to move through this week in celebration, it is only because we can remember and see now the full story - the grace of Jesus’s life, the forgiveness he carries into his death, and the healing that comes from his resurrection on Easter morning.
On this Palm Sunday let us acknowledge how our Hosannas are like those in Jerusalem long ago. We wave our palms remembering that we are all sinners and saints within - confessing that our ways have held both ruin and redemption.
And as we move through this week, let us remember how the redemption and mercy we find testifies to a greater and better way of being - a reality of grace, mercy, and compassion that is revealed for us and is available to us through the sacred act of looking back and remembering this story as well as our own.
Take a few moments each day this week to look back. Maybe write down what comes to mind in a journal.
Remember that even the moments you are living now are part of a fuller story. Consider ways that you can be more intentional about living into each moment with more love and compassion for others and for yourself. Extend a kind word, practice forgiveness, take time in your busy days to pay attention to both the life-giving and difficult moments.
Blessing
Gracious God of what has been, what is, and what will be,
help us to remember that it is through the beauty of our own full story that we find the healing and restoration that calls us to one another. And help us to move forward in ways that remind us of the grace, compassion, and redemption you offer us through the beauty of the full story of Jesus.
A little Table Talk for your table...
What is your earliest memory? Share one of your fondest memories with a friend.
Consider one of those more difficult moments to remember. What you would have changed? How have these experiences changed you? Find some ways to extend and receive grace in this remembering.
Consider how communal memory has shaped and continues to shape culture. How does our healing rely on acknowledging the past?
Try taking it to the Kids Table...
Share an early memory of yours, and ask them to share one with you.
Ask them to share a time when their feelings were hurt. What made them feel better?
Ask them to share ways they like to make others smile.