Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!”
NL Daily Devotion for Sunday, March 24, 2024
by Madison Johnston, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: God is never just one thing. And that means that a life of faith is a life spent dwelling in complexity and overlap.
In Mark, Chapter 11, the disciples are met with some questions (we might even say some resistance) as they untie a colt in a nearby village. They are strangers in this land, and probably come off a bit suspicious. But finally, the bystanders give into their plan, and because they do, the disciples take the colt back to Jesus. As he rides it into Jerusalem, people gather in front of him and behind him, shouting and singing songs of praise.
Then, in Chapter 14, a woman anoints Jesus with nard, an expensive and luxurious substance. She clearly does this to honor Jesus and to show reverence, but she draws criticism from everyone else in the room. They accuse her of being too lavish. Too indulgent. Wasteful, even. They point out that she could have used that nard differently, or that she could have sold it and given the proceeds away to someone in need.
Mashed together the way they are, these two passages create an interesting narrative pattern: skepticism to praise, then praise to skepticism. It seems that, when Jesus is involved, one doesn’t come without the other. It seems that, around Jesus, there is an oscillation of realities. And that’s really what the Easter story is about: the fact that life brings with it death, and that death brings with it new life.
So why do we celebrate Jesus’s arrival into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday? If we know how his time there ends—if we know that we won’t have praise without skepticism or life without death—then what is the point in rejoicing at all? Why wouldn’t we stay reserved and measured and wait for the other shoe to drop?
Maybe we celebrate because Jesus is so complex. Maybe we rejoice because our God is never just one thing, and that’s amazing. Maybe it’s okay to let ourselves go to the emotional and spiritual ends of the spectrum because God meets us there with what our Psalmist calls a steadfast love that endures forever. In the Christian life, we are constantly balancing what has been, what is, and what is to come. We’re used to oscillating realities, even if we don’t actively realize it during every minute of every day.
It would be boring to worship a God who only existed one way. That God wouldn’t reflect reality, and wouldn’t accompany us in our respective journeys, either. That God wouldn’t take on the body and the life of a human being. That God wouldn’t understand us. But Jesus does. In the deepest way possible, Jesus knows what it is like to live as one of us. While he might not be dwelling with us earthside at this point in history, he is dwelling with us in the complex and overlapping spaces that confuse us and push us and move us. And that’s good news.
