Palm Sunday is one of my favorite Sundays of the year. The weather (usually) feels like Spring. We hold one of our great giving opportunities (don’t forget to bring jackets this Sunday!). Most importantly, it is a Sunday that we remember the Lordship of Jesus.
Lord is a funny word. To the twenty-first century ear it sounds old-fashioned and patriarchal. Noblemen from centuries ago were Lords. I hear that, and yet it speaks to me still. Maybe it is because it is a word rarely used in “normal” language. Many religious words have been co-opted by society. Even a word like “evangelism,” which we are reluctant to use, gets used by the culture. But not Lord. At least not that I can recall.
The Lord is, quite simply, the person in charge. The people who welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday announced that Jesus was in charge, not of the political world around them but of their very lives. Of course, the actions of many later that same week refuted their words. This Sunday as we lay our own jackets before Jesus we call him Lord. We say that we will follow him. But will we really? Who really is in charge? Is it Jesus? Or will we fall away like the Disciples themselves did during Holy Week?