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An outfit for a Sunday of festivities

March 24, 2024

Mark 11:1-11| Isaiah 50:4-9a|Psalm 31:9-16|Philippians 2:5-11|Mark 14:1-15-15:47

Palm Sunday has always been one of my favorites church celebrations. It ranks up there amongst the major ones, you know Christmas, Easter, wear red for the church’s birthday, etc. All the ones that everyone comes out in their Sunday best. Also, on Palm Sunday you get to bring home a souvenir, and if you are talented, or know some who is, they can turn that souvenir into a cross or something equally spiritual. But even as much as I have loved this important prelude, I have always been conflicted by it. My dilemma usually begins right before church and no, it’s not that I could only shape that palm into a roll given my current talents, but rather what to wear on this particular festival day… Hmmm I don’t know, maybe a flowered shirt, a tie with palm trees, some pastels… See this holiday has always been hard to dress for. The other holidays have themes, like a bunny vest, Christmas pants. These celebrations are joyous and stay that way and you can easily dress up for them. 

Now Palm Sunday gives you the air that you are attending a championship win. The kind where you are afloat in a sea of your team’s colors while you are shouting till your throat is sore from the euphoria you are feeling, and you hope that this feeling will last forever. Yet deep down you are stomping down next season’s trials and trades along with last season’s ghosts. So when I listen to that story I can see myself in the mist of it holding a palm and looking around not knowing how this triumphant entrance would change so dramatically. One minute there is the crowd laying palms and greeting him as their Lord and Savior, and the next they are a mob calling for his crucifixion. What drove a man to betray his friend and master?

Who or what had the power and control to change the crowds from “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven” to “Crucify him!” Pilate asked them, “Why, what evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Crucify him!” So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released Barabbas for them; and after flogging Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified.

Was I here with the crowd in my Sunday best and did I remain there, or was I part of the mob shouting? Maybe, I was part of both, but why? What changed my mind? How did I justify it? I do hope that I stood solid in my beliefs and sort of understood the prophecies. Did I nonchalantly accept why it had to go that way, or maybe did I learn that to achieve something sacrifices are made? Did I realize that dressing up is not the price of admission but rather a presentation of your resolve to something better. A complimentary way to portray courage and integrity in a hard and conflicted path. 

So in the end, picking the outfit for Palm Sunday marks a spot in my faith journey that begins in colors awash of celebratory notes that are eventually soiled and stained with a dark and bitter drink, even with my best efforts to keep them clean. That outfit leaves me wondering where I have been and where I am going. Yet somehow in the back of my mind I know that just like that bunny vest that awaits every Easter, he is waiting for me regardless of where I stood in the crowd or the mob because he believed I was worth the pain and sacrifice. It also reassures me that like that outfit I too can be cleaned and patched up to continue on the journey… by the way this years Palm Sunday outfit began with a t-shirt worn by 16 people that gave a part of themselves to answer someone’s prayers and showed me that his entrance doesn’t just happen on your best outfit days. 

Geo Borgia