Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Passion Week, the final week of Lent in the Christian calendar.
Christians all over the world commemorate Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem, with the knowledge that the week that followed included his prophetic messages to the leaders in Jerusalem, his teaching of his followers, betrayal, arrest and torture, rejection, humiliation and death on the cross, culminating with resurrection and appearances to his disciples.
Methodist Church in Fiji general secretary, the Reverend Doctor Epineri Vakadewavosa, says Palm Sunday is also special in the Methodist community because it is also Children’s Sunday.
“In all our churches, children lead and participate in the main worship service,” Mr Vakadewavosa said.
“It is a special time, not only for the children who mark the end of the Methodist Church’s Sunday School Week, but for the whole community as we recognise the challenge by Jesus to have a child-like trust in our Heavenly Father.”
He quoted a passage from Matthew 18:3 which says: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
This morning, as part of Palm Sunday and Children’s Sunday, the children of the Wesley City Mission in Suva, would march from the Suva Flea Market to Ratu Sukuna Park as witnesses of their faith, he said.
They will hold their service in the park to celebrate this special Sunday and to open their worship to all who may wish to come and join in.
“The nurturing of the faith of our children is important task for the whole community of faith as it is our actions, more than our words, which bear witness to our faith to our children and the society in which we live,” Mr Vakadewavosa said.
“God made the toughest choice when “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). God chose to be incarnated — to become human in the form of Jesus: to live with us, to be with us, to share in our life, to share in our struggles and celebrations, to suffer with us and to die for us — out of God’s great love for us. Jesus spoke of, and bore witness through His actions, the love of God.”
Quoting scripture, he said: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
“For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him” (John 3:16-17) clearly tells us that the cross of Christianity represents humankind’s atonement made possible by God.
” Only through Christ’ sacrifice do we find grace, forgiveness and salvation. It is on the cross that we see God’s great love for us.
“When Jesus was crucified, all four gospels note that a sign was placed on the cross, above his head (Matthew 27:37, Mark 15:26, Luke 23:28, John 19:19).
“Mark tells us that a superscription was written; Matthew, that it was set up over his head; Luke, that it was written in three languages (Latin, Greek and Hebrew/Aramaic); and John, that Pilate was the writer.
“All these statements are correct, even though each writer focuses on a different aspect of that event.”
Mr Vakadewavosa said it was the custom of the Romans to use gypsum letters written on a rough board affixed to a cross to proclaim the reason a person had been executed. The sign, in all three languages read, “This is Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews”.
He said Latin was the official language of the Roman Empire; it represented human government, power, and conquest. Greek was the international language of culture; it represented human wisdom, art, and commerce.
He said Hebrew was the religious language of the Jews, people who worshiped the one, true God; it represented the covenant race, the law of God, and the means by which God made himself known to man.
In the providence of God, all of these human and divine institutions were addressed when Jesus was crucified.
“This sign and statement in these three greatest languages of the ancient world serve to proclaim the kingship of Jesus the Christ.
“It is a proclamation that Jesus is the mind and wisdom of God (Greek).
“It is the proclamation that Jesus is the embodiment of the Kingdom of God and God’s governance (Latin) as “the Way, the Truth and Life,” (John 14:6).
It is also the proclamation of a renewed covenant between God and all God’s people and that we are called to worship in spirit and truth, the One, True, God (Hebrew).”
Mr Vakadewavosa said the cross serves as God’s statement of purpose: the restoration of creation, reconciliation between God and human, and the redemption of those souls who are or will be saved.
The cross is God’s statement of the immensity of God’s love.
” As we remember this immense, sacrificial love, we are challenged to respond the only way we can: by loving God in return — “with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind,” and to “love your neighbour as ourselves” (Luke 10:27).
So, Easter is a celebration of God’s love for us. It is a celebration of an ultimate and atoning love.
We are called to celebrate this love and respond to this love by loving in return — spiritually, physically, mentally, socially and politically — through our whole being.
As the empty tomb signifies the resurrection, so too at Easter we are called to celebrate our new life, and the new reality of God’s Kingdom to which we can now belong through Jesus.
“May your Easter be filled with the love of God which brings peace and life in abundance.”
