Say to daughter Zion,
"Behold, your king comes to you,
meek and riding on an ass,
and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden."

God is always so unexpected, and I have come to love and appreciate the God of surprises, counterintuitiveness, and mystery in ways I can never say.

No, he was not a king held aloft on a royal litter. No, he did not arrive in a show of strength with chariots and horses, standard bearers and spears. No, he was not clothed in regal fabric.

As we see the prophecy found in the Book of Zechariah unfold before us, Jesus rides in - surely our king, but meek and not haughty, riding on an ass, not carried by human servants.

The people wave at him and hail his entry into Jerusalem - where he surely knows he is headed toward the fate that awaits him. He enters, meekly and with humilty, and full of love.

His Passion is not without challenge, he cries out to God saying “Why have you abandoned me?” As we do ourselves. Yet, he also knows that this is his mission and that he must carry on despite the pain and horror.

This is what we are to do as well. How often and how craftily we evade pain and suffering. We put it off. We deposit it onto the backs of others, creating their crosses as we might skip away. Often we do this unknowingly. But we must make ourselves more aware, so that we might take up our own cross - and then take up the crosses around us to help others.

Giving aid and succor is not about writing a check, although checks help, or about dropping off non-perishables, which also help, but about uniting ourselves in Christ with the suffering of others.

Easier said than done.

This Palm Sunday, may we all enter Holy Week on our own journeys to Jerusalem. May we all pray that our hearts are open to whatever God brings us, because we know that what follows will eventually be glory.

Hosanna in the highest.