Yesterday was "Palm Sunday", the day Christians celebrate Jesus' entry into Jerusalem, where he was welcomed as a champion by the cheering crowds. Five days later, he would be executed on a cross as a criminal. The pastor taught how every detail of the day and week was significant and forecasted hundreds, and even thousands of years earlier (Zechariah 9:9, 2 Kings 9:13, Psalm 22, Isaiah 55). Mind-blowing! This day was one of the most fascinating in Jesus ministry, and for years I've overlooked it, not appreciating it.
Towards the end of the service, the children had been released from Sunday School. Two young brothers came to find their parents in front me as we were standing for a closing prayer. The morning craft had been to create crosses out of green palm leaves. The two, as boys do, turned their new objects into weapons...holding their crosses upside down and using them as swords, or scabbards, and play-fighting.
At first, I was indignant...this is was solemn moment. But then it hit me...these boys were putting the final point on the sermon. The cross was used as a weapon, to attack the enemy.
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