Palm branches

John 15.18-19 —18 If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.

It would appear that Palm Sunday was a roaring success for Jesus. Probably at this time, more than any other, the crowds were pouring adulation upon Jesus—waving their palm branches, laying cloaks as though a conquering hero was returning from a great battle. And yet, the great paradox was that he was not riding in victory but riding in broken- ness, he wasn’t riding proclaiming victory but riding to his sacrificial offering.

Over the next week, the adulating crowds would slowly dissipate and the few loyal would remain.

Sometimes when we consider the mission of God through the life and person of Jesus it is heart breaking. After all, He came to His own, but His own rejected Him. He was visible in the world, yet the world did not recognise Him. Jesus was painfully aware that if His disciples were to take up the Jesus way and embody His ministry through their own lives there would be opposition and persecution. No wonder Jesus declared that if the world hates us, remember the world hated him first.

As followers of Jesus we are called not simply to be nice people, but to challenge the structures that set themselves up against the purposes of God. Followers of Jesus can not simply turn a blind eye, or indeed be complicit in ethics, busi- ness, decisions, vision that opposes the kingdom of God. We need to be an active ingredient in the renewal of this earth. This means that in our schools, colleges, universities, work places and in our homes, the decisions, influence, and actions need to be in the pursuit of the kingdom of God. We need to understand it will not be an easy walk. There will be times when we are misunderstood and mis quoted. In essence our love, though it sounds paradoxical, is a confronta- tional love, a love that pursues God’s best for our world.

Stop and breathe.
Loving God, we need your help and we need your grace to be evident in the areas of influence I

am in. Lord God, bless our families, our communities and our work places.