WEBVTT 00:00:01.399 --> 00:00:05.639 Hosanna is not praise. It's a plea. Save us now. 00:00:07.160 --> 00:00:10.560 And he will answer it. Just not the way you're 00:00:10.560 --> 00:00:19.480 demanding. You've been on the road for six days 00:00:19.480 --> 00:00:23.320 now. Dust in your teeth, miles in your legs, 00:00:23.460 --> 00:00:26.140 and word traveling faster than your feet that 00:00:26.140 --> 00:00:30.140 a man in Bethany called a dead one back from 00:00:30.140 --> 00:00:33.920 the tomb. You didn't see it, but you trust the 00:00:33.920 --> 00:00:37.399 ones who did. And now you're walking behind him 00:00:37.399 --> 00:00:40.939 towards Jerusalem, something in your chest, humming 00:00:40.939 --> 00:00:44.500 like a storm about to break. When a donkey shows 00:00:44.500 --> 00:00:48.000 up, you don't think, you just move. Cloak off 00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:51.479 your back, laid on the road. Hosanna on your 00:00:51.479 --> 00:00:56.380 lips. You think you know what's happening. And 00:00:56.380 --> 00:00:59.320 now it's Sunday morning in a small town Oklahoma 00:00:59.320 --> 00:01:03.170 church. Palm frond in your hand, voices raised, 00:01:03.250 --> 00:01:05.430 we've walked in together, marking the beginning 00:01:05.430 --> 00:01:08.609 of Holy Week. Something is stirring, even if 00:01:08.609 --> 00:01:11.709 we can't name it yet. So slide into the pew, 00:01:11.930 --> 00:01:15.790 take a breath, listen close, and I'll see you 00:01:15.790 --> 00:01:24.409 on the other side. When we were last together, 00:01:24.609 --> 00:01:31.500 we found ourselves in the crowd. of Galilean 00:01:31.500 --> 00:01:37.420 Jewish pilgrims who this year have decided to 00:01:37.420 --> 00:01:40.659 make that journey into the Passover celebration 00:01:40.659 --> 00:01:45.040 following this rabbi they had encountered in 00:01:45.040 --> 00:01:49.980 the Galilee region, Jesus. And we found ourselves 00:01:49.980 --> 00:01:53.640 at the end of our discussion last time standing 00:01:53.640 --> 00:01:59.629 in Bethany Looking at a man who had been dead 00:01:59.629 --> 00:02:05.769 four days, Lazarus. But I want to focus on that 00:02:05.769 --> 00:02:09.509 journey for just a quick second. You know, it's 00:02:09.509 --> 00:02:15.870 about six days of walking. Nobody tells you that 00:02:15.870 --> 00:02:18.949 part. They tell you about the donkey and the 00:02:18.949 --> 00:02:21.590 palm branches and the crowd shouting, Hosanna. 00:02:22.110 --> 00:02:25.949 But nobody mentions... that you have been sleeping 00:02:25.949 --> 00:02:30.330 on the ground since Tuesday, and your feet, they 00:02:30.330 --> 00:02:32.909 look like they have lost a bet with a gravel 00:02:32.909 --> 00:02:38.969 road. It's 80 miles from Galilee to Jerusalem, 00:02:39.050 --> 00:02:43.229 and you took the long way down through the Jordan 00:02:43.229 --> 00:02:48.750 Valley because it's Passover, and the Samaritan 00:02:48.750 --> 00:02:52.610 hills are no place. for Jewish pilgrims to caravan 00:02:52.610 --> 00:02:56.189 this particular time of the year. You've been 00:02:56.189 --> 00:02:59.610 eating what you have packed for the trip or what 00:02:59.610 --> 00:03:02.030 you could buy in the villages along the way. 00:03:02.849 --> 00:03:07.449 Your cloak, it smells like a campfire and dried 00:03:07.449 --> 00:03:11.590 sweat. The mud from the Jordan River where you 00:03:11.590 --> 00:03:17.669 washed your face two days ago. You are not important. 00:03:18.889 --> 00:03:24.550 And you... Need to hear that. You are not one 00:03:24.550 --> 00:03:28.250 of the 12. You're not a name anyone is going 00:03:28.250 --> 00:03:33.889 to write down. You're a Galilean, which in Jerusalem 00:03:33.889 --> 00:03:37.050 is roughly the equivalent to being from that 00:03:37.050 --> 00:03:40.310 part of the state where you just try to drive 00:03:40.310 --> 00:03:45.330 through as quickly as possible. You work with 00:03:45.330 --> 00:03:48.449 your hands. Your Greek is bad. Your teeth are 00:03:48.449 --> 00:03:52.919 bad, too. And you've been walking towards the 00:03:52.919 --> 00:03:57.960 holiest city behind a rabbi you have staked your 00:03:57.960 --> 00:04:03.479 life on. A rabbi whose name has been in your 00:04:03.479 --> 00:04:06.939 mouth so often your wife told you before you 00:04:06.939 --> 00:04:10.599 left that if you say Jesus one more time at the 00:04:10.599 --> 00:04:12.699 dinner table, she's going to start charging him 00:04:12.699 --> 00:04:20.050 rent. Because. You believe he's the Messiah. 00:04:22.089 --> 00:04:25.230 You believe it in the way you believe the sun 00:04:25.230 --> 00:04:29.550 is going to come up tomorrow. Not because somebody 00:04:29.550 --> 00:04:32.870 proved it to you, but because you've just been 00:04:32.870 --> 00:04:35.790 standing in the light long enough that the warmth 00:04:35.790 --> 00:04:40.189 has gotten to your bones. You were there when 00:04:40.189 --> 00:04:46.420 he fed the 5 ,000. You know a woman. In Capernaum, 00:04:46.420 --> 00:04:48.660 whose daughter can see out of both eyes now. 00:04:50.579 --> 00:04:55.040 And four days ago, word came up the road from 00:04:55.040 --> 00:04:59.819 Bethany. It passed mouth to mouth, through pilgrim 00:04:59.819 --> 00:05:03.300 column after pilgrim column, like a prairie fire. 00:05:04.819 --> 00:05:08.139 That he had called a dead man out of the tomb. 00:05:09.319 --> 00:05:15.410 A man named Lazarus, four days dead. Sealed in 00:05:15.410 --> 00:05:20.589 rock. And Jesus stood at the mouth of that cave 00:05:20.589 --> 00:05:24.970 and said his name. And the dead man walked out 00:05:24.970 --> 00:05:31.069 wrapped in burial linen. You believed that happened 00:05:31.069 --> 00:05:33.829 because you know three people who were standing 00:05:33.829 --> 00:05:37.230 right in front of him when it happened. And now 00:05:37.230 --> 00:05:40.810 you're walking towards Jerusalem behind the man 00:05:40.810 --> 00:05:45.569 who did it. And something in your chest feels 00:05:45.569 --> 00:05:51.290 like the morning before a thunderstorm. That 00:05:51.290 --> 00:05:57.170 pressure change in the electricity. The sense 00:05:57.170 --> 00:06:03.189 that the air itself is crackling. A thousand 00:06:03.189 --> 00:06:07.589 years before your feet ever hit this road, another 00:06:07.589 --> 00:06:12.990 anointed man climbed this same ridge. on a borrowed 00:06:12.990 --> 00:06:19.730 animal, heading the other direction. David, fleeing 00:06:19.730 --> 00:06:26.930 his own son, weeping barefoot, going up the Mount 00:06:26.930 --> 00:06:31.410 of Olives while his kingdom unraveled behind 00:06:31.410 --> 00:06:35.889 him. You don't know that story the way a scribe 00:06:35.889 --> 00:06:37.970 knows it, but you know it the way a son knows 00:06:37.970 --> 00:06:42.399 his father's voice. Somewhere underneath everything 00:06:42.399 --> 00:06:47.920 else. Somewhere in the place where the Psalms 00:06:47.920 --> 00:06:54.839 sit. The hill remembers. And you, you are about 00:06:54.839 --> 00:06:58.300 to find out what it has been waiting for. Friends, 00:06:58.420 --> 00:07:01.819 attune your ears to the reading of Holy Scripture. 00:07:02.699 --> 00:07:05.120 Our passage comes to us this morning from the 00:07:05.120 --> 00:07:08.300 Gospel account according to Mark, the 11th chapter 00:07:08.300 --> 00:07:12.720 beginning with verse 1. When they came near to 00:07:12.720 --> 00:07:18.139 Jerusalem to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount 00:07:18.139 --> 00:07:21.899 of Olives, he sent two of his disciples and said 00:07:21.899 --> 00:07:24.660 to them, Go your way into the village that is 00:07:24.660 --> 00:07:29.000 opposite you. Immediately as you enter into it, 00:07:29.000 --> 00:07:32.779 you will find a young donkey. on which no one 00:07:32.779 --> 00:07:38.759 has sat. Untie him and bring him. If anyone asks 00:07:38.759 --> 00:07:42.319 you, why are you doing this? Say the Lord needs 00:07:42.319 --> 00:07:45.519 him and immediately he will send him back here. 00:07:46.819 --> 00:07:53.180 Then he went away and found a young donkey tied 00:07:53.180 --> 00:07:55.560 at the door outside of an open street and they 00:07:55.560 --> 00:07:59.870 untied him. Some of those who stood there asked, 00:08:00.029 --> 00:08:03.430 what are you doing untying the young donkey? 00:08:04.009 --> 00:08:07.910 They said to them, just as Jesus had said, and 00:08:07.910 --> 00:08:11.250 they let them go. They brought the young donkey 00:08:11.250 --> 00:08:13.709 to Jesus and threw their garments on it, and 00:08:13.709 --> 00:08:18.769 Jesus sat on it. Many spread their garments on 00:08:18.769 --> 00:08:22.689 the way. Others were cutting branches off of 00:08:22.689 --> 00:08:27.050 trees and spreading them on the way. Those who 00:08:27.050 --> 00:08:30.370 went in front and those who followed cried out, 00:08:30.430 --> 00:08:34.389 Hosanna. Blessed is the one who comes in the 00:08:34.389 --> 00:08:37.950 name of the Lord. Blessed is the kingdom of our 00:08:37.950 --> 00:08:40.509 father David that is coming in the name of the 00:08:40.509 --> 00:08:47.590 Lord. Hosanna in the highest. Jesus entered into 00:08:47.590 --> 00:08:51.789 the temple in Jerusalem and when he looked around 00:08:51.789 --> 00:08:57.960 at everything, it being now evening, He went 00:08:57.960 --> 00:09:04.679 out to Bethany with the twelve. The sins. Reading 00:09:04.679 --> 00:09:08.059 Holy Scripture this morning. He looked around 00:09:08.059 --> 00:09:17.120 at everything. And he left. I want to talk for 00:09:17.120 --> 00:09:22.440 a second about your cloak. Not his cloak. Sorry. 00:09:22.539 --> 00:09:27.120 Your cloak. Yours. The one you have been sleeping 00:09:27.120 --> 00:09:32.480 in this last six nights. The one that has been 00:09:32.480 --> 00:09:34.639 your blanket, your pillow, your ground cover, 00:09:34.799 --> 00:09:39.460 your rain jacket since you left home. Torah says 00:09:39.460 --> 00:09:43.919 in Exodus 22 that if someone takes your cloak 00:09:43.919 --> 00:09:48.740 as collateral for a debt, they have to give it 00:09:48.740 --> 00:09:53.559 back to you before sundown. Because a man without 00:09:53.559 --> 00:09:58.210 a cloak at night has nothing at all between himself 00:09:58.210 --> 00:10:03.210 and the cold. And that's not a metaphor. That's 00:10:03.210 --> 00:10:08.669 first century Galilee. If you're poor, you are. 00:10:09.370 --> 00:10:13.929 Your cloak is the most practical thing you own. 00:10:15.190 --> 00:10:20.710 Mark says, many spread their garments on the 00:10:20.710 --> 00:10:27.889 way. That's you. You took off the most necessary 00:10:27.889 --> 00:10:32.649 thing on your back and you laid it on a dirt 00:10:32.649 --> 00:10:36.649 road so that a borrowed donkey carrying your 00:10:36.649 --> 00:10:43.230 rabbi might walk across it, might walk across 00:10:43.230 --> 00:10:49.590 it, might step around it, might, and I need you 00:10:49.590 --> 00:10:53.220 to sit with this for a second, might. Do what 00:10:53.220 --> 00:10:57.399 donkeys do on dirt roads, right on top of the 00:10:57.399 --> 00:11:03.860 very best thing you own. You don't care. You 00:11:03.860 --> 00:11:08.019 did it anyway. Not because someone told you to. 00:11:08.299 --> 00:11:11.659 Not because you saw someone else do it first 00:11:11.659 --> 00:11:15.519 and figured you were just keeping up. You did 00:11:15.519 --> 00:11:19.700 it because something in you recognized this moment 00:11:19.700 --> 00:11:24.269 the way you recognize thunder. You can't see 00:11:24.269 --> 00:11:28.529 it, but you can feel it in your feelings. The 00:11:28.529 --> 00:11:32.309 only thing you know to do with a feeling that 00:11:32.309 --> 00:11:38.529 big is to give something of value away. And that's 00:11:38.529 --> 00:11:43.690 faith. Not a creed, not a church doctrine, not 00:11:43.690 --> 00:11:46.330 a position on the resurrection you've worked 00:11:46.330 --> 00:11:50.309 out in your head. Faith is taking off the thing 00:11:50.309 --> 00:11:53.620 you need most. and putting it on the ground in 00:11:53.620 --> 00:11:56.440 front of a donkey because the man on that donkey 00:11:56.440 --> 00:12:00.379 did something to death four days ago, and you 00:12:00.379 --> 00:12:04.620 have decided with your hands, with your back, 00:12:04.820 --> 00:12:07.259 with the shiver you're going to feel tonight 00:12:07.259 --> 00:12:09.679 when the sun goes down, when that cloak isn't 00:12:09.679 --> 00:12:15.179 there, that this man is worth it. Now I need 00:12:15.179 --> 00:12:20.220 to tell you what you think is happening. Because... 00:12:20.919 --> 00:12:24.600 What you think is happening in this moment matters. 00:12:26.100 --> 00:12:30.700 You think this is a coronation. I don't mean 00:12:30.700 --> 00:12:33.940 you think that Jesus is going to walk into Herod's 00:12:33.940 --> 00:12:37.200 palace and sit down on the throne. You're not 00:12:37.200 --> 00:12:42.879 stupid. But you know your scriptures. You know 00:12:42.879 --> 00:12:47.539 Zechariah 9. Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion. 00:12:48.340 --> 00:12:52.659 Behold. Your king comes to you righteous and 00:12:52.659 --> 00:12:57.940 having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey. 00:12:59.500 --> 00:13:02.779 You know that palm branches aren't decorations. 00:13:03.500 --> 00:13:08.080 They're political. When the Maccabees retook 00:13:08.080 --> 00:13:12.220 the temple 160 years before you were born, people 00:13:12.220 --> 00:13:15.299 waved palm branches to celebrate the liberation. 00:13:17.519 --> 00:13:22.200 You know what Hosanna means. It's not praise 00:13:22.200 --> 00:13:33.019 God. It's Hebrew. Hosanna. Save us. Not later. 00:13:33.179 --> 00:13:41.039 Not when we die. Save us. Now. Today. On the 00:13:41.039 --> 00:13:47.149 road. You're shouting, save us now. And waving 00:13:47.149 --> 00:13:52.029 the symbol of military liberation at a man on 00:13:52.029 --> 00:13:56.029 a peace animal. And the contradiction hasn't 00:13:56.029 --> 00:14:00.450 hit you yet because the adrenaline is so loud 00:14:00.450 --> 00:14:03.250 you can hear your own heartbeat in your ears. 00:14:05.070 --> 00:14:09.350 You think this is the week that changes everything. 00:14:11.289 --> 00:14:17.129 Rome loses. The temple gets cleaned out. The 00:14:17.129 --> 00:14:21.649 kingdom of David, your David, the shepherd king, 00:14:21.950 --> 00:14:26.090 the one who killed Goliath, the one who wrote 00:14:26.090 --> 00:14:30.909 the Psalms, that kingdom is coming back. The 00:14:30.909 --> 00:14:33.570 man on the donkey is the one who's going to do 00:14:33.570 --> 00:14:38.730 it. That is what blessed is the kingdom of our 00:14:38.730 --> 00:14:41.870 father, David. That's what that's all about. 00:14:42.279 --> 00:14:44.899 That's what you mean when it comes to your mouth. 00:14:45.539 --> 00:14:49.039 You're not speaking theology. You're making a 00:14:49.039 --> 00:14:55.100 prediction. And here's what makes that ache. 00:14:56.580 --> 00:15:03.179 You're not wrong. Not entirely. He is the Messiah. 00:15:03.419 --> 00:15:09.259 The kingdom is coming. Everything is about to 00:15:09.259 --> 00:15:14.000 change. You just have no idea what change is 00:15:14.000 --> 00:15:19.000 actually going to look like. You're waving palm 00:15:19.000 --> 00:15:22.799 branches at a man who is riding towards a cross. 00:15:25.080 --> 00:15:30.179 You are shouting, save us now at the one who 00:15:30.179 --> 00:15:34.740 will. Just not by the end of this week and not 00:15:34.740 --> 00:15:39.059 by removing Rome. Not without a cost that would 00:15:39.059 --> 00:15:41.980 make you pick your cloak up off the road and 00:15:41.980 --> 00:15:45.059 run the other way if you could see it from here. 00:15:46.419 --> 00:15:52.000 But you can't see it. So you keep shouting. And 00:15:52.000 --> 00:15:54.820 the shouting feels like the truest thing you 00:15:54.820 --> 00:15:58.580 have ever done. But here's what I need you to 00:15:58.580 --> 00:16:03.480 notice. Because Mark... does something at the 00:16:03.480 --> 00:16:06.500 end of the story that everybody skips and nobody 00:16:06.500 --> 00:16:14.080 should. Verse 11. After the parade, after the 00:16:14.080 --> 00:16:16.340 hosanna and the palm branches and the cloaks 00:16:16.340 --> 00:16:21.440 on the road and the whole glorious, dusty, electric 00:16:21.440 --> 00:16:25.320 procession through the gates, up the hill to 00:16:25.320 --> 00:16:28.440 the temple, Mark says, Jesus entered into the 00:16:28.440 --> 00:16:32.100 temple in Jerusalem. When he had looked around 00:16:32.100 --> 00:16:35.620 at everything, it being now evening, he went 00:16:35.620 --> 00:16:41.399 out to Bethany with the twelve. He walked into 00:16:41.399 --> 00:16:48.940 the temple. He looked around, and he left. No 00:16:48.940 --> 00:16:52.779 speech, no overturning of the tables yet. That's 00:16:52.779 --> 00:16:57.059 tomorrow. No confrontation with the priests, 00:16:57.179 --> 00:17:02.080 no declaration. He just looked. The Greek word, 00:17:02.240 --> 00:17:06.559 I'm not even going to try this one, but the Greek 00:17:06.559 --> 00:17:09.240 word here for look around, it means to look around 00:17:09.240 --> 00:17:14.619 carefully, carefully, deliberately. The way you 00:17:14.619 --> 00:17:17.099 survey a room before you decide what needs to 00:17:17.099 --> 00:17:21.160 happen in it. Jesus stands at the center of the 00:17:21.160 --> 00:17:24.680 temple complex at the climax of the most dramatic 00:17:24.680 --> 00:17:30.769 entrance in Jewish history. He looks at everything 00:17:30.769 --> 00:17:37.769 and he says nothing. And he walks back to Bethany. 00:17:39.569 --> 00:17:45.069 And if you're the pilgrim standing there watching, 00:17:45.329 --> 00:17:50.849 that's the first crack. You expected thunder. 00:17:53.109 --> 00:17:58.549 You got silence. You expected the kingdom to 00:17:58.549 --> 00:18:01.430 start tonight, and instead the king looked around 00:18:01.430 --> 00:18:07.029 and went to bed. And I think that is a mercy, 00:18:07.130 --> 00:18:11.069 even though it doesn't feel like one. Because 00:18:11.069 --> 00:18:15.089 what's coming this week, tables overturned on 00:18:15.089 --> 00:18:17.430 Monday, the confrontation with the Pharisees 00:18:17.430 --> 00:18:20.309 on Tuesday, the teaching in the temple courts, 00:18:20.410 --> 00:18:23.029 the anointing at Bethany, the upper room, the 00:18:23.029 --> 00:18:27.349 garden, the arrest. All of that is coming, but 00:18:27.349 --> 00:18:31.670 not tonight. Tonight, Jesus looks and leaves. 00:18:32.950 --> 00:18:36.369 Tonight, prayed ends, not with a coronation, 00:18:36.410 --> 00:18:39.109 but with a man walking two miles back to the 00:18:39.109 --> 00:18:43.630 village to eat dinner. Kingdom doesn't work on 00:18:43.630 --> 00:18:48.789 your schedule, but that's not a failure. It's 00:18:48.789 --> 00:18:52.069 a kind of patience you haven't learned yet. And 00:18:52.069 --> 00:18:59.130 by Friday, He'll have wished you had. So here's 00:18:59.130 --> 00:19:02.809 where I need you to stay for a second. You're 00:19:02.809 --> 00:19:06.349 standing in the temple courtyard. Crowd is thinning 00:19:06.349 --> 00:19:10.769 now. The evening light is coming in low through 00:19:10.769 --> 00:19:13.869 the columns. Jesus is gone. Back to Bethany. 00:19:13.990 --> 00:19:16.690 Back over the hill. You have just walked down. 00:19:18.150 --> 00:19:20.789 And the energy that carried you through the gates 00:19:20.789 --> 00:19:25.470 is. Draining out of your legs like water. You're 00:19:25.470 --> 00:19:31.930 tired. You're confused. And your cloak. Still 00:19:31.930 --> 00:19:35.950 on the road somewhere behind you. Getting stopped 00:19:35.950 --> 00:19:39.430 on by every pilgrim who came in after you did. 00:19:40.490 --> 00:19:46.849 You are going to sleep cold tonight. And tomorrow. 00:19:48.259 --> 00:19:50.519 Tomorrow the week is going to start moving and 00:19:50.519 --> 00:19:53.279 it is going to move faster than you can follow. 00:19:54.819 --> 00:19:57.299 And by Thursday night, something will happen 00:19:57.299 --> 00:20:01.559 in a garden that you will not hear about until 00:20:01.559 --> 00:20:06.680 sometime late Friday morning, maybe. And by then, 00:20:06.700 --> 00:20:10.779 by then it will be too late for you to do anything. 00:20:11.950 --> 00:20:14.750 But stand outside the walls of the holy city 00:20:14.750 --> 00:20:18.430 and wonder what happened while you were sleeping 00:20:18.430 --> 00:20:25.589 that night. But right now, right now, you're 00:20:25.589 --> 00:20:28.289 standing in the place you have walked 80 miles 00:20:28.289 --> 00:20:34.450 to reach. And your rabbi is the man you believe 00:20:34.450 --> 00:20:39.170 him to be. And you gave him the best thing you 00:20:39.170 --> 00:20:44.180 had. And nobody made you do it. And you'd do 00:20:44.180 --> 00:20:48.420 it again. And that's the part I want you to hold 00:20:48.420 --> 00:20:54.160 on to. Not because Friday isn't coming. It is. 00:20:55.799 --> 00:21:00.299 But because the faith that puts a cloak on the 00:21:00.299 --> 00:21:03.240 ground for a donkey that might not even step 00:21:03.240 --> 00:21:08.720 on it, that faith is not naive. And it's not 00:21:08.720 --> 00:21:12.970 foolish. It's the realest thing in this story. 00:21:13.809 --> 00:21:16.970 Realer than the politics, realer than the Pharisees 00:21:16.970 --> 00:21:20.509 calculating the crowd, realer than the system 00:21:20.509 --> 00:21:25.029 already assembling to give its verdict in a back 00:21:25.029 --> 00:21:30.309 room that you will never see. Now, Wednesday 00:21:30.309 --> 00:21:33.650 night, I showed you what happened at the tomb 00:21:33.650 --> 00:21:37.430 in Bethany, how resurrection got loose and the 00:21:37.430 --> 00:21:41.160 crowd split in half. Believers and reporters, 00:21:41.480 --> 00:21:47.880 same miracle, two different walks home. The reporters 00:21:47.880 --> 00:21:52.559 filed their briefing. The believers walked this 00:21:52.559 --> 00:21:56.579 road and threw their cloaks down. And you're 00:21:56.579 --> 00:22:01.920 the believer. You're on the road. And the man 00:22:01.920 --> 00:22:05.019 you are shouting for is worth every thread in 00:22:05.019 --> 00:22:08.000 the cloak and every mile on those aching feet 00:22:08.000 --> 00:22:10.759 of yours. Even though he's heading somewhere 00:22:10.759 --> 00:22:18.000 you would not follow if you knew. And you don't 00:22:18.000 --> 00:22:25.140 know. Not yet. So shout while you can. Mean it 00:22:25.140 --> 00:22:29.369 while you can. Stand in the temple courtyard 00:22:29.369 --> 00:22:32.670 in the fading light and let the silence of his 00:22:32.670 --> 00:22:36.029 departure sit in your chest like a stone you 00:22:36.029 --> 00:22:41.049 can't put name to. And Friday, Friday, I'll show 00:22:41.049 --> 00:22:43.670 you what happened while you were sleeping outside 00:22:43.670 --> 00:22:49.430 of those walls. That's Friday. Today, today's 00:22:49.430 --> 00:22:52.990 Palm Sunday. Your cloak, cloak's now on the road. 00:22:54.390 --> 00:23:00.400 You don't want it back. So, may the God who rides 00:23:00.400 --> 00:23:02.980 borrowed donkeys into holy cities meet you wherever 00:23:02.980 --> 00:23:08.640 you are standing today. Tired, hopeful, not sure 00:23:08.640 --> 00:23:12.319 what happens next. May your faith be the kind 00:23:12.319 --> 00:23:16.319 that gives before it understands. And when this 00:23:16.319 --> 00:23:21.359 week gets darker, darker than you expected, may 00:23:21.359 --> 00:23:26.059 you remember you were on the road. You were there. 00:23:27.119 --> 00:23:29.920 And that cloak you laid down was never wasted. 00:23:30.960 --> 00:23:34.720 Even if the donkey walked right past it. Amen. 00:23:35.500 --> 00:23:43.619 Amen. Maybe you're still standing in that temple 00:23:43.619 --> 00:23:47.220 courtyard. The noise gone quiet. The energy drained 00:23:47.220 --> 00:23:50.720 out of the moment. You meant it. And that's what 00:23:50.720 --> 00:23:53.500 matters. You laid something down because you 00:23:53.500 --> 00:23:56.279 believed he was worth it even if you didn't understand 00:23:56.279 --> 00:23:59.920 what you were stepping into. And maybe that's 00:23:59.920 --> 00:24:03.559 where you are right now. Somewhere between Hosanna 00:24:03.559 --> 00:24:06.539 and whatever comes next. Trying to make sense 00:24:06.539 --> 00:24:09.319 of a road that didn't turn out the way you thought 00:24:09.319 --> 00:24:13.500 it would. Hear me. What you gave wasn't wasted. 00:24:13.700 --> 00:24:16.769 Not your faith, not your trust. not the thing 00:24:16.769 --> 00:24:19.630 you laid down when it felt real in your bones. 00:24:19.730 --> 00:24:24.670 Stay with him, even here, especially here. And 00:24:24.670 --> 00:24:27.730 hey, if something in this stirred you, if you 00:24:27.730 --> 00:24:29.589 heard something you hadn't heard before, something 00:24:29.589 --> 00:24:33.369 finally clicked, toss that old like in the offering 00:24:33.369 --> 00:24:36.089 plate, no pressure, just your way of saying I 00:24:36.089 --> 00:24:39.190 was here and it mattered. And if you want to 00:24:39.190 --> 00:24:42.490 keep walking with us through Holy Week into Resurrection 00:24:42.490 --> 00:24:46.220 Sunday, go ahead and tie that subscribe. So you 00:24:46.220 --> 00:24:49.099 won't miss where we're headed to next. Because 00:24:49.099 --> 00:24:52.079 we'll be moving again soon. And until then, be 00:24:52.079 --> 00:24:52.420 blessed.