With all glory, laud, and honor to the Redeemer King, we enter Holy Week. This day we remember Jesus and his disciples making their way to Jerusalem. On the way, “the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!” (Luke 19:37–38). But there is another side to this joyful story. In Philippians 2:7–8 we read, “Being born in human likeness, and being found in human form,” Jesus “humbled himself, and became obedient to the point of death.” This, we understand, is how the week will end. Jesus, on his cloak-covered colt, his borrowed beast of burden, is also burdened. He knows where this hosanna-filled and palm-strewn path leads; Jesus knows death and resurrection cannot and will not be separated. “Lest we be fooled because our hearts have surged with passing praise, remind us, God, as this week starts where Christ has fixed his gaze.”* As we enter Holy Week, as we move through triumph to tragedy, and ultimately to resurrection, Barbara Brown Taylor encourages us to “focus on what he did, and what we are able to do because he did.” Today, as you join the triumphal procession, let your hosannas ring louder, deeper because you remember what Jesus, our Redeemer King found in human form, did.

Susan Jackson-Dowd, Executive Director, Presbyterian Women, Inc.