LBW #121, “Ride On, Ride On, in Majesty”
Devotion
Ride on, ride on in majesty! Hear all the tribes hosanna cry;
O Savior meek, your road pursue, with palms and scattered garments strewed.
Ride on, ride on in majesty! In lowly pomp ride on to die.
O Christ, your triumphs now begin o’er captive death and conquered sin.
“Ride on in majesty!”—a paradoxical majesty, on a donkey. “Christ, your triumphs begin o’er captive death and conquered sin”—a paradoxical triumph, riding to death. As William Stringfellow said in Free in Obedience, Palm Sunday is not a day of triumph. Palm Sunday lives in the shadow of Easter. Easter is the day of triumph. Palm Sunday is the day of temptation for Christ and for the church, temptation to end in political triumph. The road Christ chooses leads to the triumph of a cross, for himself and for us. Palm Sunday is the Sunday of the Passion.
Prayer
Show us the way, O Christ, and lead us not into temptation. Amen.