Many years have already passed, yet it still comes back. Yes, I tend to forget to write it because I don’t know how to put it into words. Even after all these years, I still feel drawn to go back and write about that experience.
Year after year, we celebrate the Passion Sunday or Palm Sunday. There are palm branches, the reenactment of Jesus’ entry into the temple, a kind of joy with a hint of pain, a vibrant Sunday leading up to Christ’s crucifixion.
What does the Triumphal Entry really mean to us? A culture celebration? A tradition? We may have our own definitions and explanations, but here’s the encounter back then in Garin Farm.
When I first took a picture of the Triumphal Entry station, nothing seemed unusual, so we left for the next station. However, I went back for reasons I could not explain. When I looked at it again, a scene suddenly flashed before me, and in my heart, I knew that I had to write about the revelation it brought to me.
The scene of the Triumphal Entry: the crowd gathers, cheering loudly, waving palm branches, and spreading their cloaks on the road. In the center, Jesus rides humbly on a donkey. People shout, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” Others from nearby villages join the procession. The air is filled with anticipation, joy, and a mixture of reverence and awe.
When I was still young in the Lord, these words puzzled me every Passion Sunday homily: “The people who shouted ‘Hosanna’ were the same ones who later cried, ‘Crucify Him.’” Yes, it was explained, and I understood it intellectually, but I knew there was something deeper in it, so the “why” and the “how” still lingered in my mind. It was only through that encounter that my understanding deepened.
Just like in the Triumphal Entry, we often praise God during good times, don’t we? We sing hymns and psalms, we dance, and we play music. Sometimes, we celebrate abundantly, but who among us truly praises Him in difficult times? It’s easy to lift our voices in joy, yet far harder to trust, obey, and worship Him when life is painful, confusing, or unfair.
Just like the crowd at the Triumphal Entry, we often cry “Hosanna” when things go well, yet our hearts may waver when trials come. How often do we, in moments of frustration or suffering, question God, resist His guidance, or even turn away? The challenge is not merely to rejoice with Him in sunshine, but to remain faithful in the storm, to let our praise be constant, not conditional.
Most of us wish we had lived during the time of Jesus, don’t we? But if we had been there, would we have been part of the crowd? Perhaps you would say that you would not have been part of that crowd but what about in our present time? Do we, in our own ways, still crucify Him? How?
We crucify Christ when we shift our loyalty away from Him, especially when our expectations are not met; when we fail to recognize who He truly is; when we resist Him because it costs us something; when we knowingly choose what is wrong instead of what is right; when we resist correction; and when we refuse to love and forgive others, among many other ways.
After that encounter, the celebration of Passion Sunday was never the same again. It was no longer merely a cultural event or a tradition, but a double-edged reflection of how we treat God.
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