Daily Devotion – March 29, 2021 – Pastor Brian Hansen

Mark 11:1-11 

11When they were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples 2and said to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring it. 3If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately.’” 4They went away and found a colt tied near a door, outside in the street. As they were untying it, 5some of the bystanders said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” 6They told them what Jesus had said; and they allowed them to take it. 7Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it. 8Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. 9Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting, 

“Hosanna!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
10Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!” 

11Then he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple; and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve. 

The act of remembering was incredibly important in Jesus’ day. Not simply because Jesus lived in an oral culture, but because remembering the story and the people who have gone before plugged the people of Israel back into the story of who they were as a people and it reminded them of how God had accompanied them throughout their generational journey.

In fact, the day Jesus entered into Jerusalem on a donkey was all about remembering. It is the beginning of Passover, the Jewish festival which remembers the time when the Jewish people were freed from their slavery in Egypt. They would remember that story, their freedom from bondage and in remembering the story they would be invited to remember who they are and to whom they belonged. The story of Palm Sunday and the story of Passover is a story that invites us to remember who’s we are.

That act of remembering matters; it re-members us. It draws us back to each other.

Families who have a loved one that has died know this well.  When I meet with families that are grieving and, in the midst of that grief, are planning a funeral, we always take time to just start telling stories.  We remember together the good and the bad we remember how their lives touched our own.  And somehow through the remembering, the quilt that was this person’s life begins to take shape. And we find healing and wholeness and life as we are reminded and covered with love.

And so during this Holy Week, I want to invite you into the spiritual practice of remembering. Find one thing during each of the services this week to remember from this sacred story of ours. Not to make perfect sense of it, but to carry with you as you remember the story of God’s love that covers our lives.

Let us pray:  Gracious God who’s love draws us together, help us to remember the story of your love, your claiming, your grace in our lives and allow your story to shape our own, for we ask in Jesus name.  Amen