Erin Haligowski, Dayton, OH

Warm-up Question

Who are the people in your life who have had the most tremendous influence on who you are as a person and how you live your life and faith? What is it that makes/made those people influential?

With Joy and Freedom

Pastors, teachers, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and coaches: so many people significantly influence our life and faith as we are “becoming” and growing into who God created us to be. It takes a special kind of love, engagement, and patience to shapepeople over a long period of time.

For fans of college basketball, this year’s March Madness tournament was truly madness. Upsets and underdogs, buzzer-beaters and overtime – and underneath all the chaos, some truly inspiring stories – especially if you’re willing to dig a little. Take, for example, NCAA Division II Women’s Basketball, and the undefeated Eagles of Ashland University (Ashland, Ohio). The 2017 National Champions had built for themselves a 73-game winning streak under the leadership of head coach Robin Fralick – the fifth longest win streak in NCAA basketball history, any division, men’s or women’s.

As they went into their Final Four matchup, Coach Robin Fralick told the girls to “play with joy and freedom,” and in that game, that is exactly what those girls did. They played an incredible game that led them to back-to-back National Championship games. And then, in a heartbreaking loss to Central Missouri, the historic winning streak and second-in-a-row perfect season came to an end.

In the post-game press conference, Coach Robin Fralick had these words to say:  “We talked in the locker room after the game; one game doesn’t define us. Our purpose is bigger than winning and losing. Being good at basketball doesn’t make you a role model. Being good at basketball gives you a platform to impact. I’m proud of them.” These words are so characteristic of Coach Fralick, who focuses as much on character as she does on basketball fundamentals and winning.

Read More about the Ashland University Women’s Basketball team here:

• https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-women/article/2018-03-20/5-remarkable-numbers-ashlands-record-setting-run
• http://www.richlandsource.com/sports/ashland_university/ashland-s-streak-ends-in-stunning-national-title-loss-to/article_09786ef2-2f09-11e8-b5c1-0f55b5bae6af.html

Discussion Questions

• Have you had a teacher or coach that truly inspired you?
• How did that person inspire you to grow as a person beyond skills or knowledge?
• In what ways do you see Jesus as a selfless teacher or coach, inspiring you to grow in faith?

Fourth Sunday of Easter

Acts 4:5-12

1 John 3:16-24

John 10:11-18

(Text links are to Oremus Bible Browser. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year B at Lectionary Readings

For lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic Agnus Day.

Gospel Reflection

In today’s gospel lesson, Jesus claims to be the “good shepherd,” who sacrificially leads his sheep and lays down his life for them. He cares for the sheep, and contrasts himself against the hired hand, who runs away because he doesn’t care for the sheep. The love of the “good shepherd” is the love of one who knows his sheep intimately beyond their “perceived” value of providing a livelihood. Jesus says, “I know my own [sheep] and my own [sheep] know me.”

If you know anything about sheep, you know they are actually pretty dumb animals. They have small brains, and need to be “kept” by a shepherd or penned up so that they don’t wander away into dangerous situations. That said, the one thing sheep can do is recognize the voice of their shepherd and follow it. As sheep in Jesus’ flock, we may not always make the right choices, but we can rest assured that we will recognize Jesus’ voice and follow it.

And, better yet – there is some really good news in here! Jesus refers to us as sheep – and he knows sheep. He doesn’t love us or save us based on our intelligence or usefulness or skill set. He loves and saves us because he knows us, and the ones he knows are the ones he loves.

In this Easter season, we see Jesus’ sacrificial love lived out through his death and resurrection, and also through this promise: “I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep and my sheep know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.” (vs. 14-15)

Discussion Questions

• How does viewing Jesus as the Good Shepherd help you to understand Jesus’ sacrificial love?
• What stands out to you in this passage?
• What connections can you make between the people you named earlier and Jesus, as our good shepherd? How are those people living as God’s image through their inspiration in your life?

Activity Suggestions

• Have students write letters of affirmation and thanks to the people they named earlier in the lesson who have inspired them. Encourage them to deliver them in person or mail them (if the person is still living).
• Sing the silly camp song “I Just Wanna Be a Sheep” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpYgYoNGM38) and talk about what it means to be a sheep in Jesus’ flock.
• Use a concordance to find other references in the bible to “sheep” or “shepherd” and talk about what connections you see in the use of that imagery throughout scripture.

Closing Prayer

Jesus, thank you for being our Good Shepherd and for guiding us with your loving voice. Please continue to guide us, and help us to follow you together. Watch over us. Protect us. Lead us. Help us to show your sacrificial love and care to those around us, so that everyone may come to know you as their Good Shepherd. In your holy name, amen.

Chris Heavner, Clemson, SC

 Warm-up Questions

• Have you ever (thought) you saw a ghost?
• Why might we be fearful of ghosts?
• Is a resurrected Jesus the same thing as a ghost?
• If you saw a resurrected Jesus would it be just as frightening as if you were seeing a ghost?

No Fear Here!

The students in the campus ministry group like to play a game called “Murder in the dark.”  They find a totally dark room, designate one person whose aim is to draw a finger across the throats of others before being discovered.  Bodies begin to pile up.  Silence is required.  Fear permeates the room.

There seems to be something “enjoyable” about being frightened.  We go to scary movies and we stand in long lines for thrill rides.  Jumping into the view of unsuspected persons with a shout is a perennial past-time of the adolescent-at-heart.

YouTube evan has a category for “ghost” videos.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkHJPOFFvN4.  Don’t watch alone!

But being frightened is not healthy for us and it surely aggravates the deep seated fears which plague the lives of too many of our friends.  Maybe we like to play childhood games which frighten us as a way of affirming that most of that which scares us is fleeting and not really scary at all.

Discussion Questions

• Have you experienced a scary trick being pulled on you? How frightening was it? Were you able to laugh when it was all over?
• When we choose to place ourselves in a frightening situation, we know it will end. Have you ever been in a situation when you were not sure the fright would come to an end?
• Too many of us have friends for whom fear is is a constant reality. Would it be helpful to name such persons, among your Church family, and offer prayers for them?
• Jesus often says “Do not be afraid.” Why do you think he says this so often?

Third Sunday of Easter

Acts 3:12-19

1 John 3:1-7

Luke 24:36b-48

(Text links are to Oremus Bible Browser. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year B at Lectionary Readings

For lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic Agnus Day.

Gospel Reflection

The official name for the kinds of encounters described in Luke 24 is “post-resurrection appearances.”  There are a half dozen of these, recorded in Matthew, Luke, and John.  (Mark has two alternative endings, added later in Church history.  But the oldest versions of Mark have no sightings of the resurrected Jesus.)

In Luke 24, Jesus isn’t seen at the tomb on Easter morning, but later that day he does join two of the disciples who are walking to Emmaus.  They do not recognize him until they are seated at the table, and Jesus takes bread and breaks it for them.  Immediately they return to Jerusalem and tell the others.  It is as they are still discussing this that “Jesus himself stood among them.”

When Jesus appears, they are frightened.  They ask whether it is really him, or a ghost.

While tradition encourages us to think Jesus shows his hands and feet so they may see the nail marks, it is more likely that Jesus knew the tests in the ancient near east for proving one is not a ghost.  You would examine the extremities of the body where bones were easily detected.  Another test was having teeth, and the ability to eat food.

Jesus does not want them to be afraid.  Those in fear cannot hear the good news of God’s love and compassion.  Those scared of the resurrected Jesus cannot ease into his comforting embrace.

Do not be afraid.  Know that God loves us and that God cares for us and that God will act in order to save us.  Fear is the emotion which stands opposite faith; not doubt.  We will forever have questions as to how a dead body is reanimated and/or how a resurrected Jesus could eat food.  Doubt does not rob us of faith.  But fear can.  And often does.

Jesus tells the disciples (those with him in Jerusalem and those reading this reflection) “Do not be afraid.”  He is no ghost.  He is the risen Messiah.  His eternal presence means we need not ever fear again.

Discussion Questions

• In what ways has the resurrected Jesus taken fear out of your life?
• Expressing doubt is the only way we can probe the thoughts which follow our convictions of faith. Name one thing of which you are unsure or find difficult to comprehend.
• Jesus speaks words to the disciples which he had spoken many times before, but this time they seem to be ready to hear these words. How might your teachers identify the times and places when you are best prepared to hear the good news?
• We should never be naive regarding the very real fears in the lives of too many of our friends and family. What might we do to be of aid to those so overwhelmed that suicide or bodily harm seem viable options? (Never shy away from telling your trusted youth leaders of comments made by persons who cannot sense God’s love for them.)
• Jesus says that those who hear his words are to be “witnesses of these things.” When can you be such a witness; and how?

Activity Suggestions

Watch a scary movie together.  Practically every scary movie follows a predictable pattern.  While it may break the mood, when you see an attempt to frighten you coming, begin to shout “Here it comes!”  Explore how ridiculous it is for us to be frightened by something we watch on a screen.  Ask how we might also put other fears into perspective; knowing that the very real presence of Jesus continually calms our fears.

As a group (and with someone holding your hand) go to a scary place.  Maybe a graveyard.  Maybe a dark room.  Perhaps a room full of strangers.  In this scary place, repeat the Easter proclamation:  “Christ is risen!  Christ is risen indeed!”  Allow this announcement to push back your fears and replace such emotions with the peace of Christ, that peace which passes all understanding.

Closing Prayer

O God of comfort, O God of Peace; allow us to experience your gifts.  Set aside our fears and assure us that in you all things are made right.  Amen.

Drew Tucker, Columbus, OH

Warm-up Question

What’s one goal that’s so important to you that you won’t give up until you have it? Why is it so important?

Stubborn Hope

We lost a hero recently. Linda Brown, whose name featured prominently in the 1964 Supreme Court Case Brown vs. Board of Education, died on March 25, 2018. In 1950, this 76-year-old Civil Rights champion attempted to enroll in an all-white elementary school in Topeka, Kansas. Young Linda’s father, Rev. Oliver Brown, attempted to register her for classes. When she was denied access, Rev. Brown sued the school on Linda’s behalf. The Supreme Court finally ruled in Linda’s favor in 1954, ensuring equal access to education for all people. She and her father Oliver lived to see the day, in 1956, when all schools in Topeka were officially integrated. Yet, as Linda lived much of her life in Kansas, she noticed that the end of official segregation policies didn’t eradicate the actual segregation of schools. In 1979, she reopened the case, claiming that Topeka schools weren’t, in fact, integrated, despite the Supreme Court’s ruling. Finally, in 1993, the court ruled in her favor, forcing new schools to be built and new policies to be enacted to ensure that integration was a lived reality for students in her hometown.

Linda’s struggle for the experience of true equality is not over. The process for integrating schools has been long and drawn out. Even as recently as 2016, some schools still utilized loopholes and local policies to enforce de facto segregation by race. While Linda didn’t live to see the absolute end of segregation, she did live to see the end of it within her world of Topeka, Kansas. She fought her entire life, as a child and as an adult, to ensure that children of color and white children would have the same access to education and the opportunity to learn together, eat together, play together, live life together. She would not give up until that goal was accomplished.

More about Linda Brown

A short video on her importance in the Civil Rights Movement

Discussion Questions

• How have you personally benefited from Linda Brown’s fight for integration and the ruling of Brown vs. Board of Education?
• Do you still see segregation in the world? If so, where?
• Imagine working your entire life for a goal this big. What would it take for you to commit to that lifelong effort?
• What, do you think, it felt like when Linda saw that integration hadn’t been accomplished by 1979? What do you think it felt like in 1993 when it became more of a reality?

Second Sunday of Easter

(Text links are to Oremus Bible Browser. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year B at Lectionary Readings

For lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic Agnus Day.

Gospel Reflection

There’s a lot going on in this story. First, the disciples are hiding because they are afraid. Why? Likely because people are starting to tell the story that they’ve heard whispered in the streets: Jesus’ body isn’t in his grave. The disciples are afraid because they know they didn’t take Jesus’ body, so something weird is going on. They’re also afraid because the Roman and Jewish authorities likely believed the disciples were responsible for taking Jesus’ body, trying to fake a resurrection and start a revolution against Rome. The disciples lock the doors because they’re afraid of what happened to Jesus and afraid of being blamed for whatever has happened since.

The risen Jesus doesn’t let a deadbolt stop him, though. He appears on the other side of the locked door, declares God’s peace to the disciples, and shows them the wounds in his hands and side. The overjoyed disciples then receive the Holy Spirit from Jesus, as well as the power to forgive sins (or not – yikes).

Well, almost everyone receives this presence and purpose. Thomas wasn’t there. Silly Thomas. When the others tell Thomas that he’s missed Jesus’ presence, Jesus’ gift of the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ mission to forgive the sins of the world, he replies: “Nah, bro. Unless I see his wounds, I won’t believe it’s true.” Well, that’s my paraphrase, anyway.  This is why people refer to Thomas as “Doubting Thomas,” because he was so dense as to doubt that a dead guy was alive again. I’m with Thomas, here. All of the other disciples saw Jesus’ hands and side. All Thomas wanted to see was what the other disciples saw: the fullness of Jesus before him.

There’s another reason that I think Thomas wanted to see Jesus before he’d believe it was truly Christ, alive from the dead. Earlier in John’s Gospel, when Jesus risks his own death at the hands of the Chief Priests, Scribes, and Pharisees in order to raise Lazarus from the dead, Thomas is the one who is willing to take that risk with Jesus. Thomas says to the other disciples, “Let us go, that we may die with him.” Thomas is so deeply committed to Jesus’ leadership that he’s willing to die for it just a few chapters earlier. He was so deeply committed to this goal, following Jesus, that when the other disciples shared a story of resurrection, Thomas would settle for nothing less than an experience of resurrection. Thomas stayed vigilant for the fullness of Christ, wounds and all, to ensure that the resurrection goal had been accomplished.

Discussion Questions

• Why do you think Jesus had scars after the resurrection?
• Jesus’s activity here is clearly miraculous. How would you respond if you witnessed a miracle, like the first disciples?
• How would you respond if, like Thomas, your friends told you something miraculous had happened?
• The last two verses of the scripture say that the Gospel according to John was written so that we might believe that Jesus is God’s Child, the Messiah. What in this story helps you to believe in Jesus? ‘
• Where do you see intersections between the story of Thomas and the story of Linda Brown?

Activity Suggestions

• If you can be outside or in a gymnasium, play games like Capture the Flag or American Eagle that emphasize a goal and a tactile element.
• Workshop with students their own stories of encountering Jesus, and encourage them to share those stories so that others might come to know God more.
• Do affirmations as a group.  Each person takes a turn to sit in the center or front of the group and hears affirmations of their faith and their presence in the church.  State explicitly how each affirmation is to strengthen them as they pursue God-given goals, like Linda Brown and Thomas.

Closing Prayer

God of life, you invite us all into the same classroom to learn of your love and send us each to share it with every person we encounter. Help us to share your story with others, so that they, like Thomas, want to see you, touch you, and know the fullness of your presence. Thank you for showing up in the locked doors of our hearts and offering us your peace, your Spirit, and your forgiveness. We thank you, Jesus, and we love you. Amen.

Brett Davis, Washington, DC

Warm-up Question

Are you a creature of habit?  Do you like routine/structure?

Extreme Happiness

Alexsander Gamme is a Norweigan adventurer and explorer who has seen some incredible sights.  He’s summited Everest and been to some of the wildest, highest, and most remote places in the world.  He might be a bit of an adrenaline junkie – but maybe even that can become habit?

A video from one of his expeditions went viral a few years ago and has since been picked up on several news stories because it is one of the purest, most unbridled displays of sheer joy.  The video is self-footage from day 86 of his solo South Pole expedition, and it’s the last leg of his journey.  He’s approaching the spot where his last stash of food and supplies is set.  It’s a routine thing, and although he is probably happy approaching it, he is tired, hungry, and calm.  He mutters and talks to himself as he digs the bag out of the snow, and then you see him calmly opening and describing its contents – until – there’s a pause and then just a shout of sheer joy – “YAAAAAAAAA!”

This is the happiest you’ve ever seen someone, certainly about a bag of Cheeze Doodles but probably anything else.  He then throws the bag high up in the air; it lands on the snow with a soft thud, as he continues screaming his happiness.  He continues unpacking other things, gear, and then another shiny package catches his eye – this time a king-size candy bar.  This discovery, and a couple other sweets he finds, leaves him laying on the snow clutching a bag of candy, giggling and yelling in a free and joyful way.

(The video is called “basic needs – extreme happiness,” and you can watch it here if you’re able.)

Gamme has commented later that he intentionally did not make notes or know what was in each pack, so that it would be a surprise.  He talks to himself and sounds so tired as he approaches and begins opening the pack – one news story about this included a rough translation: “He says in the beginning that he is so hungry. He wonders if they have left any goodies apart from the most important stuff. He finds Vaseline and wishes to find food. He doesn’t know if they have left anything to eat. And then he finds the snacks, cheese and candy. And before that, when he crawls back to the camera, he says he didn’t think there will be any, but you should never lose hope.”

Discussion Questions

• Have you ever experienced joy like this?
• If your packed lunch every day was the same thing, and then one day it was ___(you fill in the blank)___, how would you react?
• Do you think people fake this kind of joy sometimes?
• Can you think of some times, personal or not, when a very routine moment has been interrupted by joy?
• Do you think that real joy has to be a surprise?

Resurrection of our Lord

(Text links are to Oremus Bible Browser. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year B at Lectionary Readings

For lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic Agnus Day.

Gospel Reflection

We think of Easter as this special day, and this is, of course, a special story.  But not at first.  As the story begins, Jesus has died and everything has changed for his disciples.  What are they to do now?  We’re not sure what the men are doing at this point in Mark’s gospel, but we know what the women do.

The women (Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome), are simply following routine.  Burial practices are a cultural practice, more elaborate than a habit like brushing your teeth or turning off lights when you leave a room, but still, this is a habit.

What’s striking is how normal this scene is.  At the very beginning of the passage is the note “when the Sabbath was over.”  This tells us that the women had done what they had done every Saturday – kept the Sabbath.  Even if grieving, they probably went through all the regular motions of their Sabbath day.  Then it’s Sunday morning, and they get up and do together what they would have done for any loved one who has died.  It seems special to us, but this is what would’ve been done for everyone – spices to prepare the body, caring for the tomb.  They ask the question “who will roll away the stone for us” because they’ve done this before.  As hard as it is, it’s also routine – like family members who might go to visit a loved one’s grave today and have to call ahead of time to make sure the cemetery gate will be open.

Jesus’ death didn’t change their routines.  Maybe the women are trying to use their routines to make sense of Jesus’ death.  While we all react differently to grief and shock, this is something that can be helpful – having things to do, routines to follow, words to say, and practices that help bring meaning.

This is a totally normal story – and should sound pretty ho-hum…  until they see the stone has been moved… and a “young man” sits there and tells them – “do not be alarmed.”  But they are, at first.  Something that was so routine has been totally interrupted.  Such an interruption can at first naturally bring fear – a part of our body’s shock reaction – but can blossom into joy.  Perhaps after everything that happened with Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion, the routine practices were needed, so that they could be interrupted by the joy of the resurrection.

Discussion Questions

• Do you find routine helpful in making something meaningful, or does it just get boring? (Possible examples: a bedtime “I love you” from a parent, a special way you and a friend greet each other, etc.)
• Do you find worship to be routine? Are there things that your church community does in worship every week?  Are they meaningful, stale, or both sometimes?
• Have you ever had a time when a routine was really helpful, so that you had something to do?
• Could routine help us notice the moments of sheer joy that happen? Can you think of any examples of this?

Activity Suggestions

How could your group share a taste of the experience that Gamme had with the cheez doodles and candy bar?  Brainstorm a few ways that you could bring joy into something that is so totally routine.  This could be as simple as writing encouragement on sticky notes and putting them somewhere that someone will encounter them while doing a very routine task.  This could be a way to bring resurrection joy to someone else today!

Closing Prayer

God of surprise, shock us.  Open us up to find joy in small things – like Cheez Doodles or a candy bar, or a smile – in the midst of the ordinary routines of life.  We thank you for the gift that life is sometimes boring, with peace and no stress.  Tomorrow, on Mondays and in all the ordinary stuff of life, help us to see you.  Give us patience and strength to follow you faithfully like the women at the tomb, and when joy breaks in, to shout like Gamme and let joy free.  Amen.

Dave Delaney, Salem, VA

Warm-up Questions

• Who doesn’t love a parade? When was the last time you saw one, or even were in one? Have you ever seen a passing motorcade of an arriving dignitary, either in person or by video?  What is going through the minds of those who pause to watch motorcade cars go by?  If you knew someone famous was coming to town who was either going to be the featured rider in a parade or arrive by motorcade, what would inspire you to go out of your way to go watch it in person?
• When you cheer for someone – say your school’s or city’s sports team – what kinds of things do you find yourself yelling to generate the most excitement? A lot of professional or even college teams have standard cheers that their fans have developed.  What kinds of cheers would we make up and yell if we knew that Jesus was coming to town?
• We are coming toward the end of the Lenten season. Did you take on any special extra faith-forming activities for Lent this year as people often do, such as depriving yourself of a certain food or treat?  How has that Lenten discipline gone this year for you?

Put Out the Red Carpet

Even before television got involved, the Academy Awards ceremony, held around the first week in March each year, has been preceded by “the red carpet,” where arriving celebrities are greeted by fans and the press as they enter the theater.  This has been going on at the Oscars since roughly 1922, although the tradition of putting out a red carpet as a sign of honoring dignitaries was common in medieval Europe and dates back possibly as far as 5th century BC Greece.

In recent years, the Oscars red carpet has been a place where making political statements has been possible, either by wearing some kind of extra decoration – a ribbon or a badge – or by giving (or denying!) an interview to one of the countless media outlets there.  Sometimes wearing a particular color or style has been taken up as representing support for a particular cause.  In 2018, with several high-profile concerns still in recent memory, including things like MeToo/Time’s Up and gun control, a number of celebrities took the opportunity to make statements, either aloud or symbolically, to call fans and the larger culture to awareness of some of these concerns.

Some history of the red carpet:  https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2014/08/red-carpet-history

Discussion Questions

• Does anyone watch red carpet coverage any more?  If so, is that kind of scrutiny – especially for appearance and style – sound like something you would want for yourself or are you just not cut out to be the celebrity type?
• Some think that entertainers in general have no business using their fame to advocate for any particular political stance, since they normally do not possess any special expertise in the causes they represent.  So if someone is that well known, does s/he have a responsibility to speak up for an important matter just because they’re famous, or should celebrities leave political opinions to policy makers and the general public?  When would it be okay for someone to use fame as an opportunity to advocate for a social or political position?
• Does it make a difference when the matter of concern is something that really affects the lives of the performers, like the treatment of women or inclusion of under-represented communities in the entertainment industry?

Palm Sunday/Sunday of the Passion

(Text links are to Oremus Bible Browser. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year B at Lectionary Readings

For lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic Agnus Day.

Gospel Reflection

Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem a few days before he was to be arrested, tried, and executed shows that he was already well-enough known that his presence could attract a red-carpet-like crowd.  Do we, then, see him using that notoriety to make statements of any kind?  We do, actually, but the messages he sends are subtle and perhaps not obvious to modern readers.

In ancient Israel, animals had some strong cultural associations.  In our own time, think of the lion at the beginning of MGM pictures or German Shepherds as police and military dogs.  From Israel’s earliest days in their promised land, the average subsistence level farming family living in the hilly center of the country would mostly likely have a donkey as one of their agricultural tools, a simple work animal that was stable on a hilly slope and did not require a lot of the farmer’s grain resources to be healthy, reliable, and effective.  Farmers working in flatter areas might use oxen to plow and thresh, but only in the flattest parts of the coastal plain next to the Mediterranean or the flattest valleys in Galilee would horses be present, requiring a lot of grain to be fed and representing military and political power far more than farming.

A king entering either a loyal or a newly-conquered city would almost certainly be seated on a horse.  The prophetic passage that is echoed in this story, however – Zechariah 9:9 – envisions the messianic king not on a horse but on a donkey – a humble hill-dweller’s animal – even on a colt of a donkey, so clearly would this king’s identification with common people be.  And so this king, Jesus, rides into the city not on a horse but very specifically on a donkey colt.

We don’t know exactly what the original onlookers meant when they were throwing branches and coats on the path, shouting “Hosanna!” and proclaiming the rebirth of great king David’s reign from a thousand years earlier.  To be sure it meant that they regarded Jesus as royalty, and “hosanna” basically means “please help (or save),” something that might well be shouted at a king. They could have meant that they were hoping for a revival of those old, glorious days, a rule that would mean the end of the Roman Empire’s occupation and a purification of worship and public life.  Or they could have meant that they understood quite well that this king was going to be different, reigning not from a place of superiority, but from a place of humility.  In either case, Jesus makes no red-carpet-like speeches, choosing rather to return back to his guest house in Bethany and, perhaps, contemplate the painful week that he knew was ahead of him.

Discussion Questions

• The long tradition of the Christian faith has often presented the city of Jerusalem as a symbol of our own hearts and lives.  How do we welcome Jesus into the places of our lives, both in the world of our inner spirit and thoughts as well as the places where we live and learn and play?  As silent as Jesus appeared to be (at least in Mark’s account of this day), those who welcomed him were not!  Do we welcome his presence in all areas of our lives or are we more likely to turn away or shut him out or try and turn him back for certain portions of life?  Do we hope that he’ll come in as a conqueror, sweeping all sorts of trouble from our lives, or do we see him as a disciple-maker, calling us by his example to a life of humility, service, and love for others?
• In all four gospels, we see crowds cheering Jesus’ at his entry into Jerusalem, but then calling for his crucifixion later in the week.  What expectations do you think they had that caused them to turn against him?  Have you ever felt let down by God when things you hoped or prayed for did not come to pass?  Did you feel let down enough to turn hateful?   It is tempting to think that we would never have been part of that Thursday crowd calling for Jesus to die, but at those times when we admit we might have, how then do we return to God, and how does God regard us despite our frustration and anger?
• Jesus showed tremendous courage by appearing in Jerusalem during Passover because of the political tension present during that time.  Strong feelings of desire for Jewish independence, stemming from the memory of Israel’s release from Egyptian slavery 1200 years earlier, could easily spark unrest, and someone like Jesus who could serve as a rallying point was exactly the kind of person the Roman rulers would hate to see appear.  What kind of courage do we need to show in representing God’s presence,  promise, and call to stand firm for justice and merciful treatment of those who are often not treated fairly?  Does the Palm Sunday story help us do that?

Activity Suggestions

• If you have a group that loves to dig through their Bibles, have them compare Mark’s very sparse account of Palm Sunday with the accounts in Matthew 21:1-9, Luke 19:28-38, and John 12:12-19.  What details does each gospel writer bring out?
• Invite your group to imagine what this event would look like in our own day and setting, say if it were made into a movie or short video and the place of entry was our own city or town.  How would Hollywood portray this story?  What elements (like the donkey or the palm branches) would have to be translated into modern equivalents and what would they become in our modern version?
• This is the beginning of what we call “Holy Week.”  What opportunities for extra worship, study, or devotion are available in your congregation or your community?  How do students plan to observe this week?  What will be different about it from an ordinary week?  Are there things we can do as a group to help each other take this week seriously and let it enhance our faith and understanding of being Christ’s followers?

Closing Prayer

Gracious Father, as your Son Jesus prayed to you at all times, but with special urgency during the last week of his life, we ask you to draw us into diligent and attentive prayer this week.  Let this Holy Week become for us a deep root from which a strong tree may grow and flourish.  We pray for all of God’s people in every place, that even if we find ourselves sometimes full of disappointment and hurt, you would turn our voices to Christ in praise and adoration, for he is our king, and we offer our worship, with you and the Holy Spirit.  In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.