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What Does God Sound Like?
An Excerpt from Speak, My Soul If we are to hear our own soul speak, we Read More
Melissa Tidwell | Read Luke 19:28-40
As Jesus enters the city, the crowd begins to throw their cloaks on the ground to make a carpet as if for a royal procession. They take up the joyful song of the disciples, a version of Psalm 118. The crowd changes “Blessed is the one who comes” to “Blessed...
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed are you Jesus, bringer of joy, bearer of good news. I will praise you with my heart and mind and voice. Amen.
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Psalm 118 is a song of rejoicing, yet it also includes the prophecy that the cornerstone must experience rejection. Isaiah speaks of physical suffering, of being beaten, disgraced, and spat on. We see elements of this in the Gospel reading, where Luke describes the final moments of Jesus’ life. Bloodied and beaten, Jesus hangs on the cross and breathes his last. In Philippians, Paul places this drama within the eternal narrative of God’s redeeming work. Jesus leaves his rightful place and becomes flesh. He experiences pain and suffering, even the most humiliating form of death, crucifixion. Jesus can empathize with our suffering because he has suffered. Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Read Isaiah 50:4-9a. How does the Suffering Servant speak to your life today?
Read Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29. How do you hear differently the familiar verses of this psalm when you read them together?
Read Philippians 2:5-11. Do you find it paradoxical to live as a beloved child of God and as a servant? If so, how do you live in this paradox?
Read Luke 19:28-40. How do you experience the extreme emotional highs and lows of Palm Sunday and Holy Week, even knowing how it will all turn out?
Respond by posting a prayer.
