Palm Sunday Message: Pure and Unconditional Love

For Palm Sunday today, enjoy the following message from former pastor and contributor, Paul Meier.

I lived a significant part of my life deeply entwined in the Christian tradition. Although it was an important building block in my personal journey, I have moved beyond many of those beliefs. Still Palm Sunday seems an appropriate time for a meditation related to the beginning of Christianity’s “Holy Week.” It is a time of remembering stories that culminated in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, an Enlightened man. His life and teachings continue to positively direct humanity today. So I will share some thoughts for people of any spiritual inclination to consider adding to their daily meditations. These comments are my personal deductions developed from my own translations of the letters of the apostle Paul.

Palm Sunday got its name from a story about Jesus riding a donkey into the city of Jerusalem. His followers waved palm branches in the air and placed them on the ground ahead of him as he entered the city. This event took place at the beginning of a Jewish festival week known as the Passover, an annual celebration of an earlier time when the Jews were released from bondage in Egypt. The people surrounding Jesus were reported to have been shouting, “Hosanna,” for which the literal meaning is, “Save us now.” That is the backstory.

My opinion for why Jesus chose to ride into Jerusalem at this time is different from how later Christians interpreted it. Paul wrote that Jesus was given the daunting task of representing what the Infinite Source might look like in a human form. Many have called Jesus the “son” of God. The Greek word huios means son, but it can also be interpreted as a representative, a representation, a personification, an archetype, and even a student. In his writings, Paul said all people are “sons and daughters of God.”

Quantum physicists have pointed to consciousness as being the matrix or substance of all matter. Paul wrote that the Holy Essence is within us. It is not separate from us. It is us. Jesus came to improve the image of the unknown Higher Power above what was believed in that age, and he came to be an example for us to imitate. I think many people, religious and nonreligious alike, agree that the example of Jesus is worthy of imitating regardless of who they choose as their spiritual teacher.