Notes from today’s Palm Sunday Service Message. Covers what I actually shared, more or less:
National Siblings’ Day was April 10, 2025… so I remember my brothers. On the off chance that they’re watching online, well, I want them to know that I thank God for them.
It wasn’t always like that. It was 2-on-1 for me. They teamed up against me when I was younger, and they were pretty brutal about it. My Mom would tell me about how while I was a baby, Kip would make faces of disdain against me. Later on, they would bully me and take advantage of me being immediately defensive, and being ‘pikon‘, or easily irritated. Pep knew how much I enjoyed reading comics, and he would always threaten taking them away and hiding them if I didn’t step in line. Kip loved to scare me every chance he got because he got a kick off of the funny faces I made. They’d also team up, interchanging between laughing and making faces to mimic how I was pissed.
Of course, it wasn’t like it was their mission in life to bring me down. If anything, by God’s grace, I actually learned the value of brotherhood more from what they were doing. Through all of it, it was love that shined, and it’s what endures, up until today.
Yesterday, I was at a wedding. No, not mine. There, I was reminded of a lot of things: The value of good upbringing, and, well, the patience it takes to maintain a marriage.
2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. 3 For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4 But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. 5 For each will have to bear his own load.
6 Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches. 7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. 9 And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. 10 So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.
Galatians 6:2-10
What’s the motivation for our bearing one another’s burdens? For sharing all good things? For doing good to everyone, and not growing weary of doing good? It all comes from a foundation of love.
What’s the motivation for forgiving other people’s faults? For looking through the pranks and the petty issues? It also comes from a foundation of love.
8 Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” 10 And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” 11 And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”
Matthew 21:8-11
7 And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it. 8 And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. 9 And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!”
Mark 11:7-10
36 And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. 37 As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, 38 saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” 39 And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” 40 He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”
Luke 19:36-40
12 The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. 13 So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” 14 And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written,
15 “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!”
16 His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him. 17 The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. 18 The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.”
John 12:12-20
What’s the foundation of love?
Something else about the Wedding: There was that picture I took. The Father was giving his daughter as a bride to the Groom.
Palm Sunday? The Father was giving His Son as a groom to the bride: Jerusalem, and the rest of the world.
We were given each other.
This Holy Week, let us reflect.
Let us love one another. Let us forgive one another. Let us support one another.
But above all, let us look beyond ourselves, and into the distance: For, ‘Behold, your salvation comes; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.‘
Until the next post, may the Lord bless us all. Amen. Amen.
Let’s have a good week ahead!
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