Howard Thurman, the great African American theologian, mystic and mentor to Martin Luther King Jr and the Civil Rights movement, once wrote that the most important question we must ask ourselves is: "Where are you going?" That is: What are you after? What are you really chasing or being drawn toward? Where we are going--what we are really after--will shape the choices and actions we make each day.
The Jesus we encounter on Palm Sunday seems out of place at first. After making a dramatic entrance, he makes his way to the Temple complex and starts flipping over tables and driving people out in a fit of holy indignation and judgment against a corrupt religious and political leadership.
Pastor Eric challenges us to consider: rather than being an aberration, or "out of place" for Jesus, perhaps this is where Jesus has been going the entire time; perhaps this is the capstone of Jesus' ministry; perhaps this is one more outflow of Jesus' deeper calling, perfectly consistent with the rest of his ministry. Perhaps we can't truly understand Jesus and his purpose--and certainly we cannot understand why he was crucified--apart from his actions at his fateful Passover entrance.
The question at the heart of this message for us to consider as well is: "Where are YOU going?"--more than a job, or a family, or a career, or security, or being well-liked... what are you really after? What is it that can really give your life meaning--can continue to live on even when you are no longer physically here? How might asking this question of ourselves change the choices and actions you make each day?
