Welcome,
Friend.
Thank you for joining me for the gift of sacred rest,
The Lenten season.
I'm Tanya Murphy of Rest in His Presence.
Today is Palm Sunday and something significant is in the air.
We're standing at the edge of Holy Week.
We are entering the most sacred stretch of the Christian calendar.
Let's take a breath before we move forward.
Let your body settle.
Let your mind begin to slow.
Let whatever has filled your morning or your day rest at the door for a moment.
You are here and that matters.
On this day,
As Jesus entered Jerusalem,
The crowd spread their cloaks on the road and cut branches from the trees.
They cried out,
Hosanna to the Son of David.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest heaven.
That's Matthew 21.
9.
The word Hosanna,
Let it stay with you.
Hosanna is not simply a word of praise.
It is a cry.
It means literally,
Save us,
Save us,
Lord,
Rescue us.
The crowd that day was waving branches and laying down cloaks,
A royal welcome.
They expected a king who would come in with military might.
They wanted a Messiah who would overthrow what oppressed them and restore their dominance.
And then Jesus came on a donkey.
And he knew,
He knew that within days,
Some of these same voices would be crying something very different.
Palm Sunday is a meditation on the nature of surrender.
Because Jesus enters Jerusalem,
Not in spite of knowing what's ahead,
But because of it.
He doesn't run.
He doesn't strategize an escape.
He surrenders to the path the Father has set before him.
Full knowledge,
Full obedience,
Full trust.
And here's the invitation for us.
Resting and trusting,
Even when the path is uncertain.
Even when we can see far enough ahead to be afraid.
Even when the road leads somewhere we wouldn't choose.
Surrender is not defeat.
Surrender is the most courageous form of trust.
It is placing your hand in the Father's and walking forward even when you cannot see the end.
Let's return to the word the crowds cried.
Let it become a prayer from your own heart.
Hosanna,
Save me,
Lord.
Rest here as long as you need.
I want to invite you into a gentle interior exploration.
Is there something in your life right now that you've been holding on to,
Holding tightly,
Because surrendering it feels too costly,
Too risky,
Too much like losing?
It might be control over a situation.
It might be a relationship,
An outcome.
A version of your life you've imagined.
It might be an identity you've built.
Jesus,
On this day,
Surrendered the power to save himself so that he could save everything else.
What might be God asking you to release so that something new can come?
Let your breath carry this prayer now.
Whisper it if you feel drawn to it or simply let it move through you internally.
Hosanna,
Save me,
Lord.
Let this prayer soften whatever is hard in you.
Let it open whatever has been closed.
Hosanna in the highest heaven.
As we close,
Carry this question into your week.
What does surrender look like for you today?
Not in the abstract,
In the specific,
In the particular,
In the honest place where God is asking you to lay down something you've been carrying.
Now take a final,
Full breath.
We are entering Holy Week.
It will be tender,
It will be sacred,
And it will ultimately lead somewhere that no amount of human strength could have produced on its own.
Follow Jesus into this week,
Not rushing ahead,
But walking with him step by step.
Hosanna.
Save us,
Lord.
Go gently,
Friend.
May goodness and mercy follow you.
