“Crisis brings opportunities” and “Necessity is mother of invention.” Many decades, we have been doing different things and today we are “doing things differently.”
Christians across the globe have celebrated Palm Sunday in a very unique way altogether in spite of a lockdown locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. The lockdown could not stop them from worshiping God on a Palm Sunday commemorating the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ riding on a donkey in the streets of Jerusalem.
Many churches around the world had gone Online who made use of high end to low end technologies, while many used the simple Facebook live and celebrated Palm Sunday in their homes, balconies, compounds, all who were not able to go to church as a result of the lockdown.
People living in rural and semi-urban areas were able to get palm branches and celebrated Palm Sunday with their families. In some towns and cities, Christians living in apartments came out and worshiped God corporately standing in their balconies maintaining social distancing (physically distant, but socially close).
Their hearts were united to praise God and glorify the name of the Lord in awe and wonder. This Spirit of God was hovering at every place of worship. Most importantly, people were confessing their sins, drawing closer to God, and crying unto God to deliver them and the world from this deadly virus, that has made the whole world come to a standstill which was never, ever anticipated even with the kind of increase in Science & Technology and Medicine that the nations were boasting of one over the other. The wealthiest nations had lost thousands of people to death, but had to bow down before God as their might, wealth, and technology could not save them and helped them to mitigate or yield any solutions, either.
This Palm Sunday was also very unique to the sick and the elderly who were unable to attend the church service regularly for weeks and months and for some, few years lying on the bed while their family members were going out to the sanctuary for worship, as their family members stayed back home and had a great time of worship together.
As the Palm Sunday explains the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ on the streets of Jerusalem in Israel, Christian across the world were seeking for God’s grace to triumph over coronavirus. On that day, the Israelite’s laid down their clothes and garments on the streets of Jerusalem and waved with palm branches to the son of David and the sons and daughters of Zion singing “Hosanna, Hosanna, blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord” “Blessed is the King of Israel.” John 12:13, and this Palm Sunday, Christians all over the world bowed down and fell on their knees and raised their hands to heaven upwards, worshiping God and pleading for triumph over this pandemic on behalf of their nations. They are pleading for deliverance for their loved ones, families, society, rulers, and nations to “deliver from the perilous pestilence.” Psalm 91:3.
God had proven His Might and Dominion, Glory and Power, Supremacy and Sovereignty over all, in likes of men who believed in Him and in the dislikes of humans who believed there is no God and for whom God does not matter, once again in our times.
The spirit of Palm Sunday has No Lockdown! – “For with God nothing shall be impossible.” Luke 1:37.