The Victory Parade

 

I’ve had the privilege of seeing a few ticker tape parades down the “Canyon of Heroes” in lower Manhattan in New York City.  One was for the 1986 World Champion New York Mets.  The other for the football Super Bowl Champion New York Giants in 2012. These parades date back to the 1800s, celebrating the dedication of the Statue of Liberty and the centennial of the inauguration of George Washinton.  They would continue all the way through modern times, with the celebration of our astronauts, the released hostages that had been held in Iran and the exhausted healthcare workers who labored during the recent pandemic, just to name a few.

It is exhilarating to celebrate great victories and accomplishments.  We love a winner.  It makes us feel great to see a winner and to be part of the celebration.  On Palm (Passion) Sunday, we prepare to celebrate the greatest victory ever.  As Jesus enters Jerusalem, it is not ticker tape that waves and blows in the wind, it is palm.  The people praise the victor. The victory, while yet to come, will be for them and for all.

Another procession in Jerusalem would soon come.  This parade, of sorts, would not feature people waving palm branches.  No ticker tape would be thrown.  Tears of his mother and of those few close ones, who were brave enough to stick around, would be what flowed.  Many of those who a few days ago were all smiles and who had sung Hosanna would be hiding in the shadows.  One would betray him.  One would deny three times even knowing him.  His proud mother would weep and soon hold the victor’s dead body in her arms.

This was a different kind of parade for a different kind of victory.  It wasn’t a baseball or football championship.  It wasn’t astronauts landing on the moon.  All of those and more were accomplishments to celebrate, no doubt, but this parade on the Via Dolorosa (The Suffering Way) would be the victory over the greatest evils of all time; sin and death. 

 

As great as the accomplishments that were celebrated at the Canyon of Heroes were, they would fade away.  The ticker tape would be swept away.  The achievements would be recorded in a record or history book to be looked up as a historical fact for generations to come, but none would have the profound and lasting effect of what was accomplished on Calvary, once for all. 

 

The victory of Jesus not meant to be a memory of a moment in history, but rather a victory accomplished yesterday, today and forever.  It is the reason we have to be hopeful and joyful today and for all times.  It is what we rest our very hope in. 

Have no doubt, there does seem to be moments when we are losing the fight, when division, selfishness, greed, violence, and all other sin seems to be winning.  It seems that death gets the final word. That, of course, is a false reality.  The true reality exists in not what is mere wishful thinking, but a very real reason to be hopeful.  The way to Calvary would be filled with sorrow, but it would end in great joy.  In the great fight, sin and death do not get the final word.  The resurrected Jesus, even though showing the marks of the nails and the wound in his side, gets the glorious victory.  Sin and death are defeated.  With that victory, let us wave palm branches and ticker tape and everything we can get our hands on, for the greatest victory has been achieved for me and for you. Time for a parade.

- The Servant