My children’s message for Palm/Passion Sunday (March 29, 2026)
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Based on work from Dollar Store Children’s Sermon (click here)
So I’m glad you’re here today! Now if you’ve been watching college basketball, you know we’re in the middle of March Madness. It’s a big tournament where 64 college teams from both men’s and women’s basketball teams compete to see who will be this year’s national champion. Even if we don’t pay attention to much college sports, it’s a fun experience since we have big schools and little schools competing against each other. The tournament includes blow outs and last second shots that make this entire week very exciting. If you’re watching the games on tv, you’ll notice a lot of people wearing jerseys and holding signs celebrating their team. And if you’re paying extra attention, you might notice a few folks waving what looks like giant foam fingers claiming their team is #1. So let’s pretend we have some giant foam fingers right now by holding up our index finger. When we do that, we can start cheering “we’re number 1,” “we’re number 1,” “we’re number 1” since even if we’re not on the court playing basketball, we still like to act like we’re part of the team. This act of raising our finger and saying “we’re number 1” reminds me a little bit of what we just did in worship. When we came into worship, we remembered Jesus’ last journey into the city. He came as a part of a crowd and his disciples and friends acted like he was a king. So they sung and celebrated and acted as if Jesus is #1. He’s #1! He’s #1! He’s #1. And some in the crowd joined in. They did that by cutting down tree branches – palm branches and celebrated JEsus’ arrival. They were so excited that the God they knew was here and they imagined Jesus would soon take over the city, take over the community, and kick the Roman Empire and they would be politically powerful and mighty and strong in the world. Jesus was #1.
But later in worship, this “Jesus is #1” is going to change. Everyone is going to no longer celebrate Jesus. We’re going to change our finger from celebrating in the air to shaking it and saying “We’re going to get you.” We often imagine that Jesus is going to act all strong and mighty – overpowering those who we imagine to be our enemies. But when Jesus didn’t do that – and in fact welcome and celebrated people who are different or who we might not consider to be worth anything or part of our family – the crowd turned. Jesus’ friends ran away from him. And the mood changed. The celebration at the start of worship today is going to be replaced by a long reading of when we tried to end his story. And while we might sometimes act as if we didn’t do this or we wouldn’t have been mean to Jesus or if only those like Jesus turned on him – the truth is that God knows we all struggle and turn on Jesus when God’s love starts to make a difference in the lives of those we consider to be our enemies or wrong. This isn’t a story about how those people a long time ago took Jesus to the Cross. It’s a reminder how we all do that because God’s love for us – and the world – is difficult to understand.
So I invite you today to pay attention to that change in worship. And remember that even when we are awful to ourselves and others – God loves you. God is with you. God will guide you. And God will always have a new chapter for us and for the world.