The women went to the tomb to anoint a dead body. Instead, they found an empty tomb, an angelic messenger and news they couldn’t fully take in. They were confused, overwhelmed, frightened. And yet in the middle of that God met them with amazing news! God addressed their confusion and pointed them forward. It wasn’t all solved on Easter morning, but hope proclaimed, direction given, and a plan laid out. That is what Jesus offers us again this Easter morning in the midst of our confusion, struggles and fear.

It is a joyous parade…and a moment for weeping. What a day! A triumphal entry and a heartbroken Savior. Everything in Jesus life and teaching and ministry is coming together in this one fateful week—and Palm Sunday kicks it off. In Jesus is our hope! In Jesus we see our brokenness. Holy Week reminds us we don’t have to have it all together. Jesus comes to us just as we are to do His work among us. It is his work, it is his saving, it is his sacrifice—anything on our side is just a response.

Peter has plans for Jesus’ life. He loves him, he respects him, he wants to follow him. But only if Jesus takes the path that Peter wants, only if Jesus lives into Peter’s plan for his life. But Jesus needs to remind Peter of the age old truth from God: “My ways are not your ways, says the Lord.” We have to decide if we are willing to go on the path that Jesus leads us or if we just want to blaze our own trail. The one thing we can’t do—is force Jesus to take our path. That isn’t an option.

Spiritual practices such as solitude, prayer, Scripture reading, community, and service are gifts through which God nurtures our life in Christ. As Jesus says in John 15, we abide in Him as branches of the true vine, drawing our strength and nourishment from His Word and Spirit. Through these sacred rhythms—gathered in prayer, Scripture, and the fellowship of the Church—we are sustained by His grace, formed in His image, and sent to bear fruit for the life of the world, all to the glory of God.

Jesus says, “Blessed are those who work for peace” and then later in his ministry he creates this dramatic disturbance of the peace as he knocks over tables and disrupts the “peace” of the temple. What’s going on? Too often when we hear Jesus say, “blessed are the peace-makers” we hear it as a call to preserve peace at all costs. But Jesus doesn’t want a false peace, a peace built on injustice or unfairness or evil. And too often the church has covered up things that would trouble its reputation, creating a false peace. But Jesus confronts evil and calls for a peace built on truth and fairness and love. True peace can often only come on the other side of conflict. So we need to learn how to do conflict well in our lives so we can find true peace Jesus longs for us to know.

This is a strange passage that no longer seems relevant to us. But if we understand the context, it reveals powerful principles that apply to our everyday life. We are called to live as Jesus followers, but how do we do that with integrity? We have to keep going back unpacking our actions and motivations. When something is bothering us in our interaction with others, before we blast them with our judgement, or ignore the tension within us, we need to do a gut check, we need to climb the ladder of integrity. We need to unpack our feelings and get clear on our values and motivations. Without that, we don’t have a chance to act lovingly, because we just react.