A Haunted Palm Sunday

I went to Auschwitz today. The Auschwitz! I walked through the legendary "gate of death". the barbed wire is still there. I saw the train station depot where their personal belongings were taken from them, where they were stripped naked; and i saw the crematoriums where the ill, children, pregnant women, and anyone who was considered unfit for labor were sent to their deaths in the gas chambers. and i saw the gas chambers too and the holes in the ceiling where the gas came in. it was simply too much. too much. the amazing thing to me about this was that it was palm sunday. i didnt intentionally plan it that way but it was the only day i could work it in. and i recalled the love that Jesus has for us. as redundant as it is..."for God so loved the world that He gave His only Son..." God had led israel out of captivity our of sin. He told them that if they would follow Him that they would be blessed and that if they didnt that they'd find themselves in captivity again. The reason i believe that much of the history of israel is also included in the Scriptures is because, you see, their story is our story. There's actually a much more powerful oppressor than pharaoh or the babylonians. its sin. During the Babylonian captivity the prophets began to speak of a new type of exodus that was coming and they referred to it as "the way".

While Israel is in Babylon Isaiah says, “…prepare the way …make a straight path for the highway of our King.” Isa 40:3 He says that this Exodus is for everyone. In Isa 40:5. He says, while they are still in Babylon, get this now, while they are slaves in bablyon God even says “shout it with joy. Send it to the ends of the earth.”Isa 48:20]

Why shout it to the ends of the earth? Because! Because God is not just talking about the Babylonians he’s talking about a liberation from the real oppression-Sin. And so they can begin to dream of a way home. A deliverance from all oppression: physical and spiritual. But there has to be someone qualified to lead the way. Jesus is the Way (John 14:6). happy Easter from a train in Prague.