PALM Sunday invites us into a moment of profound contrast, the joy of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem set against the shadow of the suffering that lay ahead.

It is a day that holds celebration and sorrow in the same breath, and that tension feels especially real in our world today.

As we hold our palm crosses and remember the crowds shouting ‘Hosanna!’, we cannot ignore the cries rising from places torn apart by war.

In the Middle East, families are facing unimaginable loss, displacement, and fear.

In Ukraine, communities continue to endure destruction, separation, and the daily uncertainty of conflict.

These are not distant headlines, they are human lives, each one precious.

Palm Sunday does not ask us to look away from suffering.

Instead, it invites us to see it through the eyes of Christ, the Christ who entered Jerusalem not on a warhorse, but on a humble donkey, the Christ who chose the path of peace, compassion, and sacrificial love.

His journey reminds us that God draws near to the broken-hearted, and that hope can take root even in the darkest soil.

Holding our palms on Sunday, we will continue to hold the world in our prayers, as we pray for peace where peace might feel an impossible dream, for space to grieve without turning away, to advocate for justice, dignity, and protection for all people and to remember that hope is not naïve - it is courageous!

The crowds on that first Palm Sunday longed for deliverance.

Today, millions long for the same.

As we move from the celebration of Palm Sunday into Holy Week, we carry them with us - not as an abstract idea, but as neighbours in our shared human family.

Palm Sunday does not promise an easy road.

But, it does promise that God walks it with us and calls us all to be people who choose compassion in a world that desperately needs it.

Rev Jenny Kilgour

Wellington United Reformed Church