Palms of Victory

Tomorrow is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week. In what is for us the final week of Lent, Jesus began the journey that would lead him to his death on Good Friday. The contrast between the joyful celebration of Palm Sunday and the despair of Good Friday is a stark one.

In later Christian tradition the palm branch became a symbol of the martyrs. Picking up ancient imagery of the palm branch as a symbol of victory / peace / triumph / eternal life, martyrs were often portrayed bearing a palm branch as a symbol of the victory of the spirit over the flesh.

Palms of victory, a hymn more popular in the country music world than in churches, draws on that tradition. With lyrics inspired by John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress the writer describes the journey of a Wayworn Traveller to his final spiritual victory. Struggling through life the weary traveller looks to the time when Deliverance will come!

This week we have once again been reminded of the horrors inflicted on many in our world. Syrians have endured both a chemical incident and US shelling to add to the misery of the long running civil war. In Stockholm a lorry was driven into a department store killing and wounding civilians. Deliverance from the violence of this world seems but a distant hope as we approach Easter this year.

How long, O Lord, how long?