It feels good to be appreciated, doesn’t it?  It feels good to have others recognize something good about you, or acknowledge one of your accomplishments, or be grateful for something nice you did, or be happy you are their friend.  And that appreciation takes many forms.  A thank you from one of your children.  A raise at work.  An award of some kind.  Your spouse surprising you by bringing you breakfast in bed.  A small unexpected gift you received for doing someone a favor.

Maybe even cloaks and palm branches spread on the ground before a man as he rode into town. 

That must’ve been a really good moment that day long ago --- both for the people gathered to welcome Jesus and for him too.  And he certainly deserved it.  He had comforted so many people.  And he had healed them.  He had worked miracles for them.  And he had told them stories they would never forget.  He kept encouraging people to be better and kinder and more compassionate.  Put simply --- he loved people everywhere he went.  And they noticed --- and consequently were so incredibly appreciative of what he had done for them and for the person he was.  And their joy overflowed as he made his way into that holy city.

Jesus must have had some pretty mixed emotions, though.  You see, he knew things they didn’t know ---- things about life itself and about his life (and impending death) specifically.  And he knew that the warmth and praise and hope they were all experiencing in that moment would soon come to an end.  Evidently (given what was about to occur) not everyone appreciated Jesus.

One of the things Jesus knew from human experience (and certainly knew from his divine nature and divine personhood) is that love (and every kind of giving) costs something --- and that just because someone shows love to another does not mean that that love will be returned.  At some level, we all know this too.  Yet, we sometimes forget that truth, and cling to the false hope that if we do right by others, nothing bad will happen to us. Our lives will be relatively pain free.  And our lives will unfold as we had planned.

But it doesn’t work that way.  And if you don’t believe it --- ask Jesus.

Too often we love in the hope that we will earn God’s love in return.  And so we do good things somewhat begrudgingly --- as a kind of “deal” we have made with God.  The truth is, the best kind of love, the most powerful love, the most faithful love, is the kind that is an acknowledgment of and loving response to our God who has loved us first.

That’s the love Jesus showed every single day he walked this earth.  And that was the kind of love that ultimately had the power to destroy death itself.  Yet, it didn’t have the power to keep all disappointments at bay, or keep all sorrows at bay, or keep all injustices at bay.  That’s not how Jesus’ life unfolded, and that’s not the guarantee we can hope for either. 

But it did have the only guarantee that ultimately matters --- the one that exists because of God’s ability to always win in the end, love’s ability to always win in the end --- that is, true love’s power to render the crosses of life ultimately powerless in the face of a love that knows no bounds.

Today is a day to recommit ourselves to the Lord, commit ourselves to doing what he did, standing for the things he stood for, thinking the way he thought, and seeing others the way he saw them --- that is, loving for no other reason than that’s who we are at our core, who we were created to be, and who God died for us to be.

And even though the love we pour out on behalf of others does not guarantee that we will avoid the crosses of life, it does mean that we will never have to walk the journey alone.  Jesus will be walking with us, hand in hand, making sure we have everything we need.

For the good times ahead, whenever they come our way, we give thanks.  And for the tough times ahead, the painful times ahead, the disappointing times ahead --- whenever they come our way --- well, we will climb that hill when we get there, the hill Jesus climbed long ago.

And our faith will be our guarantee, our hope, our consolation --- God’s eternal promise that each of our individual stories don’t end on Calvary. 

They are only the beginning.