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Jesus says, I am the vine, you are the branches. If you abide in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit. Welcome to Pillar's Abide in Me podcast. A weekly opportunity to abide in Christ through weekly pillar sermon and worship reflections. I'm Christian.

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And I'm Trish. Hear these words from the book we love. When the great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there, they came not only because of Jesus, but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death as well, since it was on account of him that many of the Jews were deserting and were believing in Jesus. The next day the great crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting, Hosanna, blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel. Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written, Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion. Look, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt. His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written of him and had been done to him. So the crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead, continued to testify. It was also because they heard that he had performed this sign that the crowd went to meet him. The Pharisees then said to one another, You see, you can do nothing. Look, the world has gone after him. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

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That line the Pharisees throw at one another. The whole world has gone after him. The whole world has gone after him. They didn't realize how true a statement that was. They didn't recognize just what they were saying. The focus of Jesus' heart is never other than you. He has you in his heart and on his mind. But the scope of his intention is never just you. It is always the world. The boundaries and the borders keep getting wider and broader, so more and more experience the embrace of his goodness. The whole world has gone after him. This is why Saint Paul would shout, every knee should bend in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Or Saint John would see people from every language and tribe and people and nation all gathered around the throne. Or the gospel writer himself would say, For God so loved the world that he gave his only son. Palm Sunday disorients us out of whatever restricted version of the gospel we've been carrying and reorients our hearts and minds to the breadth of his intentions. The whole world has gone after him. The chief priests plan to kill him because he's disrupting their myopic view of who's in and who's out. The great crowd, God bless them, comes out to meet him because they were hoping he might make life a little easier for them. He just keeps expanding the boundaries and the borders of our imagination until the whole world is embraced by his purposes. You see, you can do nothing. The whole world has gone after him.

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For our part as a pillar community, we'd love to be praying for you. So feel free to reach out to us at abide at pillarchurch.com. And if you're willing, receive this blessing. May the God who sent his son so that we could be adopted as God's own children, send his spirit into your hearts, especially in this week of remembrance and renewal, and equip you to live as God's own children, dearly loved and called to serve a needy world. Amen.