As Christ reclined at the Passover meal and his impending betrayal, I have to imagine at least one of the disciples thought to himself, incredulously and perhaps even indignantly: And you’re not going to do anything about it?
 
So often we expect God to behave like the frantic parent of a teenager, banging down the closed door of a bedroom filled with loud music. We expect him to be overbearing, snooping in our diary and waiting to ground us the minute we break curfew, desperate to keep us within the family fold, ready and willing to use judgment and force to do so.
 
It’s true that God greatly desires us to stay in friendship with him. But to accomplish it, he does not come to us as a meddler or an overlord. He comes in the same way he does on Palm Sunday. He waits for us to make way.
 
He may not be overbearing, but he is still devoted, and unfailingly patient. As the Palm Sundays of our lives — the moments of our devotion and piety — give way to the Holy Thursdays, when we inevitably deny him, God does not abandon us. The sacrifice on the cross is still there, waiting for us to accept it.
 
Say to daughter Zion, “Behold, your king comes to you, meek and riding on an ass, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.” — Matthew 21:5