Yesterday, we saw that Hannah, inquisitive child of the 1st Century still searching for the Messiah and finding, instead, her family…who is looking for their wandering daughter.
“Speaking of a child, have you seen my sister Hannah?
“She’s been roaming the countryside for nearly three years. Every time we get her home she runs off again,” Hannah’s sister Joanna asks.
Hannah hears Jesus is coming on a donkey, but might be on foot ”by this point in the procession.”
“He’s an amazing man of humility. He has so much power, yet doesn’t flaunt it around.”
Hannah’s sister is skeptical of Jesus:
“If he came to save the world, why wouldn’t he just save it?”
“Maybe he’s saving it one person at a time,” is her friend’s reply.
Then, Hannah realizes that her father is in the crowd, too.
So, she stays on the ground, hoping he doesn’t notice her.
But, he does.
“Do I dare ask why you are crawling around a crowd of people?” asks her father, Elijah.
After a long pause to gather her thoughts, Hannah answers,
“Father, I think Jesus is the Messiah.“
“Why don’t you just be yourself,” her father asks.
“Quit hiding, quite pretending to know him when you don’t, quit tying to find out from other people what he’s like.”
Hannah is surprised that her father sounds like a believer.
“I never said I didn’t,” he replies, criticizing her for missing what has happened to her family, including her little niece Deborah’s illness.
Jesus is sighted.
Shouts of
“Hosanna. Hosanna!“
and
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord“
are heard.
“Aunt Hannah, please pick me up.”
Hannah does and continues talking to her father as Jesus gets closer and closer.
Hannah keeps rattling off questions to her father, oblivious to her father’s watching Jesus take the little girl’s hands and blessing her.
“Aunt Hannah, did you see? He held my hands.
“He prayed for me. Now I know I will be all better. I won’t be sick anymore.”
Jesus seems to touch everyone as he moves rapidly along the parade route, even Hannah’s skeptical sister.
It reminded me of a politician trying to keep up with his car at a 4th of July parade where the parade organizers were trying to move the entries along faster than one could walk comfortably.
1999’s Gala Parade in Crystal Lake, to be specific.
Jesus is gone before Hannah realizes she has missed him.
Hannah’s father says, “Look with your heart, Hannah. He will be there.”
“Why couldn’t I just be ready?
“Like Deborah was…she knew, she trusted, she watched…
“Hosanna, Hossana in the highest.
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”
Getting sadder,
“Hosanna.
“Hosanna.
“If only I could have been like Deborah.”
Then, Hannah sings the “Beautiful One” chorus.
And gets excited.
Maybe I can still be like her!
““Maybe it’s not too late for me!” she exclaims as she runs after Jesus.
In his benediction, Pastor David Seyller said,
“Lay down the palm branches; cease the shouting.
“Let our noisy hosannas dissipate in the air.
“Return the donkey and the colt to the stable.
“The parade is over; the procession is at an end.
“Watch the crowd disperse…to their homes, to their lives…for some, they disperse to carry out a sinister plot against the Son of David.
“Watch and wait.
“Go now into this holiest of weeks, with God as your guide.
“Go in anticipation. Go in Peace. Amen”
Hannah will return to the stage of the First United Methodist Church of Crystal Lake for Good Friday’s 7:30 PM service and on Easter Sunday at 11 o’clock. The church is located at the corner of Crystal Lake and Dole Avenues in Crystal Lake, Illinois.
Will Hannah finally find Jesus?
Will you?
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All the pictures may be enlarged by clicking on them.