Palm Sunday

A brief reflection on those who witnessed Jesus's Triumphal Entry

“The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, 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 about him and had been done to him. The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.”” -John 12:12–19

Visio Divina

Visio Divina is a way of entering our prayer closet through sensible perception.

Entry of Christ into Jerusalem, Anthony van Dyck (1617)

Oratio

We ask you, O Lord, in your forgiving love, turn away what we deserve for our sins, nor let our offenses prevail before you; but let your mercy always rise up to overcome them; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.¹

Reflection

Today the Western Church celebrates Palm Sunday. (The Church in the East follows a different calendar that only occasionally aligns with the Gregorian Calendar instated by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582; thus the Eastern Church typically celebrates Palm Sunday when Western Christians are celebrating Easter).

Palm Sunday celebrates Jesus’s Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem as the promised Messiah. John describes the scene in regal terms: a large, enthusiastic crowd who had come to Jerusalem for the Passover had gathered to welcome and worship Jesus as their victorious King. Note the various symbols he uses to describe the scene:

First, Jesus rides into the city on a donkey, which is a symbol of kingly peace. In the ancient world, a king riding a horse into a city symbolized war and conquest, while a king riding a donkey symbolized peace and humility. This is a precise fulfillment of Zechariah 9:9

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” -Zechariah 9:9

Second, the people waved palm branches, a symbol of victorious liberation, drawn from Israel’s Maccabean revolt 160 or so years prior:

They also of the tower in Jerusalem were kept so strait, that they could neither come forth, nor go into the country, nor buy, nor sell: wherefore they were in great distress for want of victuals, and a great number of them [perished] through famine. ⁵⁰ Then cried they to Simon, beseeching him to be at one with them: which thing he granted them; and when he had put them out from thence, he cleansed the tower from pollutions: ⁵¹ And entered into it the three and twentieth day of the second month in the hundred seventy and first year, with thanksgiving, and branches of palm trees, and with harps, and cymbals, and with viols, and hymns, and songs: because there was destroyed a great enemy out of Israel. - 1 Macabees 13:51

Third, as they welcomed Jesus riding a donkey into the great city for the Passover feast with their palm branches, they were also crying “Hosanna!, a shout of praise from a Hallel Psalm (i.e., a kind of doxology) which means: “save us, we pray.”

“Save us, we pray, O Lord! O Lord, we pray, give us success! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We bless you from the house of the Lord.” -Psalm 118:25–26

This is a remarkable moment in history because as the people rightly acknowledged Jesus as their Messianic King, they misunderstood the nature of his reign and their redemption.

John explains that the reason for their enthusiastic gathering is that some of them had witnessed Jesus calling Lazarus from the grave after being in the tomb for four days, and many others had gathered with them because they had heard testimony from those who had witnessed this significant event. Jesus’s ministry, and especially this sign at the conclusion of his traveling ministry, affirmed his Messianic anointing.

One of the interesting insights this event reveals is how various individuals responded to Jesus’s ministry:

At the time, Jesus’s own disciples lacked the spiritual perception to recognize this event as the fulfillment of a significant prophecy about the Messiah.

The religious leaders were trying to figure out how to navigate their political position with the Romans while maintaining their power grasp on the Jewish people. Marks tells us the Pharisees were plotting to secretly arrest and kill Jesus but were struggling to do it without causing an uproar among the people (Mark 14:1-2). John notes here just how desperate the Pharisees were becoming when he reveals that the “Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.””

The people (likely at least some of this same crowd) would turn on Jesus within a week’s time and instead of crying “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” They would be crying “Crucify him, crucify him!” (John 19:6).

This Palm Sunday, let us reflect on the responses of those who were exposed to Jesus the Messiah, and examine our own heart’s response to him. Hear the parable of Jesus:

“That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Let anyone with ears listen!”” -Matthew 13:1–9

1. The Leonine Sacramentary. Thomas C. Oden and Cindy Crosby, eds., Ancient Christian Devotional: A Year of Weekly Readings: Lectionary Cycle A (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books, 2007), 96.