Holy Week: Palm Sunday

Written by Nick Perry

I think most people who have been in church for a while can piece together the story of Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem. When we think about Palm Sunday, we probably all think of a celebration. We imagine Jesus riding into the city of Jerusalem, crowds drawing to the streets, children laying down palm fronds, families standing around and shouting, “Hosanna! Hosanna!”

And we aren’t necessarily wrong in thinking about those things – when we read the accounts of the Triumphal Entry in the Bible, that is what we read about. But there is so much more to the story! 

So please hang in here with me for a few minutes because I am going to lay out some extra historical context then we are going to gather details from three of the four gospel accounts. My hope is that we are able to use them to piece together a beautiful picture of Palm Sunday that will hopefully challenge us to enter into Holy week with a new perspective!

Context:

  • Jesus enters Jerusalem during the Passover festival. Passover was celebrated to remember when God delivered Israel out from under an oppressive Egyptian Empire.
  • At this point in history, Jerusalem is technically a part of the Roman Empire. The Jewish priesthood was in bed with the Roman Empire and had become corrupt. Interesting…

So…let’s look at the details…

  • Jesus sends his disciples to get TWO animals to ride into Jerusalem on (Matthew 21:2)
  • Jesus weeps over the city of Jerusalem as he enters (Luke 19:41-44)
  • John’s gospel is the only gospel that specifies what type of branches the people were waving (John 12:13)
  • In all four accounts of the Triumphal entry, Jesus quotes Zechariah 9:9

 

Two donkeys, Jesus weeping, palm fronds, and Zechariah 9:9. Easy enough to remember, right?!

Let’s work backwards down that list.

Zechariah 9:9

Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

This passage is a prophecy about the type of future messiah/king that Israel can expect. There is all of this majestic language – “rejoice greatly…king…righteous…victorious.” 

But the last half of the verse subverts the expectations set up in the first half. This righteous, victorious king shows up “lowly and riding on a donkey.”

Jesus was a student of the scriptures. He knew what he was doing when he sent disciples to find a donkey. He knew how the people would respond when they heard him quote directly from this passage. He was making the statement that he was this long awaited righteous and victorious King. This was not a coincidence, this was an intentional move by Jesus to make the statement that he was the messiah.

Palm Fronds

They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed is the king of Israel!”

Okay…a little bit more of a history lesson. There were four main sects of Judaism during Jesus’s time. Some of these names will sound familiar. You had the…

  • Sadducees: these were the priests. They didn’t want a messiah to come because a messiah would potentially usurp their power.
  • Pharisees: this was the group notorious for following all of the rules and judging the people who didn’t. They thought the messiah was only coming to save them.
  • Essenes: This group of people were the scribes of the Dead Sea Scrolls. They completely retreated from society and decided to sit back and wait to see what God was going to do.
  • Zealots: The Zealots were a group of people who were awaiting a militaristic messiah who would rise up to overthrow corruption and rescue the people of Israel through brute force. The political symbol for the Zealots was a palm frond. 

 

The Zealots were expected a powerful messiah who would become a figurehead for their revolution. A messiah that would bring about “salvation” of the people of Israel by violently overthrowing the existing government. 

Waving the palm fronds was not a cute way to welcome Jesus into the city. It was a statement that said that they believed he was about to go to literal war with the Roman Empire. 

But that’s not the type of Messiah that Jesus is. Seeing the peoples’ hearts so close to the truth (that he was the messiah) but so far from the truth (that he came as a lowly, gentle messiah) made Jesus weep.

Jesus Weeps Over the City

As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes."

Jesus came into Jerusalem knowing what he was going to do. He was going to confront religious corruption and he knew that by doing so, he would probably be put to death. He looked over the crowd, celebrating and cheering “Hosanna! Hosanna!” and he knew that they were expecting him to be something he wasn’t. It wasn’t strength, or violence, or political savvy that was going to save the Jews. It was Jesus’s blood poured out in a display of radical submission and enemy love. But they didn’t want that. They wanted their enemies to be crushed and they wanted Jesus to be the one to do it.

Which only leaves us with…

The Two Donkeys

As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me."

Jesus was one man. He had twelve disciples. If you’re good (or even bad) at math, that is 13 people.

In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus sends his disciples to get two donkeys. Well…a donkey and a foal of a donkey.

If you do the math, that’s 13 people and 2 donkeys. But the inclusion of the second donkey isn’t to make us do math, it is to invite us into the story. Matthew does this a lot throughout his gospel and it was a popular literary device in Jewish literature. 

The second donkey is to bring the audience to a point where they ask themselves “where do I fit into this story?” We are included in this audience. We are invited by Matthew to consider where we fit in this story. 

Are we lining the streets, waving our palm fronds, and shouting “Hosanna! Hosanna!” for a distorted vision of who Jesus is and why he came to Earth? Or are we willing to hop on the donkey and join in the work of the lowly king, Jesus? 

To Wrap Up

To close, I invite you to continue reading in Zechariah 9.

Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the warhorses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth.

This Holy Week, we have cause for celebration. Hosanna! Hosanna! Our king is here! Our righteous and victorious king has already won the battle. He conquered death and he has set us in right relationship with God, our Father. He has taken away the instruments of violence, He has set the captives free, His blood was shed to proclaim peace to the nations.

Let’s reflect on the person of Jesus this Palm Sunday. Let us ask ourselves – “is my picture of Jesus as messiah an accurate picture of who he is, or is it who I want him to be?” Here he comes, lowly and riding on a donkey. Are you willing to join him?

Easter at Devoted City

Celebrating that He is risen!

Meeting in North Raleigh, Cary, and Online.