Palm Sunday
One of the great moments in the Bible, in fact, one of the great moments in history is the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. That is what we celebrate on Palm Sunday. Jesus realized that his moment had come to step forward as the Messiah. He rides into Jerusalem with his disciples. The people sense that the prophecies are being fulfilled for the coming of the Messiah. Jerusalem is packed with people for the celebration of the Passover. They are in a state of heightened religious awareness. They are yearning for deliverance from the oppressive occupation army of the Romans. They remember the scripture, from Zechariah that the King, the Messiah, will come riding on the colt of a donkey. Surely this is the moment of God’s salvation. They begin to sing the verses of one of the Messianic Psalms, Psalm 118:
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest! Save us now! That’s what Hosanna means: “Save us now!” When we sing Hosannas to Christ today, we are crying out, “Save us, now!”
There are other Psalms, which capture the image of the coming of the King.
I always think of the 24th Psalm:
(v. 7-10)Lift up your heads, O you gates! And be lifted up, you everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, The LORD mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O you gates!
Be lifted up, you everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, He is the King of glory. Selah!
Christ is making his way to the door of your life today. He is coming with a great shout of victory. He is coming with the joy of a great procession, an unforgettable parade. What will happen when he comes to you? Will the parade stop there? Or will you say, “Let the door of my heart be thrown open!” “Let the king of glory come in!”
There are a couple of small points in the story I that I want to call attention to. One is the participation of children on this special day. In our hymn, we remember, “Hosanna, loud hosanna, the little children sang.” When you see faith and praise in children, there is hope for the future. Jesus’ enemies realized this fact. (Mt.21: 15) They said to Jesus, “Look what you are doing with this procession: You have even gotten the children stirred up, shouting Hosanna.” Jesus answers with another Psalm, Ps. 8: “Out of the mouth of babes…” (That’s where we get that expression.)
“Out of the mouth of Babes, O Lord, you have ordained your strength and perfected your praise.” In other words, one of the cornerstones of God’s plan is to touch the hearts and minds of children, and to fill them with faith and praise. That’s why Jesus inspired children on the day of his Triumphal Entry, and that is why we give children and youth a special place in the life of our church today. It is a fitting day for the confirmation of our youth, and for our children waving palms.
Next, I want to say a word about the donkey that Jesus rode. This symbol is a key to unlocking one of the fatal misunderstandings of that Holy Week long ago. True, the people realized that the prophet Zechariah had foretold that the Messiah would come riding on a donkey. They did not stop and consider, however, that the donkey is a symbol of peace. In ancient history and in the Bible, the horse was the symbol of military victory. Whenever a king or emperor entered victoriously, he would be riding a horse. To ride a donkey, on the other hand, was a symbol of coming in peace. The people should have realized this significance. It should have pointed to the fact that Jesus came to be a spiritual savior, not a military ruler.
By the way, one of the best sermons that I ever heard was about the donkey that carried Jesus. It focused on the words, “release him, for the Lord has need of him.” The point is that God sets us free from our sin and burdens so that we can serve him, so that he can use us.
One of the things I have been doing to prepare for holy week is to read through the passages in the Bible concerning the events of Jesus’ life that week. I invite you to join me in that undertaking. I recommend to you Matthew chapters 21-25, and John chapters 12-17.
During his last week, Jesus focuses on priorities. We see this in the cleansing of the temple, and then Jesus’ reminder of what are the greatest commandments. [] In this week, Jesus again begins to preach and teach. And he teaches with a new urgency as the day of his crucifixion approaches. He talks about the end of the age, and his second coming, and eternal life. At the last supper, he models servant hood by washing his disciples’ feet. Then he reminds us that our relationship with God should be like the vine and the branches. And finally, Jesus shows us that we are aided in this by the presence and comfort of the Holy Spirit. I read a good message on this last point this week. It asked: What is your relationship with the Holy Spirit? Perhaps you have considered your relationship with God and with the Son, Jesus Christ. But, have you considered what is your relationship with the Holy Spirit?
So we see that there is much to ponder in this upcoming week of Holy Week. It is a week of contrasts. Too often, we want to jump straight from the celebration of Palm Sunday to the Celebration of Easter. But, we dare not overlook what happened in-between. It is a week of Palms, but it is also a week of the cross. It is a week of betrayal and agony and death. The same crowd who shouted, “Hosanna!” on Sunday would shout, “Crucify Him!” on Friday. You and I can see our own faces in both of those crowds. We like to shout, “Hosanna!” But our sin cries, “Crucify him!”
The turning point of the week comes in the Garden of Gethsemane. Gethsemane was an olive garden. The word itself refers to a storage vat of olive oil. There is great symbolism in this fact. In the Bible, oil, which is nearly always olive oil, is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. This is the oil that was used for lamps, pointing to the fact that the Holy Spirit shines God’s light into our hearts. Also, oil was used for anointing. So, in the oil, we see the strength of God, the comfort of God, and the call of God.
If you go to the Holy Land today, you can see Garden of Gethsemane. The garden is filled with ancient olive trees, the oldest of which may go back to the time of Jesus. When we sing the hymns about the garden, I always think about this place. Back in 2008, when I was on sabbatical, on Maundy Thursday night, I went to that garden, and I prayed in the spot where Jesus prayed. Yes, it was there, in the garden, that Jesus knelt and prayed, there that his disciples slept. The latter fact says something about the humanness of our discipleship. Too often we are asleep when God is seeking to be at work. Too often we forget to pray.
The Bible reminds us that Jesus prayed at every important moment in his life. And there was no more powerful moment of prayer than that night in the garden. The awareness of what God the Father was asking him to do was heavy on Jesus’ heart. The agony of the cross and of our sins lay clearly before him. In his agonizing over these things, his sweat began to come out in drops of blood!
And, in his humanness, Jesus longed to be spared. He prayed, “Father, Father! If it be possible, let this cup pass away from my lips.” Don’t let me have to do this terrible thing. I don’t think I can bear it. You and I can sympathize with this prayer. In our human frailty, we know the impossibility of the task that Christ was being asked to undertake.
But Jesus prayed again a second time. And in that second prayer, Christ showed us what faith in God is all about. He prayed, “Nevertheless, Not my will, but thy will be done.” This is the prayer of a child of God. Can you pray that prayer? Will you pray it? “Not my will, but thy will be done.” The person, who can pray that prayer, will know the salvation of God in Jesus Christ. That prayer is what faith and the power of God are all about: “Not my will but thy will be done!”