Our pastor sent the following to us ahead of Palm Sunday. I thought he expressed the commemoration of this special day very well:
This Sunday is Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday is when Christians commemorate Jesus’ “Triumphal Entry” into Jerusalem at the beginning of what would end up being the final week of our Lord’s earthly ministry. All four gospel writers record this event. You can read their accounts in the following passages: Matt 21:4-9; Mark 11:7-10; Luke 19:35-38; John 12:12-15.
From those passages, we learn that the crowds on the first Palm Sunday shouted, “Hosanna!” to Jesus. In Christ’s day, that expression meant something close to the English expression “You are our Savior!” By saying such things about Jesus, the people were declaring that they recognized Him as the Messiah. Such recognition also meant they were declaring Jesus to be their King, the long hoped for son of David! The gospel writers tell us the crowds shouted all those things to Jesus that day.
Speaking of those crowds, we are told that they also laid down their cloaks before Jesus and waved palm branches in royal celebration. It is interesting to note who was part of the crowd on the first Palm Sunday. Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell us Christ’s disciples were in the crowd. But John informs us that the crowd was also made up of people from all over Judea, who were already present in Jerusalem for the Passover celebration. They too welcomed Jesus as their King. This is noteworthy because those same crowds, less than a week later, would cry out for Jesus to be crucified.
Why the sudden and shocking shift in public opinion? Why did the people in Jerusalem call Jesus their King on one day, only to cry out for his execution just a few days later? The reason is that Jesus was not the kind of Messiah the people were hoping for. Rather than come to the city ready to finally confront the Romans and liberate the Jews, Jesus entered Jerusalem in order to confront His people’s sin — and, after that, to die for it. Though they might have hailed Him as Savior on Palm Sunday, the people quickly realized Jesus was not offering the kind of salvation they had in mind.
What should all of this mean for us as Christians today? For one, Palm Sunday is an opportunity to publicly declare once more that Jesus truly is our only Savior and King. What a privilege it is to shout our “hosannas!” to Him this time each year. He has come into this world, and into our lives, in the Name of the Lord. In fact, Jesus has come as the Lord. What a joy it is to know Him, our divine Savior and Ruler!
Yet we should also not forget how similar we are to those fickle crows in Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday. Sometimes Jesus is not the kind of Savior we think we need. Sometimes His rule of our lives leaves us doubtful of His goodness or competence. Thankfully, we eventually realize such thoughts are absurd; yet they can often lead us to grow cold in love for the Lord and to grow lax in our service to Him.
That is why it’s such a comfort to know what happened shortly after the first Palm Sunday. Our Lord gave His life, dying in our place for our many sins, sins that include our remaining fickleness. And on the third day after, He rose from the dead to assure us that His sacrifice was effective, that our sins have been fully cleansed. So though we should be humbled by how disloyal our hearts still are, let us also rejoice this Palm Sunday that our Savior has already provided the true salvation we each so desperately need. What else is left to say but…
"Hosanna! Blessed is He who has come in the Name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest! Amen."
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