What’s even is Palm Sunday?

Palm Sunday is here and we are all still under stay at home orders. Easter may not seem like the normal Easter celebration but maybe this is a good thing. Rather than spending our time focusing on egg hunts or what new outfit we will wear or even what events our churches had planned, we can focus on the real meaning of Easter. This can be one of the most impactful Easter seasons we have ever had as we strip away all the activities we normally do at this time and recognize what we are really celebrating.

So let’s get into the meaning of Palm Sunday. In all four gospels we find Jesus healing, serving, teaching and now, with His face set on the will of His Father, we see Him getting ready to enter Jerusalem for the Passover. Passover was a very important holiday for the Jews. It is the celebration of God liberating Moses and the Israelites (Jewish people) from Egypt. Each year Jewish people made a long journey to be near the temple. It required a lot of planning and preparing. Once in Jerusalem, the people would be fixed on getting preparations for the celebration. Special foods were served during Passover and a clean sacrifice needed to be chosen. This was a time of great celebration for the Jewish people and because there were so many people in the city, this made both Rome and the Pharisees on guard against anything that might cause the people of Jerusalem to get too excited.

We might all remember that when Jesus enters the city, people run out to greet Him waving palm branches and singing. Luke 19: 37-38 When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: ³⁸ “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” These people had encountered Jesus during His time of ministry. Like Luke says above, they had seen Him do miracles. He had forgiven sin, healed the sick, lame and blind. He had raised the dead to life. He had fed thousands with one child’s lunch. He had cast out demons. He was clearly powerful. And now as He begins to ride into the city, people come out to celebrate what they thought was the beginning of the Jews being freed from Roman rule. They wanted Jesus to be the king. To reign over them and provide safety and leadership for them. So what’s the problem with that? Everything! We can not force Jesus to be who we want Him to be. Anytime we try and change what God’s plan is and change who Jesus is we get it very wrong. God had a plan and Jesus knew the plan and was willing to go to the cross to fulfill that plan.

Jesus knew what would happen when He entered Jerusalem and He made sure to tell the disciples what He expected. Luke 18:31-34 Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. ³² He will be delivered over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him and spit on him; ³³ they will flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again.” They of course didn’t understand although it’s very plain language. They assumed He would take over Jerusalem as well. They couldn’t picture a scenario where Jesus could die and it would be God’s plan to rescue His people. This is what the Jewish people had been waiting for! A Messiah to save them from bondage and rule of outside nations. Jesus understood that heading to Jerusalem was a heading to His death. He knew truth about the situation and still chose to go. Luke 9:51 As the time approached for Him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.

That word resolutely means – to fix or establish, or firmly set in place. Jesus, knowing He was walking towards His death, set His face towards Jerusalem. He was committed to the end. He understood the outcome so He was willing to endure the pain. Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem finds Him doing what He had been the last three years; teaching, healing, comforting. Knowing His death was coming didn’t change His purpose or His mission. He was willing to show His love for people the entire way.

As the time for Jesus to go inside the city walls for the celebration came, He sent His disciples in to get a donkey for Him to ride on. He choose a lowly animal to ride rather than a majestic horse. As was spoken in prophecies years earlier. This wasn’t done only to fulfill prophecy but to show the people even further the point that Jesus was not coming as a king to reign in Jerusalem but another type of king that would free them from sin and death. Each word spoken by the disciples revealed they still could not comprehend what Jesus would endure. Pharisees were constantly looking for a way to undermine and discredit Jesus. Heading into Jerusalem for Passover would be a challenging time for Jesus. His last moments to interact with the people and with His disciples. Their confusion would be more unsettling than comforting. I would imagine that Jesus felt more pain and pressure as days drew closer to the crucifixion. Yet, He pressed on with you in mind. Yes, you. And me. He set His face on the cross knowing the pain and suffering that would come. All for love. He chose to go so that we, you and me, might be free from sin and death. Able to enter into the presence of a Holy God for eternity.

So the important thing this Palm Sunday isn’t to press Jesus into our mold of what we want Him to be. We can’t force Him to serve us how we would like. We simply must come to the place of recognizing that He came to lay His life down for us. That in His death and resurrection, we can have life and life abundantly. That means we can’t add anything to His death or else it takes away what He came to do. To add anything is telling Jesus that His sacrifice wasn’t enough and we have to add more to it to make it sufficient. We can’t create our own scenario where we do good things – expecting to add that to His death to make us righteous. We can’t add anything. His death and resurrection alone is enough to create new life in us. All we bring is a broken life, needing a perfect sacrifice. And thank you Jesus, He provided the sacrifice that made a way for us to be clean.