Saints, as we prepare ourselves for Holy Week, I offer this selection on the meaning and significance of Palm Sunday from Esau McCaulley’s Lent. May the Spirit use it to assist us in our remembrance of Christ’s crucifixion and celebration of His resurrection.
At many churches Palm Sunday begins outside. The members of the congregation receive palm branches and repeat the shout of “Hosanna to the Son of David!” This portion of the service links our refrain to the cries of those who celebrated his entry into the city. But the service also displays an awareness of things unknown to anyone in Jerusalem but Jesus himself. We praise God “for acts of love by which you have redeemed us through your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.” This act of love is the cross that awaits him on Golgotha. Both we and the crowds in Jerusalem laud him as the promised Son of David, but only those of us who follow him after his resurrection from the dead know the full shape of that Davidic kingship.
If discipleship is about following Jesus, then the invitation to walk with Jesus during his last week is a call to be formed by the journey. What do we learn through the Liturgy of the Palms? What do we discover that makes us better followers of Jesus? We tend to focus on the palm branch as the central image because it’s so easy to bring to life. We can buy palm branches in bulk. But the most important symbol of the day may have been the donkey. After all, it is the symbol Jesus chose…
Palm Sunday reveals Jesus’ humility. He is not like other kings who enter cities atop war horses in celebration of bloody victory. He is the humble king who saves by dying for the sins of the world. Jesus’ care for the lowly has long been a source of solace for oppressed people. If we are going to follow Jesus, then we do not have to fight the way the world fights. We do not use their tools and means to get what we want. Palm Sunday challenges us to consider whether we have adopted the efficiency of force and cruelty instead of the way of Jesus. Stated differently, Jesus’ life was not just a means of salvation; it was a way of being human.
Rejecting the way of violence extends beyond critiquing kings and war horses. It includes how we treat those we love and those we disdain. It extends to how we interact with our friends, family, children, and coworkers. Are we people of violence? Can we put aside that violence and follow Jesus into the city, knowing what love demands of us?
Palm Sunday is actually two events in one. Chronologically, it remembers Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. But during the service proper, it also recalls the crucifixion. It is customary to read Psalm 22, Isaiah 52:13-53:12, and one of the Synoptic accounts of Jesus’ death on Palm Sunday…
What are we to do, then, with the story of the crucifixion told on the same day we recall Jesus’ entry into the city? I think this placement of the crucifixion story reminds us where all Christ’s journeys eventually led. Every Christian now exists on the other side of the crucifixion and resurrection. The whole of Jesus’ story, from the first cries in the manger through the donkey ride into the city, has the cross in the background. These readings (without extensive commentary), also help us remember that the cross is not just something to discuss, interpret, and understand. It is a thing to behold. We must see the act of love set before us again and again. The crucifixion story bears repeating. (Lent, pp. 74-78)
