Shayne Looper: Why is it called Palm Sunday?
This is the time of the year that churches celebrate Palm Sunday and commemorate what is popularly known as the “Triumphal Entry.” What is the origin of Palm Sunday, and why is it significant?
The original Palm Sunday took place a few decades into the current era in Jerusalem. It was just days before one of Israel’s most important holidays. The nation was about to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, starting with Passover, which commemorated Israel’s independence from Egypt.
At the time of the first Palm Sunday, Israel was again under foreign occupation. The celebration of Israel’s erstwhile independence, and the national fervor it engendered, increased the possibility of revolt. Thousands of Roman troops were transferred to Jerusalem for the duration of the festival, and the head of the occupational government himself, the procurator Pontius Pilate, would come to provide the military with immediate oversight.
All this explains why, in St. Mark’s Gospel we read, “They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid.” Entering Jerusalem during the Festival, with crowds of people hailing Jesus as king, was incredibly risky. That is why, in St. Luke’s account, we read that some people in the crowd begged Jesus to make his followers be quiet. That kind of talk could get them all killed.
Tens of thousands of festivalgoers began arriving in Jerusalem earlier in the week. When they heard that Jesus was on his way, many of them went out of the city to greet him. John’s Gospel tells us that “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!’”
The imagery here is familiar. When a king, long out of the country (usually because he was engaged in some kind of military campaign) returned, word would spread through the cities and the countryside. People would gather gifts and flowers — in this case, palm branches — and line the sides of the road, chanting praises and singing hymns. At the king’s appearance, they would shout and cheer. When the king passed, they would join his company and follow him back into the city.
It is likely Jesus entered Jerusalem through the Eastern Gate. Interestingly, on this same day across the city, thousands of lambs were being brought through the Sheep Gate to be tested for purity and then offered as sacrifices to God in the Passover. It may be that the lambs of God and the one John the Baptist called the Lamb of God entered the city simultaneously.
Before he began his descent into the city, Jesus found a young donkey to ride. He was intentionally fulfilling the role of the Messiah King, of whom the prophet Zechariah had written, “Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” The Roman soldiers who patrolled the area would miss the significance of the donkey; some of the Jewish festivalgoers would not.
The fact that he chose a donkey — and a colt, at that — meant that he was not coming to make war; he was coming to bring peace. Had he ridden into Jerusalem on a white charger, the implication would have been entirely different.
St. John writes that the disciples did not understand the significance of what was happening or of their role in it. They were at the very hinge of history and didn’t know it. That sounds a lot like us. We never fully understand the things that happen to us or our role in them.
What this means is that we cannot even gauge our own successes and failures accurately. Sometimes when we think we’ve failed, God totally disagrees. Sometimes he disagrees when we think we’ve succeeded.
The triumphal entry was not a triumph because it led to power, but because it fulfilled God’s will. Though it did not bring about dominance, it set the stage for forgiveness and prepared the way for the resurrection. That is reason enough to call it a triumph.
— Shayne Looper is a writer and speaker based in Coldwater, Michigan. Contact him at salooper57@gmail.com.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Shayne Looper: Why is it called Palm Sunday?
