Palm Sunday

When I was in seminary some friends said they wanted to take me out for dinner on my birthday. We had been watching a basketball game and so once it was over we decided to go to a local steak house. As we waited for a table we ran into some other friends from the seminary and so I invited them to join us. As we were being seated I saw some friends of mine from a Bible Study I was a part of and so asked if we get a larger table and have them join us and then as we were eating some other friends came and in so they joined us as well. I was just amazed at how this spontaneous little party just erupted on my birthday and I was excited and feeling so good and said to all my friends how great it was that they all just happened to be out that for dinner so they could join us. They all looked at me like I was some kind of fool, and then the friend of mine who originally invited me to dinner said, yeah, wasn’t it nice that it just kind of happened to go out for dinner at the same place – at the same time. And then it dawned – the party had been planned. My spontaneous birthday party had been well thought out. My friend even contacted the Bible Study leader I was a part of so they could all be invited. On the one hand I was a little disappointed that my spontaneous birthday party had really been planned, but on the other hand I was really humbled that my friends had gone to so much trouble.

Now I share that story because for years when I read about this Palm Sunday parade, I always imagined it as a spontaneous event. Jesus comes upon a donkey and rides it into the city and as he does people just throw their cloaks before him and wave palm branches in the air. While there may have been an element of spontaneity in the reaction of the crowds, the parade itself is anything but spontaneous. Look again at Mark 11:2-4. Jesus has carefully made all the arraignments for a colt, which is a male donkey less than 1 year old, to be made available to him. Jesus gives his disciples detailed instruction on where to find the colt and what to say to anyone who questions them about brining the colt to him. Jesus has carefully planned this event and he has laid it all out for one purpose – to proclaim to the people, to announce to the world exactly who he is. Many times during his ministry people would profess that Jesus was the Messiah and Jesus would tell them to keep it quiet, but now Jesus is the one who wants to make a statement. Jesus wants people to know that he is the Messiah, but he also wants them to understand what kind of Messiah he comes to be, and Jesus does all of this by how he sets up this Palm Sunday parade.

The first thing we see is that Jesus chose to ride into the city on a colt. This alone is unusual because nowhere else in the gospels do we ever see Jesus riding from one place to another. While there are a few times that Jesus traveled by boat, all the rest of the time we see Jesus, he is walking. He walked along the shores of Galilee when he called fishermen. He walked up into the hillsides to teach or pray, he walked from town to town to preach to the people, he even walked on water, but this is the only time we ever see Jesus riding anywhere, so we know this has to mean something. If we look back into the history of Israel, we see that riding into Jerusalem on a colt was what the king of Israel was going to do. Look at Zechariah 9:9

When Jesus chose to ride into Jerusalem on a colt, he was making the statement that he was the one Zechariah talked about, he was the one God had promised, the coming king, the Messiah. There is no mistake here. Jesus is proclaiming himself to be the King of the Jews, and the people understand him clearly. We know the people understand because of their response to Jesus. As Jesus rides the donkey into the city the people spread their cloaks and palm branches on the ground. Palm branches were political symbols of victory, they were welcoming Jesus as a victorious king, and the cloaks being spread on the ground, this was also a part of Israel’s kingship tradition. In 2 Kings 9, Jehu is anointed King of Israel and when the people find out that he is king, it says they immediately took off their cloaks and spread them on the ground under him. After that time, when kings rode into Jerusalem, people would lay their cloaks out in front of them as a sign of honor and respect. So the people understand exactly what Jesus is saying. When he rides into Jerusalem on a donkey – Jesus is saying that he is the Messiah. But Jesus did more than choose the mode of transportation that day, he chose the starting point and he chose the parade route, look at Mark 11:1. Jesus started this parade on the Mount of Olives because again, the prophet Zechariah said, the Messiah’s feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives, which lies before Jerusalem. In other words, when the Messiah comes, he would first stand on the Mt. of Olives and then enter Jerusalem from that direction. So it’s not a coincidence that Jesus begins his journey into Jerusalem from the Mt. of Olives. It has all been carefully planned out because Jesus wants to make a statement that would be understood by the people. Again, Jesus is saying clearly that he is the Messiah, he is the king of Jews, but he’s also very clear about the kind of Messiah he comes to be.

For example, while Jesus comes to be king, he doesn’t come armed with swords and shields, there aren’t war horses following behind him, and the crowd traveling with him isn’t looking for a fight. While a strong political leader is the kind of ruler many people wanted and even prayed for at that point in history, Jesus doesn’t come with a show of earthly power, he comes in humility, and he doesn’t come to defeat the oppressive Roman government, he comes to destroy sin by offering himself as the sacrificial lamb of God.

That Jesus came to be the perfect Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world is also the message clearly stated by Jesus in this Palm Sunday event because not only did Jesus choose the mode of transportation and the route into the city, Jesus also chose the day. We can never forget that all that takes place during holy week, including Palm Sunday, takes place in the larger context of the Jewish celebration of the Passover. So let’s take a moment to go back and remember what the Passover was all about

God had called Moses to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt. Israel had been held captive and forced to work as slaves for generation when God called Moses to go to Pharaoh and asked him to let God’s people go. Pharaoh, in the hardness of his heart, said no. So God sent plagues upon the people of Egypt to try and convince Pharaoh to change his mind. There were plagues of gnats & flies & frogs & blood & boils & hail & darkness and through all these plagues, Pharaoh never changed his mind. He simply would not set the Israelites free, so finally God sent one final plague, a plague of death. In Exodus 12 God told His people to prepare for this final plague by taking a lamb without blemish and placing some of the blood of that lamb on the sides and top of the doorframe of their homes and then in Exodus 12:12-13 it says.
So the angel of death passed over the homes of God’s people and it was after this plague that Pharaoh finally set God’s people free.

Each year after this, Israel was to celebrate this Passover with a feast and as part of that feast they were to sacrifice a pure & spotless lamb. And just as they did on that very first Passover, they were to choose that lamb four days before they celebrated the Passover feast. Again if we look at Exodus 12 it says that God called the people to select a lamb on the 10th day of the month, and then on the 14th day of the month they were to sacrifice the lamb and place its blood on the door posts of the house. So each year when the people would celebrate the Passover they would select a lamb 4 days before the Passover feast and that day became known as lamb selection day.

4 days before the Passover was the day that Jesus entered into the city of Jerusalem riding on a donkey. Of all the days Jesus could have chosen to enter into Jerusalem proclaiming himself to be the Messiah, he chose lamb selection day. We need to understand what Jesus is saying here. He not only comes to be our King, he not only comes to be a humble king who rides on a donkey bringing peace, but Jesus comes offering himself as the pure and spotless lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Can you picture what this event looked like? People from all over Israel were coming to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover and they were entering the city on this day with their lambs for the Passover feast – and in the middle of all these people with their lambs comes Jesus offering himself as the one and only lamb of God.

Think about it, 4 days later, as Jesus celebrates the Passover with his disciples what does he do? He takes bread and says, this is my body broken for you. And then he takes a cup of wine and says, this is my blood which is shed for you. Jesus makes it so clear that he is the lamb of God whose sacrifice, whose death on the cross, not only takes away the sin of the world, it takes away our sin, yours and mine. In 1 John 2:2 it says that Jesus Christ is the righteous one, he is the pure spotless perfect one, He is the atoning sacrifice for our sin, and not only for our sins but for the sins of the whole world. We are all sinners in need of God’s grace. We are all sinners who can only find forgiveness and new life in the sacrificial blood of the lamb, the lamb of God, Jesus Christ.

So this spontaneous parade was anything but spontaneous. None of it happened by chance. Jesus has orchestrated this event perfectly. He has chosen the means of transportation and the route of the parade to fulfill what the prophet Zechariah had said, that the Messiah would ride from the Mt. of Olives into the city of Jerusalem riding on a colt, the foal of donkey. And Jesus chose the day as well because he wanted people to know that he was the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus still wants us to know that he is lamb of God who takes away our sin. This is what we celebrate & remember in Holy Communion, that it is only the sacrifice of Jesus that brings us forgiveness and new life.

Today is once again lamb selection day and we have a choice to make. Will we choose Jesus as our lamb? Will we trust in Christ alone to take away our sin? Will we place our faith & trust not in our own ability, not in our good works, not in our own self righteousness but in the sacrifice & in the blood of Jesus? We are saved by grace through faith only, so that no one can boast. We are saved by the grace of God that comes to us today through Jesus Christ, the lamb of God. Choose him today. Ask him to save you.