Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday remembers the marvelous event of Jesus entering the city of Jerusalem. It was a Sunday and something great really happened, but it also is fitting to get people into the flow of the wonderful redemptive events of the following week, culminating in His resurrection. People of Jerusalem hailed Jesus as King on that day. Hope was bright, their hearts filled with anticipation of the arrival of their Messiah. This thought and sentiment grew, but the crowning achievement that built to this crescendo toward Him was His just having raised Lazarus from the dead.

As Jesus enters the city, He hears the hosannas and the praise. Up to this point, He avoided any such public confrontation because it would speed up the violence that led to a premature death, and He didn't want that. But now it was His hour and on His schedule. The divine plan of the Lord was unfolding, even as scheduled before the world began. Since Jesus would die at Passover as Passover Lamb, it was now time to bring that about. Jesus planned this final public presentation of Himself to Israel, knowing that the enthusiasm of the populace would enrage the Jewish religious leaders. They had planned to kill Jesus and this along, only to fulfill God's will to the very day.

Before the end of the week, instead of receiving Him as Messiah, they turned Jesus over to the Romans, demanding His crucifixion. Dying on Good Friday, He rose alive again three days later. Edward Poteat in 1892 wrote: “They pluck their palm branches and hail Him as King early on Sunday. They spread out their garments. Hosannas they sing early on Sunday. But where is the noise of their hurrying feet? The crown they would offer, the scepter, the seat? Their King wanders hungry, forgot in the street early on Monday.”