John 12:12-16
The next day the huge crowd that had arrived for the Feast heard that Jesus was entering Jerusalem. They broke off palm branches and went out to meet him. And they cheered: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in God’s name! Yes! The King of Israel!”
Jesus got a young donkey and rode it, just as the prophet Zechariah has it: “No fear, Daughter Zion: See how your king comes, riding a donkey’s colt.”
The disciples didn’t notice the fulfillment of many Scriptures at the time, but after Jesus was glorified, they remembered that what was written about him matched what was done to him.
Today is Palm Sunday. Next Sunday will be Easter Sunday. All that we have been slowly leading up to — all that is recorded of the three years of Jesus’ public ministry — it’s all coming to a head in this one coming week.
There is the joyful procession into Jerusalem as the local people come to realize just who this Jesus person is. The cries of “Hosanna” and “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” The amazing joyous belief that the one they have awaited for so many long centuries is actually here among them. The almost giddy belief that if this is indeed the Messiah, he will set them free from Roman rule and restore them to previous greatness.
Palm Sunday is the beginning of a week of joy and failure and terror and grief and disbelief. But today, for a few brief hours, there is only an unbelievable joy. Jesus is no longer just the traveling healer and teacher, wandering around Galilee. Today Jesus is proclaimed as King of Israel – the long-awaited Son of David.
This part of the story begins not long after Jesus has recalled Lazarus from the dead – back from his tomb. Lazarus, Mary, and Martha, his sisters, live in Bethany, just outside of Jerusalem, and Jesus and his followers have stopped at their home for a last visit. From here they turn their way to Jerusalem.
The raising of Lazarus was perhaps the final step in the raising up of Jesus, the local boy, to a higher and long-awaited status. Everyone was talking about it, and the mad idea that the messiah had finally arrived was passed from person to person. People began to gather as they heard that Jesus was returning to Jerusalem for the Passover celebration.
But the celebration did not continue for very long. In a matter of days there would be a last meal together and a betrayal, and then a garden, and an arrest – a farce of a trial, and finally, a long, hot afternoon, with a cross at its center. So much hope and despair in one very short week.
Last week I quoted Frederick Buechner on the topic of Covenant. The book I used for that quote was still on my desk this week, along with a couple of others of his works, and so I looked to see what he had to say about Palm Sunday. I’m just going to put this here, because – as is always the case – he puts it all so much better than I can:
“When Jesus entered Jerusalem for the last time, it was as King and Son of David that his followers hailed him. If it was a king like David the conquering hero that they were looking for, they were of course bitterly disappointed. What they got was a king like David the father, who, when he heard of the death of his treacherous son Absalom, went up to his chamber and wept. "Would I had died instead of thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!" he cried out. [found in 2nd Samuel, chapter 18] They were the most kingly words David ever uttered and an uncanny foreshadowing of his many-times great-grandson who some thousand years later put his money where David's mouth had been.”
On that long ago day, the people followed Jesus into town, cheering and singing and proclaiming him as their king ..... But they did not begin to understand then what kind of king he was – one who mourned for the ones he loved, even as they could not see who he was meant to be. Even as they turned on him for not being what they thought they wanted.
There is the joyful procession into Jerusalem as the local people come to realize just who this Jesus person is. The cries of “Hosanna” and “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” The amazing joyous belief that the one they have awaited for so many long centuries is actually here among them. The almost giddy belief that if this is indeed the Messiah, he will set them free from Roman rule and restore them to previous greatness.
Palm Sunday is the beginning of a week of joy and failure and terror and grief and disbelief. But today, for a few brief hours, there is only an unbelievable joy. Jesus is no longer just the traveling healer and teacher, wandering around Galilee. Today Jesus is proclaimed as King of Israel – the long-awaited Son of David.
This part of the story begins not long after Jesus has recalled Lazarus from the dead – back from his tomb. Lazarus, Mary, and Martha, his sisters, live in Bethany, just outside of Jerusalem, and Jesus and his followers have stopped at their home for a last visit. From here they turn their way to Jerusalem.
The raising of Lazarus was perhaps the final step in the raising up of Jesus, the local boy, to a higher and long-awaited status. Everyone was talking about it, and the mad idea that the messiah had finally arrived was passed from person to person. People began to gather as they heard that Jesus was returning to Jerusalem for the Passover celebration.
But the celebration did not continue for very long. In a matter of days there would be a last meal together and a betrayal, and then a garden, and an arrest – a farce of a trial, and finally, a long, hot afternoon, with a cross at its center. So much hope and despair in one very short week.
Last week I quoted Frederick Buechner on the topic of Covenant. The book I used for that quote was still on my desk this week, along with a couple of others of his works, and so I looked to see what he had to say about Palm Sunday. I’m just going to put this here, because – as is always the case – he puts it all so much better than I can:
“When Jesus entered Jerusalem for the last time, it was as King and Son of David that his followers hailed him. If it was a king like David the conquering hero that they were looking for, they were of course bitterly disappointed. What they got was a king like David the father, who, when he heard of the death of his treacherous son Absalom, went up to his chamber and wept. "Would I had died instead of thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!" he cried out. [found in 2nd Samuel, chapter 18] They were the most kingly words David ever uttered and an uncanny foreshadowing of his many-times great-grandson who some thousand years later put his money where David's mouth had been.”
On that long ago day, the people followed Jesus into town, cheering and singing and proclaiming him as their king ..... But they did not begin to understand then what kind of king he was – one who mourned for the ones he loved, even as they could not see who he was meant to be. Even as they turned on him for not being what they thought they wanted.
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