Palm Sunday
It is approaching the Feast of Passover. This feast of the Lord is one of the most important feasts that the people of Israel celebrated, and it was one of the required pilgrimage feasts. Jews from all over the known world would travel to Jerusalem to celebrate. The population of Jerusalem would balloon into the tens of thousands.
The parameters of the feast are laid out in the Torah, but over the years a series of other practices developed that provided extra meaning for the Jews. One week before Passover, the High Priest would leave Jerusalem and begin the roughly five-mile journey to Bethlehem. It was in Bethlehem every year that the Passover lamb was born and kept free from blemish. The High Priest would collect the lamb in Bethlehem and carry it back to Jerusalem to keep it from being injured on the way.
As he was traveling, crowds would begin to gather along the route from the gate that the High Priest would enter up to the Temple mount. This was a time of celebration! They wanted to see the Passover lamb as it passed by. The other priests in service at the Temple would gather closer to the gate to follow the High Priest in procession.
When the High Priest started approaching the gate, the other priests would begin to celebrate and shout. “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.” This cry would be picked up by all the crowds along the route. Imagine the noise! The High Priest would carry the Passover lamb through the crowds to the Temple. When He arrived in the Temple, he would place the lamb in an enclosure where anyone could come by and examine the lamb to assure that it was truly spotless and without blemish. This would go on for five days.
This series of events began to develop shortly after the return of the Israelites to Jerusalem from the exile and the rebuilding of the Temple under Ezra. It went on year after year, generation after generation, until…
…about 30 CE. On this year, the High Priest left Jerusalem again, as he had done for many years. He began his journey toward Bethlehem. But on this day, something different happened.
Jesus tells His followers to go and find a donkey and bring it to Him. Jesus, born in Bethlehem and spotless from any sin, sits on the donkey and begins to ride into Jerusalem. He is THE Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. If He is the lamb, then who does the donkey represent? Who has always carried the lamb to the Temple? Who says Jesus doesn’t have a sense of humor.
As Jesus begins to ride into Jerusalem, His followers begin to shout the words that had been repeated for generations, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.” The priests who are waiting hear this and believe the High Priest is coming, so they begin to shout. The people hear it and begin to shout as well. Everyone is straining to see the gate and catch the first glimpse of the High Priest carrying the Passover lamb. “I can just see something. It doesn’t look like the High Priest. It looks like some guy riding a donkey. Who is that? It looks like…IT’S YESHUA!!!” The word ripples through the crowd. It’s Yeshua, Jesus, the man who fed thousands of people with just a few loaves and fish. The guy who teaches with authority, not like the other religious leaders. The man who just raised Lazarus from the dead after four days just recently. Now people are really going crazy. They throw their cloaks on the ground like you would for a conquering king. They cut down palm branches and start waving them around. The palm branch was the symbol of the last time that the Jews were a free nation after the Maccabean revolt against the Greeks. It was on their coins at the time. This was like them waving a French flag during the Nazi occupation. The Romans were probably not pleased…
…and neither were the other priests. Once they realized what was happening, they run to Jesus. “This isn’t right! This isn’t the way this is supposed to happen!!! Tell your followers to be quiet! The Romans might hear, and we need to wait for the High Priest!” What does Jesus say? “If I tell them to be silent, even the stones in the street will cry out in praise.” And so they go in procession to the Temple.
You can imagine the confusion of the High Priest when he shows up carrying the Passover lamb…and no one is there. Jesus goes to the Temple and for the next five days, He teaches in the Temple. As THE Passover Lamb, He is examined for those five days. Various groups come and question Him to try and catch Him in an error.
One group asks Jesus if we should pay taxes to Caesar. Jesus asks for a coin, questions them about what is on the coin, and tells them “Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.”
Another group asks Him a theoretical question about a woman who was married to a man who dies without children. She winds up marrying his six brothers, each with no children, and then dies herself. “Whose wife will she be in the resurrection?” Jesus’ response is basically, “You have no idea what you’re talking about. There is no marrying or giving in marriage in heaven.”
He gets other questions, and asks some Himself. What is recorded in the Bible is just a sample of His teaching and the questions asked those five days. In the end, the Bible records that they all stop asking questions “because they can find no fault in Him.” Their inability to find fault is so complete that they have to make up false accusations! Yeshua is examined and found to be truly spotless and without blemish.
So what does all of this means for us? Well, God is in the details. Jesus fulfilled everything that went on this day in intricate detail. Here’s what’s interesting to me…none of the things I’ve talked about here are prescribed by Yahweh in the Torah. They are just traditions that developed, and yet Jesus still went to the trouble of fulfilling them! (As an aside, it’s not wrong to develop traditions that help enhance our interaction with God. We always celebrate Palm Sunday on a Sunday, Jesus' death on a Friday, and Easter on a Sunday even though the year He died it would not have happened that way. It’s just a way for us to standardize and celebrate these things together.)
God is in the details, not just of fulfilling prophecy, but of your life as well. He is using every tiny detail of your life to help you look more like Jesus. He is aware of every hurt, every injustice, every fear, and every tear. The same God who took care to fulfill things He didn’t have to fulfill is the same God who guides your life. Everyone reading this has suffered in some way. Often, our suffering is our own doing. I smoke and get emphysema. I get into debt and struggle with my daily needs. I skip church and spending time with God and wonder why He feels distant. Regardless, God is there with you…in the details. He still loves you and wants to grow closer to Him. However, even if your suffering is not due to your own choices, remember that Jesus was accused, convicted, and killed over false accusations. In fact, He took the death sentence that was MINE! I have been mistreated in my life, but not like Jesus. The suffering I have experienced pales in comparison to the suffering that Jesus knowingly chose for all of us. As you celebrate Jesus’ triumphal entry on Palm Sunday, remember that He did it while looking toward the cross just a week later…and His resurrection three days after that. And remember that God is in the details and no matter what happens in this life, there is a reward in the life to come. AMEN!
SONGS FOR SUNDAY
Won't Stop Now
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7AC3u3yidA
Build My Life
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZW4_8_zCBE
All Hail King Jesus (probably not the one you're thinking about)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRugOZ7Iyao
Nothing But The Blood
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Hsf7t1Pzx4
Glorious Day