Holy Week: Palm Sunday

Easter is my favorite day of the year. It has been for as long as I remember -- even before I loved Jesus. 

I grew up in a traditional church family. We celebrated lent. "Celebrated" might seem like the wrong word. Lent is no party, but we observed lent. We celebrated in that sense. 

We prepared for Easter. We suppressed "Alleluia." We didn't say it or sing it.

Lent is a time for preparing for the wonder of Easter. The mystery of the cross. The miracle of the resurrection. 

Lent is a time to really, really get ready to hear the story that changed everything once more, trusting that you need it just as much now as you did that first time you heard it. 

It's a season to remember that Jesus' suffering didn't just happen on the cross. His journey to the cross was a long one. Lent is only 47 days (including Sundays), but his suffering and sacrifice was longer. 

It brings us to Holy Week: Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. 

This year, I want to journey through that with you. If you've never really known what happens on those days, we'll look at what the Bible says, and you can ask me questions. If this is the story that shapes your life, join me in reflecting on what that really means. Let's celebrate this week, these days leading up to the day that changed everything.

The past Sunday was Palm Sunday. A day named after trees. But the palms weren't the most important part. 

Here's the story as told in John 12:12-19

12 The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. 13 So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” 14 And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written,

15 “Fear not, daughter of Zion;
behold, your king is coming,
    sitting on a donkey's colt!”

16 His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him. 17 The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. 18 The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.”

Palm branches are such a small part of the story. 

Jesus was entering Jerusalem for the Passover Festival. The crowd acknowledges that this is a big deal -- that Jesus is a big deal. They take palm branches, a sign of triumph and victory, and they shout out to him. 

"Hosanna!" It means "save us." It means "save now." 

Their cries echo Psalm 118:25-26

Save us, we pray, O Lord!
    O Lord, we pray, give us success!

 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
    We bless you from the house of the Lord.

Jesus has a huge entourage. The people adore him. Shouting these phrases, they are praising him. They expect Jesus to continue to do great things. After all, they've been hearing over and over about the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Jesus had to be capable of more. 

But in a few days, Jesus would be betrayed and abandoned. 

Jesus fulfilled the Scriptures. The prophet Zechariah wrote

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!

Behold, your king is coming to you;
righteous and having salvation is he,

humble and mounted on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey. (Zechariah 9:9)

This Jesus is righteous. He has salvation. He is humble. He is riding on a donkey's colt.

He is their King -- the King of kings.

The disciples didn't understand what was happening in the moment. It took them a while to get it. And these guys were with him constantly for three years. They saw the miracles he did. They heard his teaching. But as Jesus entered Jerusalem fulfilling the Scripture promises they were waiting for in the long-expected Messiah (meaning King/anointed one), they missed it. They needed time to see the big picture. They needed the resurrection to understand the "triumphal entry."

And I think that gives us permission to need time to see it too -- to need to see this happen in light of the coming resurrection. 

Thanks for diving into a little bit of Palm Sunday with me. More to come as the events of Holy Week continue to unfold. 

Have you had a moment when you cried out "save now" to Jesus? If so, where has it brought you? If not, what would it look like for you to do so, for you to not only cry out but to look at who Jesus claims to be and see whether or not it's true?