Palm Sunday

This Sunday, April 2^nd, is Palm Sunday, the day on which we commemorate Jesus’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem, as detailed in Matthew 21:1-11, Mark 11:1-11, and Luke 19:28-44.

The story begins with Jesus telling two of his disciples (none of the gospels names them) to go into a nearby village and bring back a colt “on which no one has ever sat.”[1] Matthew mentions a donkey in addition to the colt.[2] Perhaps the donkey was the colt’s mother, and Jesus wanted them to bring the donkey to help calm and reassure the young colt.

Jesus instructed his disciples that if they were challenged, they were to merely reply, “The Lord has need of it.”[3] Mark tells us that they were indeed challenged by some bystanders.[4] Luke is more specific, identifying these “bystanders” as the owners of the colt.[5] But upon being informed that “the Lord has need of it,” the disciples were allowed to proceed, implying that Jesus probably had some prearrangement with the colt’s owners to allow him to use the animal.

As Jesus rode toward Jerusalem on the colt, people spread their cloaks and palm leaves on the road before him as they praised God and shouted:

Hosanna to the Son of David;
Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord;
Hosanna in the highest![6]

“Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord” is a quotation from Psalm 118:26, and “Hosanna”—which is a plea to God to “Save us”—is similar to Psalm 118:25 (“Please, O Lord, do save us”). The crowd was proclaiming their belief that Jesus had been sent by God and that he had God’s blessing and approval.

“Son of David” is a reference to the coming Messiah, whom the Jews believed would be a descendant of King David, based on Isaiah 9:6-7[7] and Hosea 3:4-5.[8] Jesus referred to this belief in Matthew 22:41-45 when he asked the Pharisees, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is He?” They answered, “the son of David.” This belief that the Messiah would be a descendant of King David is similarly reflected in Matthew 12:22-23, where people—amazed by one of Jesus’s many healings—asked, “This man cannot be the Son of David, can he?” In other words, “could this man be the Messiah?”

In Jesus’s time, the Jewish people believed the Messiah would be a mighty king—the second coming of their great King David—who would expel the oppressive Romans and re-establish a Jewish kingdom. We see this in Mark’s gospel, when the crowd shouts, “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David,”[9] and in Luke’s gospel when they yell, “Blessed is the King, the One who comes in the name of the Lord.”[10] They thought of Jesus as a king, not a savior.

Jesus’s followers believed they had found the new king of Israel, one who would restore the kingdom of their ancestor David. Perhaps that explains why so many of them abandoned him—and even turned against him—a week later when they realized that he was not that kind of Messiah.

[1] Mark 11:2; see also Luke 19:30

[2] Matthew 21:2

[3] Luke 19:31; see also Mark 11:3 and Matthew 21:3

[4] Mark 11:5

[5] Luke 19:33

[6] Matthew 21:9; Mark 11:9-10 and Luke 19:38 are similar

[7] Isaiah 9:6-7 says:

For a Child will be born to us, a Son will be given to us;
And the government will rest on His shoulders;
And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace
On the throne of David and over his kingdom

[8] Hosea 3:4-5 says: “For the sons of Israel will live for many days without a king or leader, without sacrifice or memorial stone, and without ephod or household idols. Afterward the sons of Israel will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king; and they will come trembling to the Lord and to His goodness in the last days.”

[9] Mark 11:10 (emphasis added)

[10] Luke 19:38 (emphasis added)