The children come down the aisle of the church, waving palm branches then gathering to hear the story of another time, another place when children and their families lined the streets of Jerusalem, laying palm branches along the way or waving them in the air as Jesus passes before them riding on a donkey.
Parents smile from their church pews, snapping shots with their cell phones to send to grandparents in Florida. Neither the children nor the parents realize the depth of the story they are recreating.
So, what’s it all about, Alphie?
Finally, it was time. Unlike the day of water-into-wine, Jesus was ready to admit that He actually was the prophesied King of the Jews. He planned His own announcement in response to the crowds that had followed him for the last three years. Unlike other kings and royalty who made their triumphal entries riding on the backs of the finest-bred and highly trained steeds, seated on the tooled and jeweled leather saddles, Jesus sent his disciples to borrow a donkey. And it wasn’t a donkey trained to carry burdens, but a young foal never before ridden. He would announce His royal reign in the language of the poor, using the transportation of the powerless.
Like his entrance into the world, He would once again confuse every expectation of how a king should come. Without fanfare, this king had been born to a peasant girl in a borrowed stable, bedded down in a feeding trough for, yes, donkeys. And unlike the lineage of kings or even the carefully kept lineage of male Jewish ancestry, His father would not be Joseph of the lineage of David, but God Himself, and his human lineage would be that of His mother Mary.
Yes, once again breaking all expectations of how a king should come, Jesus rode into Jerusalem when the city was crowded with people in town for the festivities of Passover, and not only Jews, but people from many other cultures, as well. Admirers of this man who healed leppers, fed thousands with a boy’s fish lunch, and opened blind eyes, lined the street to get a glimpse of Him. Some even took off their coats and laid them in his path. Like a selfie, they would have their coats marked by his donkey’s footprints to prove they had been there.
And they waved palm branches. To all cultures gathered that festival day, palm branches had meaning. To the Greeks, palms meant the winner of a race or another athletic contest. Palms meant Winner!
To the Romans, palms echoed victorious gladiators or reigning emperors. Palm leaves were woven into the crowns of conquerors.
To Egyptians, palms proclaimed immortality. Ironically, palms lined funeral processions and were laid across the bodies of the deceased.
And to the Jews who sang “Hosanna!” their song and their palms harkened back to the deliverance from slavery, and their commitment to return to Jerusalem in holy pilgrimage. “Hosanna!” meant “Save us now!” Palms of deliverance! Songs of Salvation!
Did the by-standers that day have a clue that this Savior who came to them on the vehicle of “the least of these” would be, indeed, the victor over sin and all kinds of bondage? Did anyone on this celebrative day know that this “triumphal entry” would also be his funeral prelude? Did they know that this irregular monarch would not make laws but fulfill them?
Did they have an inkling that this “conqueror” would be the conqueror over sin, death, and the grave? That, indeed, their palm branches would symbolize an immortality not just after death, but one that would infuse their days with the power of the eternal.
Winner of a race? Little did they know that they were watching, then and in the days to come, the final victory lap of a race whose end would be declared by the runner himself with the pronouncement, “It is finished.” Did they have any insight into how immortal his reign would be?
And do we, who place palm branches in the palms of our children and pull out our cell phones to capture and mark this moment, have a clue to the eternal promise of singing “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord”?
Triumphal, indeed!
Unshakable Kingdom
They came to follow Him,
Drawn by what His promised them
If they would sell all that they had;
He said that God would send
A kingdom that would never end
Where all the poor would be rich.
And in their discontent
They heard what they thought He meant—
Heard that the weak would be strong,
Bread would be multiplied,
Hunger be satisfied
And every servant a king.
But He went His quiet way,
Giving Himself away,
Building what eyes could never see.
While men looked for crowns and thrones,
He walked with crowds, alone,
Planting a seed in you and me—
Crying for those who cried,
Dying for those who died,
Bursting forth, glorified! Alive!
Yet some of them looked for Him,
Sad that it had to end,
But some dared to look within and see
The kingdom of God, a kingdom that would never end…
The living, unshakable kingdom of God!
Lyric: Gloria Gaither
Music: William J. Gaither and Michael W. Smith
©1985 Gaither Music Company and Meadowgreen Music Company
(admin. by EMI Christian Music Group). All rights reserved.
