Palm Sunday

March 16
Palm/Passion Sunday

Matthew 21:1-11

¹When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, ²saying to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. ³If anyone says anything to you, just say this, ‘The Lord needs them.’ And he will send them immediately.” ⁴This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying,

⁵ “Tell the daughter of Zion,

Look, your king is coming to you,

humble, and mounted on a donkey,

and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

⁶The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; ⁷they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. ⁸A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. ⁹The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting,

“Hosanna to the Son of David!

Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!

Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

¹⁰When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, “Who is this?” ¹¹The crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”

Notes on Matthew 21:1-22

Matthew describes the event as the deliberate attempt by Jesus to reveal himself as the peaceful Messiah. He does this by quoting the prophet directly as he so often does. Matthew also alludes to it by reporting that Jesus sends two of his disciples into Bethphage to bring him the humblest of beasts of burden. Zechariah’s prophecy symbolized the peaceful choice of a victorious monarch selecting a donkey as his mount instead of a conqueror’s proud steed for his triumphal entry into his capital city. Inevitably the prophecy became attached to the messianic vision of both Jews and Christians.

One can presume that Jesus had friends in the village nearby. If this was Bethany, as some manuscripts of Mark’s text attests, the friends referred to could have been Lazarus, Martha, and Mary. But there was also a small village a little further east named Bethphage. The name refers to a late-season olive that never appears to ripen, but still are quite edible. That too could have symbolic meaning as an allusion to this being the opening of the Passion narrative. Today there is a Christian church and a mosque on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives marking the presumed place of this village, long since disappeared. The spires of both can be seen from a lookout along the road entering Jerusalem from the west.

Though he had no intention of being king, Jesus’ disciples and others thwarted him by throwing their garments and branches before him just as Jehu had been hailed as king in 2 Kings 9:13. According to the Mishnah of the 2^nd century CE, the custom had precedents in the celebration of the Feast of Booths (Tabernacles) when pilgrims collected twigs or branches of myrtle, willow or palm to be bound together in a festal plume, called a lulab to symbolize rejoicing. Waving these lulabs aloft, the pilgrims paraded into the courts of the temple singing the Hallel (Pss. 113-118). It is entirely possible that narratives of the earliest apostolic tradition reflected this practice. The early Christians drew many of the narratives about the life and ministry of Jesus from their Jewish background, no matter whether the events so reported were historical or not.

Literally, “Hosanna!” means “Save now!” or “Help, I pray!” But “Hosanna in the highest” doesn’t really make sense unless it means, “Up with your hosannas!” signaling the moment the pilgrims should wave their lulabs. Matthew may have had Ps. 118:26 in mind, but may also have used it to reflect Ps. 148:1. The New English version reads as if the latter was the intent:

“Hosanna in the heavens!” Did strewing the ground with garments and branches refer to Isaiah’s hailing the returning exiles with “a voice that cries: prepare a road for the Lord through the wilderness?” (Isa. 40:3)? Or was it no more than a sign of honor and spontaneous enthusiasm by those caught up in the excitement of the moment?

According to Luke, only the disciples participated in the celebration, but the text also suggests that the crowd remained silent while the Pharisees complained. Matthew and Mark imply that the crowd turned the incident into a messianic demonstration, which may have been precisely the opposite of Jesus’ intention. Could it also have been Matthew’s sense of the drama about to unfold with tragic consequences?

Reflection Questions

1. Of all the towns to march into so “triumphally,” why do you suppose Jesus chose Jerusalem?
2. Why was there such a large crowd in Jerusalem at this time of the year? What were they shouting as he marched by? What kind of King were the people (and the political authorities) thinking of when they saw Jesus?
3. What difference does it make in your own life that Jesus came as such a “gentle” king?
4. How would you have responded to the coming of Jesus into Jerusalem that day? Would you have understood who he was? Would you have been able to recognize the Son of God through all of the other busy and commercial activities that were happening?

Prayer

Dear Gracious and still-coming God,

You sent Jesus to us to be one of us and to lead us.

Sometimes we recognize Jesus among all of the busyness of life, and sometimes we get caught up and just don’t.

Help us to hear his voice and see his face in the loving connections we have with others around us.

Help us to share his voice with people we know who are lonely and in need of his peace.

In the name of the one who donned death to give life,

Amen