Palm Sunday

This Sunday is Palm Sunday!  It recalls the day Jesus made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem.  Did you ever wonder who the people were in the crowd who went out to meet Jesus that day?

First, there were those who were curious.  They thought of Jesus along much the same lines as the circus or a magic show.  Their minds were permeated with a wonder about what amazing thing Jesus would do next.  They were not necessarily looking for truth.  Many people came out to meet Jesus because, as we discover in John 12, verse 18, they heard that he had performed this sign (raising Lazarus from the dead), and so they came out to meet him.  These people wanted to encounter Jesus as someone who had performed great signs and miracles.

Secondly, Jesus’ disciples were also on the road to Jerusalem that day.  But, even as close as the disciples were to Jesus, as much as they had traveled with him, learned from him, witnessed the miracles, still they did not understand what was going on as they witnessed Jesus’ triumphal entry.  They could not comprehend that this was a fulfillment of prophecy (cf. Zechariah 9:9).  They didn’t see the symbolism of the colt instead of a stallion or a war-horse.  They missed the connection between the humility and the man.  It was not yet their time to understand that this glorification was a kind of model of his glorification in heaven.  There is so very much going on here and all they could see was a parade.  They were simply going out to encounter a parade.  As we read in verse 16: [They] “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.”

There were others in the crowd that day – there were Gentiles who had come to worship at the festival, as we read about in verse 20.  These Greeks were probably God-fearers who attended Jewish synagogues and feasts. Their coming was symbolic of the coming of Gentiles to worship God through Jesus Christ.

Where would you have been in the crowd that day?  Would you have been curious?  Or, would you have been a been a disciple?  Wherever you may have been, will you join now in shouting out, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord”?