The Path Strewn with Palm Branches

Palm Sunday is the traditional time to recall Jesus' Triumphal Entry. The Bible says, "The great crowd that had come for the Feast heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, 'Hosanna!' 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!' 'Blessed is the King of Israel!'" (John 12:12-13).

Palm trees swaying in the wind bring to mind relaxation and warm tropical climates; but in biblical times, palms also served a practical function, producing edible fruit and fibers for making ropes. After the people of Israel left Egypt during the exodus, the Lord led them through the desert to a beautiful spot that sounds like an ancient version of Palm Springs: "where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the water" (Exodus 15:27).

Jericho was known as the City of Palms (Deuteronomy 34:3; Judges 1:16). During Solomon's reign, images of palm trees were carved into the decorative walls of the temple (1 Kings 6:29-35, 7:36; 2 Chronicles 3:5). Historians tell us that the palm tree was a common picture on ancient Jewish coinage. According to the book of Psalms, "The righteous will flourish like a palm tree . . . . They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green" (Psalm 92:12, 14).

The Jewish people associated palm branches with celebration and worship. During the Feast of Tabernacles they took palm branches and rejoiced before God (Leviticus 23:40; Nehemiah 8:15). A section of the Psalms filled with messianic meaning exhorts worshipers, "With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession" (Psalm 118:27). Just as modern crowds might throw confetti or celebrate with a ticker-tape parade, happy throngs in ancient times would spread flowers, tree branches, and garments in a conqueror's path as a gesture of honor and respect. In John's vision of Heaven, he saw a white-robed multitude standing before God's throne "holding palm branches in their hands" (Revelation 7:9).

Yet on the day we call Palm Sunday Jesus came riding, not on a conqueror's stallion, but on a borrowed donkey, a symbol of humility and peace. How many people in the crowd recognized that he was fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9? "See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey." We call it the Triumphal Entry, but for Jesus it was a tearful one, for the Bible says, "As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it" (Luke 19:41).

How many in the crowd who cheered Jesus on Palm Sunday really understood what he had come to do? How many of them lifted up a different chant a few days later and joined the cry to crucify him? How many of them wanted a political king to liberate them from Rome, but not a suffering servant to die for their sins?

The adoring crowd held palm branches in their hands that day, but Jesus' hands soon felt the excruciating pain of the nails. The path strewn with palm branches led him to the passion of the cross. It leads us there too. In the kingdom of God, the victory celebration winds its way past the cheering crowds and past the misery of Golgotha to the quiet but lasting joy of the empty tomb.