Palm Sunday

What’s the Deal with Palm Sunday?

Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Passion Week, the beginning of the ending of Jesus’ earthly ministry.

Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem on the back of a donkey fulfills a prophecy uttered several centuries earlier by the prophet Zechariah: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zechariah 9:9). The prophet foretells the arrival of a king—a great and righteous King who brings salvation. According to the New Testament’s accounts of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the people of the city went to the outskirts of the city to usher Jesus into town. As Jesus processed toward Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, the people laid palm fronds and cloaks in the road as a way of giving Jesus a king’s welcome. The palms signify that the King of the world is entering Jerusalem.

Importantly, though, Jesus is not like other kings, and his kingdom does not work like other kingdoms. Jesus does not launch his kingdom with military might and conquest, but with self-giving love. He wears a crown of thorns, and he is enthroned upon a cross. Today, King Jesus enters Jerusalem amid shouts of “Hosanna” (“save us!“). By Friday, he will be slain in Jerusalem amid cries of “Crucify him!” But these conflicting shouts are two sides of the same coin, for it is precisely by being crucified that Jesus saves the world. King Jesus’ route to glory goes the humble way of the cross—of love. And if we are his disciples, so must ours.

Jonathon+