Today we observe the beginning of Holy Week with the solemn celebration of Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion. In John’s Gospel, this event of the palm branches and the Lord’s triumphant entry into the Holy City takes place shortly after Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead. That happened in Bethany, about two miles from Jerusalem. Word spread about this miracle and some of the people who had come to Jerusalem for the great feast of Passover began to get excited. At long last here was someone with the kind of power they needed to take over and lead their country to its glory days once again, a king who could reestablish the kingdom of Israel!
Notice the sequence in the Gospels’ accounts. The people began saluting Jesus as king, but then he deliberately finds a lowly donkey and sits upon it for his trip into the capital city. Earthly kings, when they wanted to make a favorable impression, usually rode on majestic horses. Jesus makes it clear that he will be a different kind of king.
The people misunderstood the Lazarus miracle. Raising people back to physical life is not what Jesus came to do. This miracle was a sign of his power over death. Jesus didn’t come to keep bringing people back to life on this side of death. Jesus came to take us through death to the other side – to a glorious, transformed human life. The raising of Lazarus was simply a sign of all that, a sign of his power over death.
Shortly after his glorious entry into Jerusalem, the crowning work of Jesus would take place. There would be the Last Supper, the washing of feet, the arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, the condemnation, the suffering of the passion ending in the crucifixion and death and then – the glorious resurrection and ascension of Jesus!
Jesus came to establish the reign of God, but not in the way the Jewish people popularly understood it, not by military might. Jesus was a king, but not in the way the people popularly understood this. As part of their coronations, kings were anointed with precious oil. Just before this event with the palm branches, Jesus was anointed by Mary, Martha’s sister, at a banquet in their home in Bethany. When Judas disingenuously objected that it was a waste of expensive oil, Jesus said that it was an anointing in preparation for his imminent burial. The only crown Jesus would have on his head would be a crown of thorns. Instead of being seated on a throne, Jesus would be nailed to a cross. Instead of a royal robe, Jesus would be cloaked in mockery. Instead of the crowd shouting “Long live the king!”, Jesus would hear the crowd shout, “Crucify him!”
We enter this holiest week of the year saying that we will follow this king. We know what kind of king He is, a king who will lead us, if necessary, through suffering, and one day certainly through death. We know by faith that following this king is the only path to life. When we take these palm branches in our hands, we say that we’re willing to follow that kind of king, this king, Jesus the King of kings. We’re willing to be loving, forgiving, merciful, to respond to evil with goodness. We’re willing to take the cross as our logo, because Jesus showed us in his living, dying and rising that he is the way, the truth, and the life.
We don’t casually pick up these palms. We don’t lightly place them out of the way in dresser drawers in our homes. We put them in a predominant place of honor, so that we will be reminded of what they represent each time we see them. We do so knowing to whom we are committing ourselves, and we do so with peace and joy, for we are safe and secure when we walk in the footsteps of the Lord, who has such power, and who loves us, each and every one of us, as though each of us were the only person in the world! With a brother’s love in the Lord and Mary Immaculate,