Palm Sunday celebrates Jesus’ triumphant journey to his sacrifice

Published: March 17, 2016

By Betsy Wiederkehr Huss
Blessed Sacrament Church, Jonesboro

We will have the opportunity to once again hold palm branches for the Lamb of God this Palm Sunday. But why? What’s the reason for this?

Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem before his ultimate sacrifice of himself is written about in all four Gospels. (Matthew 21:1-11, Mark 11:1-11, Luke 19:28-40 and John 12:12-19) So, this event is an important one in his life and can be in ours as well.

The two disciples Jesus sent to bring the colt, that had never been ridden, to him, from its place tied up in the nearby town, were probably pleasantly surprised that all was as Jesus told them. Yup, tethered donkey, colt, never ridden before, owner asks, “What are we doing?” We say, “Master needs it,” and he let us take it and leave.

Have you ever been surprised by God telling you something and then it turns out just as he said? This can be amazing and overwhelming. Your Bible is full of these “pleasant surprises.”

But back to Scripture; they put their cloaks over the donkey for Jesus to ride upon. Then, the very large crowd cut branches from nearby trees or leafy branches from the fields and spread them or their cloaks on the ground preparing the way for Jesus.

They didn’t stop with just this action but they shouted, according to Mark, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is to come! Hosanna in the highest!”

Sound kind of familiar? These praise verses are integrated into our liturgy right before the eucharistic prayer, at the end of the preface. “Hosanna” in Hebrew means “O Lord grant salvation.” Not sure the folks then, with Jesus, totally realized that he was the Messiah, but most probably thought he was the prophet for the coming messianic kingdom. Others maybe thought he was coming to politically free folks from Roman rule.

The Jewish Passover festival then brought thousands to Jerusalem each year where they memorialized their liberation by God from Egyptian slavery. Remember the 10 plagues?

Remember when the blood of the slaughtered lamb was placed on their homes’ lintels and doorposts and the spirit of God passed over their homes and families, not killing their firstborn? (Exodus 7-13) The Little Rock Catholic Study Bible states: “Jews celebrate Passover and Christians celebrate the Triduum (a new Passover) as the memorial of God’s saving action.”

Jesus knew why he was going to Jerusalem. That’s why we celebrate the events of Holy Week and rejoice on Easter, because Jesus gives us life, his life, abundant life. The Paschal Lamb no longer has to be sacrificed; Jesus’ death and resurrection took care of that for us.

He provides us with opportunities: Opportunities to serve, opportunities to praise, opportunities to grow in our faith, opportunities to be free from sin and no longer held captive.

The least we can do is praise him on Palm Sunday for knowing what was in store for him and going through with it anyway. Revelation 7:9-10 states: “After this I had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people and tongue. They stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice: ‘Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne, and from the Lamb.’”

Betsy Wiederkehr Huss has a master’s degree in theology and has been involved in ministry to all ages for 35 years. This article was originally published in Arkansas Catholic March 19, 2016. Copyright Diocese of Little Rock. All rights reserved. This article may be copied or redistributed with acknowledgement and permission of the publisher.