On Palm Sunday, Christendom celebrates the parade in which Jesus was hailed by the pilgrims in Jerusalem at the Passover celebration.
The fact that Jesus came back to Jerusalem for Passover was an intentional decision of Jesus. His disciples attempted to dissuade Him. They knew that there were plots by the Pharisees to kill Jesus upon His Return to that city. Mark 10:32.
The danger was so great that the apostle Thomas said: “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.” John 11:16. Jesus knew that His return to Jerusalem, His death and resurrection was part of God’s divine plan for the salvation of the world.
Matthew 21:1-11 recounts what happened. Jesus rode on a donkey in the parade. This was done to fulfill Old Testament scripture that their king would be coming to them, riding on the foal of a donkey.
This was a large parade before almost 2 million pilgrims. People went before Jesus and people followed Jesus in the parade. They were spreading their clothes and cut palm branches to lay on the ground before Jesus.
Not only that, the crowd was exultant, shouting:
“Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest!”
The people wanted Jesus to be their king. They shouted Hosanna. Hosanna is actually a plea for salvation. The Hebrew root words are found in Psalm 118:25, which says, “Save us, we pray, O LORD!” . The Hebrew words yasha (“deliver, save”) and anna (“beg, beseech”) combine to form the word that, in English, is “hosanna.” Literally, hosanna means “I beg you to save!” or “please deliver us!” The crowds accepted that Jesus was the Messiah, much to the consternation of the Pharisees.
It is very clear that the people of Israel knew who Jesus was. They knew what he taught. They saw or heard about His wonderful acts of love and compassion and eternal promises.
Later in the week, some of these Jewish people would have Jesus arrested, scourged, crucified and buried. Of course, Jesus knew it was the plan of God to return to Jerusalem to fulfill God’s plan for Him to die on the cross for our salvation through the forgiveness of sins.
Jesus was determined to go to Jerusalem and die on the cross to fulfill God’s divine plan that “all things which are written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished.” Luke 18:31.
Christ Jesus decided to fulfill God’s plan in spite of being killed before He went to Jerusalem. We read in Luke’s account that Jesus “resolutely set His face to go to Jerusalem.” Luke 9:51.
Today, many have watered down the faith. We need to ask ourselves, would we, like Jesus, resolutely set our faces to go to our Jerusalem for the Lord and for our faith?
Roger Holl, D. Min. is pastor of Sterling Grace Community Church. The church meets Sundays at 10:30 a.m. at the Sterling Senior Center in Sterling, Alaska.
