PALM SUNDAY! 3/28/10

When I was a young girl "Easter Vacation" started with Palm Sunday because it was the week before Easter. Somewhere along the way it became "Spring Break" and falls in March, but is no longer Easter Vacation. This year it falls the week before Palm Sunday. As I write this devotion many families are gone away with their children to celebrate a week together out in the sun. Of course where we live there is sun but the day begins with frost and often very cold. Did you know that a week off from school, originally began during the planting season? The farmers needed their children home to help with the planting!

Some say the triumphal entry and the palm branches recall the celebration of Jewish liberation as found in 1 Maccabees 13:51 It says; "On the 23rd day of the second month, in the 171st year, the Jews led by Maccabee, entered Jerusalem with praise and palm branches; with harps, cymbals and stringed instruments with hymns and song, because a great enemy had been crushed and removed from Israel."

It was a common custom in many lands in the ancient East to cover in some way, the path of someone thought worthy of the highest honor. In the book of John he mentions specifically the palm branches. These were a symbol of triumph and of victory in Jewish tradition. Because of this, the day the crowd greeted Jesus by waving the palm branches and laying their coats on the path, was given the name "Palm Sunday."

"When He drew near to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, He sent two of the disciples saying; 'Go into the village opposite where on entering, you will find a colt tied on which no one has ever yet sat;' untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you; Why are you untying it?; you shall say this; 'The Lord has need of it'!" Luke 19:29-31 The disciples did as Jesus asked and were amazed to find it just as He said they would.

"And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their garments on it and He sat upon it. Many spread their garments on the road and others spread leafy branches which they had cut from the fields. Those who went before and those who followed cried out; 'Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is coming! Hosanna in the highest'!" Mark 11:7-10

Palm Sunday was the fulfillment of the Prophets. Palm Sunday, was the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem; exactly one week before His resurrection. Some 450 years earlier it was written; "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey!" Zechariah 9:9

We commemorate this celebration where "He came to His own and His own did not receive Him." John 1:11 This crowd, over 2000 years ago, were crying out "Hosanna" and then just five days later cried out; "crucify Him!" How quickly they changed their minds! How fickle some were as they listened to the crowd and would chime right in with them. How perplexing it is to us who read His word and know the end of the story.

This week is called "The Passion" because of His suffering as He neared the place of His death. As we draw nearer to our memorial of His death, burial and resurrection we think about His suffering for us. While on the road to Emmaus Jesus says; "Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and entered into His glory?" Luke 24:26 We understand as we read God's plan; We understand this is God's grace. By Jane Ann Crenshaw 3/23/10