I keep six honest serving-men, (They taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When And How and Where and Who. – by Rudyard Kipling (1902)
We’ll be using these ‘6 honest serving men’ to structure this article…
What?
The traditional Palm Sunday remembers Jesus triumphant entry into Jerusalem with the crowds waving and spreading their cloaks and palm branches on the road (Matthew 21:8; Mark 11:8) less than a week prior to his crucifixion… Hence the palm crosses which commemorate both aspects: the triumph and the sacrifice!
Jesus rides into Jerusalem as a ‘king’ (Luke 19:38; Zechariah 9:9) and less than a week later, is dispatched as a mere ‘criminal’ on a cross. So, traditionally, Palm Sunday is a history lesson with deep meaning for Christians. Each year we remember!
Where?
That’s easy!
“he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. As he approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives…” – Luke 19:28-29
Essentially, Jesus approaches Jerusalem from the east, descends the Mount of Olives, crosses the Kidron Valley and ascends to the East Gate of Jerusalem. Crucially, Jesus enters the East Gate and the temple courts (Remember that!).
How?
Easy again! Zechariah prophesies:
“Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” – Zechariah 9:9
Who?
This is where it starts to get more interesting! Zechariah 9:9 says ‘your King’: That is the ‘king of the Jews’ – an epitaph that Pilate was to use and nail to the cross! And Zechariah extends this rule ‘to the ends of the earth’ (9:10). But it’s to Daniel 9:25-26 we go next, where Gabriel says:
“Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing.”
The book of Daniel is the only place in the OT, the Hebrew scriptures, where the word Messiah is ever used – whereas it’s used 74 times in the NT (NIV). Messiah is an anglicised version of the Hebrew word “Mashiyach” – it’s used only twice; once in v25 & again v26 (both translated here as ‘Anointed one’ – akin to the Greek ‘Christos’ or the anglicised ‘Christ’).
Daniel was probably written around 536-530BC during the exile & the ‘Messiah’ became a topic of hot debate in Israel after the exile; when the expectation of the Messiah as a great military commander arose.
However, it was increasingly clear from the Hebrew scriptures that the Messiah was, in fact, God. In Hebrew thought, the King of Zion is none-other than God himself. The Psalms refer to Jerusalem as the “city of God” (Psalms 46:4 & 48:1). Jesus said of Jerusalem ‘for it is the city of the Great King’ (referring to God, not Herod Antipas!) in Matthew 5:35.
Isaiah said Jerusalem would shout “our God reigns” at precisely the point when the Lord was returning to Zion (Isaiah 52:7-8).
Jesus, by riding on a donkey to enter Jerusalem, was signalling not just that he was King, but was also the Lord himself! And Gabriel’s prophecy (in Daniel 9) is that Jesus would show up in Jerusalem, present himself to the nation as the Messiah (i.e. Palm Sunday) and then be put to death (Good Friday)!
When?
You’ll remember that Daniel tells us that there will be ‘7 sevens’ and ‘62 sevens’ from the time the edict to rebuild Jerusalem until the Mashiyach, the ‘anointed one’, the ruler comes.
“Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing.” – Daniel 9:25-26
The ‘sevens’ are periods of 7yrs & there are 7+62 ‘sevens’ = 483yrs. However, around 530BC, when Daniel was written, the Hebrew & Babylonian calendars were 360 day-years, so that’s (360×483 =) 173,880 days. Which, converting to the Gregorian calendar of 365 1⁄4 days/yr = 476yr… In fact, a tad over (+21 days).
But when did ‘the word go out to rebuild Jerusalem’? When did the clock start? (A clue: It wasn’t in Daniel’s day).
We find the answer in Nehemiah 2:1 & 8:
“1 In the month of Nisan in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was brought for him, I took the wine and gave it to the king… 8b And because the gracious hand of my God was on me, the king granted my requests.”
We know Artexerxes ‘Longimanus’ (= ‘big hands’ to his friends!) ruled 464-424BC. Nisan is the 1st month of the Jewish year ~ March/April time. And the 20th year of Artexerxes’ reign is 444BC. 444BC + 476yr = AD33 … sound familiar?
Jesus didn’t turn up in Jerusalem ‘on spec’; he had a divine appointment! It was a red-letter day and had been in his diary a long time! This was the exact day prophesied by Gabriel to Daniel more than half a millennium earlier! Jesus actually says:
“If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes.” – Luke 19:42
Why?
For the answer, we need to turn to Ezekiel (also writing during the exile), who charts God’s sad retreat and exit from the 1st temple in Jerusalem:
- Ezekiel 9:3: God moves from the inner sanctuary to the threshold.
- Ezekiel 10:4: The temple is still filled with the glory but God is poised to leave.
- Ezekiel 10:18: He moves from the threshold to the cherubim.
- Ezekiel 10:19: He moves from the cherubim to the eastern gate of the city.
- Ezekiel 11:23: God departs to ‘the mountain east of the city’ (The Mount of Olives)
The 1st temple at Jerusalem is destroyed in 586BC and later, Ezekiel gets a vision of the new temple…
’1 Then the man brought me to the gate facing east, 2 and I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east. His voice was like the roar of rushing waters, and the land was radiant with his glory. 3 The vision I saw was like the vision I had seen when he came to destroy the city and like the visions I had seen by the Kebar River, and I fell facedown. 4 The glory of the Lord entered the temple through the gate facing east. 5 Then the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple.’ – Ezekiel 43:1-5
And so, the Rabbis believed that God would re-enter the 2nd temple (Ezekiel 43) the way he departed (Ezekiel 9-11): From the east, via the Mount of Olives, across the Kidron Valley, through the East Gate into the city – and on into the temple!
And that’s why we have the triumphant entry!
A definitive declaration of Jesus as Messiah, Lord and King. The act of God himself re-entering the temple. Jesus actually says:
‘you did not recognise the time of God’s coming to you’. – Luke 19:44
All this is clearly prophesied in advance through Daniel, Ezekiel and Zechariah. There’s so much more, but that’s perhaps enough for one Palm Sunday!
Go Deeper – What? (Revised)
So, what’s this all about? Simply to remember? Partly… but mostly to inspire! The fuller message of Palm Sunday is much more exciting: That God had returned to his temple; God was once again at the heart of the nation!
Imagine God was to fill Westminster Abbey or St. Paul’s cathedral with his presence & glory… Well, actually, that’s not God’s plan: Rather, he’s filling his temple = us! Palm Sunday was a ‘dress-rehearsal’ for Pentecost and the birth of his church. We are his temple (both 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 corporately; 1 Corinthians 6:19 individually) and we have been filled with the Holy Spirit!
Now: we rejoice in who Jesus is and what he did on that 1st Palm Sunday… but listen: Prophetically, Jesus is rejoicing in what we are doing … or will be doing! On that day, the crowds shouted:
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” – Psalm 118:26a
They were referring to Jesus then, but the same is now true for us! “Blessed is he (us) who comes in the name of the Lord.” It’s not so much the palm crosses that need to be blessed – we already are! It’s us who need to be at the heart of the nation – for Jesus. Not London (necessarily), but where we are, here in Dronfield and Eckington. We are called to be salt and light: At home and in society. And you might ask ‘How?’ Through your job. Or ‘How at our age? We’re retired!’ Perhaps being councillor, or a Justice of the Peace, or a Trustee of a charity, or an MP… but we are called to restore “all things”, so, a member of U3A, or at your allotment, or your keep-fit class or your sailing club… It’s not about position, but intent, purpose.
We don’t just seek the kingdom but also bring in the Kingdom…
Then, one day, at the 2nd coming of Christ, we shall echo of Jesus again: “Blessed is HE who comes in the name of the Lord.” Amen!
Reflect
How can you take Jesus into the heart of our society? If we are the temple, we have the Holy Spirit within us, we’ve already been blessed (to be a blessing), how can we make a difference for the Kingdom?
