Hands Of Praise For Jesus On Palm Sunday

3.28.2021 Mark 11:1–10

1 As they approached Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, on the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples 2 and told them, “Go into the village ahead of you. As soon as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here. 3 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it, and he will send it back here without delay.’ ” 4 They left and found a colt on the street, tied at a door; and they untied it. 5 Some who were standing there asked them, “What are you doing, untying that colt?” 6 The disciples answered them just as Jesus had instructed them, and the men let them go. 7 They brought the colt to Jesus, threw their garments on it, and Jesus sat on it. 8 Many people spread their garments on the road. Others spread branches that they had cut from the fields. 9 Those who went in front and those who followed were crying out, Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!

For those of you who are World War II fans, have you ever seen videos of people in Europe who were celebrating the entry of the armed forces when the Germans were defeated? The videos show people shouting and screaming in joy from their windows and on the side of the road. They were SO HAPPY to be free. The people in Europe were celebrating AFTER they were set free. Palm Sunday is before the fact. The people of Jerusalem celebrated Jesus for what they THOUGHT He would be and do. We celebrate Jesus for what we KNOW and BELIEVE Jesus did, giving us a pure and lasting type of freedom.

We’ve been looking at the theme “Hands of the Passion” throughout our Lent season. Usually the hands have been used to do sinful things, like Pilate’s washing of his hands prior to handing Jesus over. But today, people are using their hands to take off their coats and cut off branches, throwing them on the ground in praise of Jesus. Their mouths are filled with joy and their hearts are filled with excitement at the arrival of Jesus.

Hands of Praise for Jesus on Palm Sunday

There is great spontaneity here. They see Jesus coming into town, and they want to celebrate in whatever way they can with whatever they can find. They wanted to give Him the most royal red carpet treatment they could. Even though it wasn’t much, Jesus welcomed their praise. He didn’t scoff at it. God welcomes your praise as well. Sometimes it doesn’t have to be anything flashy. Just a few weeks ago I could clearly hear a couple kids saying the Lord’s Prayer loudly and clearly during a worship service. I loved it. It wasn’t quite in sync with the rest of the congregation, and it was beautiful. God loves it too when you give Him your praises.

Even BEFORE Jesus rides into town, the disciples use their hands to untie a colt and his mother and bring them to Jesus for him to ride on. The owners of the colt freely give their colt (and the mother) to the disciples for them to use when they find out it was for Jesus. No questions asked. Jesus had a need, so they gave to the need, even though the donkeys were more costly than a branch from a tree.

Why a donkey? I did a little bit of research on donkeys. They are usually around 500 pounds or so. They walk slowly at about the pace of a human. They are known to be stubborn, but they are actually reported to be very docile creatures and good pets, although they don’t like dogs and coyotes. They only appear stubborn because when they are scared they freeze in place instead of running away. They generally aren’t supposed to carry too much more than 200 pounds, but Jesus' ride was downhill and this was a young donkey. Donkeys don’t generally stand much taller than 4 feet. So they are small.

If you were to look at the aesthetics of it, there wasn’t much to look at. Jesus would have been riding slowly and methodically through town. It wasn’t a quick ride. There was no chariot or armed guards. Donkeys were more used for carrying stuff around, nothing flashy. But that was part of the reason for Jesus to ride into town on a donkey in the first place. The magnificence was not to be placed on the STYLE of His ride. The donkey is a simple and unassuming beast of burden. And Jesus was in some ways the same thing on earth. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, the Bible says. He came here to lift our sins off of us, to bear our burden, and that is not an attractive thing.