Palm Sunday

As we all know, today is Palm Sunday. Today is the day that the historical triumphal entrance of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem is celebrated. And today is the day that marks the beginning of the last week of our Lord here on earth. Needless to say that at this point in time, Jesus was very well known. It is just like many say when they speak about some one that is popular or famous, His reputation preceded Him. In other words, many of these people had either witnessed or heard about His miracles and signs. Many of these people had either witnessed or heard about how He healed numerous people; restoring sight to the blind, making the lame walk, casting our demons, healing the lepers, and perhaps the most powerful of all the signs, how He had made returned Lazarus back to life after four days of being dead. His reputation and ministry has a great impact in the world back then, and that is why the people poured out into the streets to receive Him. The people poured out to receive the one that they saw as the Messiah, but something happened that that changed the minds and opinion of these people who had gone to receive Him so joyfully. What happened? And, why did it happen? These are the questions that we Hill be exploring today.

John 12:12-19 - On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, 13Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord. 14And Jesus, when he had found a young ass, sat thereon; as it is written, 15Fear not, daughter of Sion: behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass's colt. 16These things understood not his disciples at the first: but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of him, and that they had done these things unto him. 17The people therefore that was with him when he called Lazarus out of his grave, and raised him from the dead, bare record. 18For this cause the people also met him, for that they heard that he had done this miracle. 19The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing? Behold, the world is gone after him.

As I always say, to have a better understanding of the message that our Lord has for us today, it will be necessary that we perform a brief review of history. The first thing that we see here is that there was a multitude of people in Jerusalem that had come for the celebration. But, what celebration was this? The celebration was the “Passover.” This is something that not many of us understand, so I will give you a brief description. The name "Passover" comes from the Hebrew root Peh-Samech-Chet, meaning to pass through, to pass over, to exempt or to spare. It refers to the fact that God "passed over" the houses of the Jews when he was slaying the firstborn of Egypt. The root of this word is seen for the first time in the Bible in Exodus 12:23 when we read “For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.” The Israelites did not share of this plague because they had done as God had indicated to Moses and Aaron. Therefore, this date marks the birth of the Jewish nation as they were liberated from the enslavement of the Pharaoh, and were made servants of God. It is for this same reason that God ordered that this date be observed as a day of celebration, as we find in Exodus 12:14-17 when we read “And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever. 15Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.16And in the first day there shall be an holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be an holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you. 17And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance for ever.” As we can see here, this celebration was something, and continues to be something up until today that is very special to the Jewish people. It was and continues to be a time of family gatherings, great feasts, prayers and mucho more. In Israel the Passover is a seven day holiday, and the first and last day are celebrated with a grand festival. With this brief description of the Passover meaning, let’s now continue our study for today.