Palm Sunday. A perfect example of the fact that Jesus’ Disciples and His followers get it … and don’t get it. They get that He is a king … a leader … a prophet and messiah sent by God … but … a king … a leader … a prophet … a messiah who rides into the Jerusalem on colt … not a great stallion or war horse … a king … a leader … a prophet … a messiah who, in a few short days will be falsely accused and convicted … beaten and humiliated … mocked by the very same people who cheered Him as a king … a leader … a prophet … a messiah … and publicly executed in the most painful and shameful way possible.
Just a few days before this, two of Jesus’ Disciples … James and John … had asked Jesus to grant them a special request: “Grant us to sit at your right hand and one at your left in your glory” (Mark 10:37). When Jesus comes into His “glory.” They are picturing Him someday riding into Jerusalem like a conquering king and sitting on King Herod’s throne wearing a crown … not being paraded through the streets like a rebel or common criminal and nailed to a cross with a crown made of thorns … which Jesus tells them is going to happen, right? “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” Picturing a golden goblet filled with sweet wine being lifted at a victory feast after fighting and defeating the Roman army, they respond, “We are able. We will fight. We will endure hardship, but we expect positions of power and authority when all our efforts pay off and you are installed as the new and rightful King of Israel.”
And what happens when they enter Jerusalem a few days later affirms their hopes and their ambitions. Jesus told two of His Disciples … possibly James and John, huh? … to go into Bethany where they will find a colt that had never been ridden. They were to untie it and bring it to Jesus and if anyone tries to stop them or ask them what they were doing “stealing” a colt, they were to tell them: “The Lord needs it and will send it back immediately.” And, as Jesus had predicted, they were challenged and, as Jesus predicted, they were allowed to untie the colt and bring it to Jesus.
As Jesus rode it into Jerusalem, they were greeted by a cheering and respectful crowd who, in ancient Israel style, rolled out the “red carpet” if you will for Jesus. Mark says that some people spread their cloaks on the road and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. “Then those who went ahead and those who were following,” says Mark, “were shouting: Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” (Mark 11:8-10).
“Hosanna.” Again, a sign that they … Jesus’ Disciples and His followers and supporters … get it and don’t get it. The word “Hosanna” means: “Save us!” “Hosanna” was a plea for salvation. It was a recognition that Jesus was their savior, their salvation but in a few days, their savior, their salvation will not sit upon a throne but will hang from a cross and what they hoped would end in victory ends in what appears to be a violent and tragic defeat.
We run into the same situation here that we did with the “rich young ruler” that we talked about last week. Matthew, like Mark, says the people “spread their cloaks on the road and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road” (Matthew 21:8). Luke never mentions any branches, just the people spreading their cloaks on road before Jesus as He rode into Jerusalem. Only John mentions the people taking palm branches as they went out to meet Him (John 12:13).
So why the assumption and emphasis on palm branches? Well, for one thing, it’s a safe assumption that there were palm branches amongst the other branches that Matthew and Mark talk about. Like Florida, the middle east has a great variety of trees but the most common by far are palm trees. I also believe that we commemorate and celebrate Jesus’ entry with palm branches because of what the palm branches represented to the people who greeted Jesus that day and hailed Him as a conquering king.
Palm branches in ancient times were used as a symbol of victory. For the Jews, the palms were used as part of the Feast of Tabernacles … a celebration commanded by God in which God instructed them to build “booths” or shelters cut from “majestic trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook” (Leviticus 23:40) and live in them for seven days “so that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt” (Leviticus 23:43) … in other words, to commemorate God’s victory over the Egyptians and their gods and to remember how God cared for them as HE LED them through the wilderness to the promised land.
The waving of palm branches also commemorated another great “victory” for the people of Israel. In 167 b.c. a Jewish priest named Judas Maccabeus led a revolt against the Seleucid or Greek Empire. As you can imagine, this was a powerful and key event in the history of Israel. They took on the Greek Empire … who had not only conquered and oppressed the Jewish people but desecrated God’s Temple … and won. When Judas Maccabee rode into Jerusalem after having liberated it from the Greeks, the people greeted him with praise and palm branches (1 Maccabees 13:51). “Hosanna!” He was their savior, their liberator who had set them free from their conquerors and oppressor … who had cleansed and rededicated the Temple … which is the first thing that Jesus does after entering Jerusalem and being greeted like Judas Maccabee, a priest and conquering hero. Their hopes that Jesus would be another liberator like the Maccabees was, as we know, short-lived but that was their hope as they watched Jesus ride into Jerusalem on the back of a colt like a king come to establish his reign as God’s anointed messiah. Again, their confusion is understandable. Judas Maccabees and his four brothers were priests. They were godly men whom God used to vanquish their incredibly formidable Greek oppressors. They ruled Israel as an independent Jewish kingdom for just over 20 years until the Romans came and made them a vassal state …. again … and their hope a hundred and sixty-eight years later was that Jesus would do the same thing again. What they failed to realize was that Jesus was about to liberate them from powers far greater than the Greeks or the Romans combined. He came to save them and us from our oppressor … “sin” … and our conqueror … “death” … and the only way that He could liberate us from the power of sin and conquer death was to give up His life for ours on the cross … hardly what anyone expected or were even capable of understanding at this point.
The waving of palm branches was by no means unique to the Jews. The palm tree was considered sacred by the Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Greeks, and even the Romans. Waving of the palms was done by many cultures of that day to celebrate the arrival of kings and conquerors. They were also handed out and waved by the winners during Greek and Roman athletic competitions … like the Olympics … to celebrate their victories.
The palm tree held a very special meaning and place in the heart of the Jewish people. The palm tree was, and still is, seen as one of the greatest trees of all creation. It’s image was carved into the doors, the door posts, and the walls of the Temple.
Palm trees are unique from other trees. For one thing, they are able to survive and even thrive in harsh, dry environments … like the sandy soil and arid desert regions in the Middle East. Having lived in Florida and gone through as many hurricanes as I have, one of the things about palm trees that impressed me was their ability to withstand and survive the severe winds that you encounter in a hurricane … especially given the fact that they have very shallow root systems and yet it is their shallow root system that allows them to survive the brutal winds of a hurricane. You see, palm trees don’t put out a very deep root system … typically one to three feet deep … and their roots are very thin and fragile. They do not grow thicker or wider as the tree grows taller but their long, horizontal roots help stabilize the tree. The thin roots also stabilize the tree by binding to the soil and holding the soil particles together. Their shallow roots help them survive in dry, arid climates because they absorb nutrients from the top layer of soil rather than from deep underground like trees that use taproots. Their roots may be thin and fibrous but they put out a lot of them, which maximizes their ability to absorb nutrients and water near the surface and make them able to withstand high winds. Some palms trees, like date palms, grow in clumps and intertwine their root systems with one another … thus giving them even great stability during a sand storm or a hurricane. Palm trees are also able to survive high winds because of their flexibility. We’ve all seen the pictures of palm trees being bent over during hurricanes and I’ve seen it in real life. I’ve had to cut-up many a “mighty” oak tree after a hurricane but never a palm tree.
The palm tree was … and still is … very important for the survival of many different people. Palm trees provide food and shelter. They provided lumber for building. Their leaves and branches are weaved together to make rope and baskets and furniture and used as roofing material. The sight of a clump of palm trees in the desert means that there is life-giving water on the spot where they are growing.
Palm trees are part of a class of trees known as “evergreen” and so the palm tree was … and is … a symbol of longevity. The average life span of a palm tree is said to be between 75 and 85 years. Some can survive up to 150 years … which might not be as long as, say, an oak tree that last two or three hundred years, but 75 years is a long time given the conditions that palm trees typically live in and the kind of environments where palm trees not only survive but actually thrive.
In Psalm 92, the righteous are compared to a palm tree: “The righteous flourish like the palm tree, and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the LORD; they flourish in the courts of our God. In old age they still produce fruit; they are always green and full of sap” (vv. 12-14). The older a palm tree gets, the sweeter their fruit. Each year a typical date palm can produce 200 to 250 pounds of fruit. Some palms have been reputed to give good fruit past 125 to 150 years of age and older. It was a common belief in Jesus’ day that a single date palm could meet all of a person’s needs for food and shelter. Of the palm trees’ many uses the Midrash … an ancient Jewish Bible commentary … says: "As no part of the palm has any waste, the dates being eaten, the branches used for [worship], the twigs for covering [booths], the bast [or fibers of the tree] for ropes, the leaves for besoms [or brooms], and the planed boards for ceiling rooms, so are there none worthless in Israel” (jewishvirtuallibrary.org/palm). “So there are none worthless in Israel” … and Jesus riding into Jerusalem to be sacrificed on a cross speaks to the fact that in the eyes of God none of us here this morning are worthless, amen? That is the real meaning behind the waving of the palms for us this morning. Jesus’ victory over sin and death is our victory over sin and death … and we take this opportunity to remember that we are called to be like palm trees.
Even though we are planted in a spiritual desert, we are not only able to survive but thrive. Like the palm tree, our roots may be thin and fibrous but they are designed to dig into the Word and hold onto it so that we can survive the storms of life, amen? We must be flexible like the palm tree and bend down in prayer and worship. We send out our roots, not down into the soil, not down into the world but out into the world. We gather like we are this morning so that our roots intertwine and we can support each other and help each survive the hurricanes that blow through our spiritual lives. Like the palm tree, we were designed to be a resource and source of sustenance to those around us … providing food and shelter and comfort. We are to be an oasis where people in a spiritually thirsty world can come and drink of the Living Water of the Holy Spirit. We are to be “evergreen” like the palm tree, producing more and more fruit. Like the palm, our spiritual fruit should become richer, sweeter, more choice, and more enjoyable over time. As we grow in Christ, we become more attractive and more of a benefit to those around us. Like the palm tree, are we straight? Are we evergreen? We are if we are planted in the house of the LORD where we will not only survive but thrive and produce sweeter and more bountiful fruit as we mature in faith, as we continue to send out our spiritual roots to soak up as much of God’s Word and His Spirit as we possibly can.
According to Berakhot 57 in the Jewish Midrash: “One who sees a fig tree in a dream, it is a sign that his Torah is preserved within him, as it is stated (in Proverbs 27:18): “One who keeps the fig tree shall eat the fruit thereof” (Proverbs 27:18). … Dreaming of palm trees is a sign that one's sins have come to an end" and “dreaming of a lulav [or "palm branch"] indicates that one is serving God wholeheartedly” ((jewishvirtuallibrary.org/palm). I pray then that you will see a fig tree, palm trees, and palm branches in your dreams tonight.
When the Maccabees ruled, they took the palm as an emblem of their victory (I Macc. 13:37; II Macc. 14:4) and engraved it on their coins as a reminder of their victory over the Seleucids. The Romans engraved the image of a Jew … a Judea capta … a Jewish captive … sitting in mourning beneath a palm tree as a symbol of Judea’s defeat. Today we wave the palms as we come to this table and mourn beneath the cross and celebrate the empty tomb. Today we wave the palms as we come to this table … a sign that our sin has come to end. Today we wave the palms and come to this table as we profess our desire to serve God wholeheartedly.
