The Parade of Palms - Jesus Enters Jerusalem

Bible Verses

When they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, and said to them, "Go your way into the village that is opposite you. Immediately as you enter into it, you will find a young donkey tied, on which no one has yet sat. Untie him, and bring him. If anyone asks you, 'Why are you doing this?' say, 'Because the Lord needs it,' and he will send it back here at once." They went away, and found a colt tied at the door outside in the open street, and they untied him. Some of those who stood there asked them, "What are you doing, untying the young donkey?" They said to them just as Jesus had said, and they let them go. They brought the young donkey to Jesus, and threw their garments on it, and Jesus sat on it. Many spread their garments on the way, and others spread branches which they had cut from the fields.

Those who went in front, and those who followed, shouted, "Hosanna. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Blessed is the kingdom of our father David. Hosanna in the highest."

And he entered into the temple in Jerusalem. When he had looked around at everything, it being now evening, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.

Mark 11:1-11

 

Having said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.

It happened, when he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mountain that is called Olivet, he sent two of the disciples, saying, "Go your way into the village on the other side, in which, as you enter, you will find a colt tied, whereon no one ever yet sat. Untie it, and bring it. If anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' say to him: 'Because the Lord needs it.'" Those who were sent went away, and found things just as he had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, "Why are you untying the colt?" They said, "Because the Lord needs it." They brought it to Jesus. They threw their cloaks on the colt, and set Jesus on them. As he went, they spread their cloaks in the way. As he was now getting near, at the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works which they had seen, saying, "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest."

Some of the Pharisees from the crowd said to him, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples." He answered them, "I tell you that if these were silent, the stones would cry out."

When he drew near, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, "If you, even you, had known today the things that make for peace. But now, they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come on you, when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, surround you, hem you in on every side, and will dash you and your children within you to the ground. They will not leave in you one stone on another, because you did not know the time of your visitation."

Luke 19:28-44

Explanation

This is the traditional start of Holy Week and the Easter story. The events happened on the Sunday morning at the start of Holy Week.

Jesus and his followers had been staying in or around a village called Bethany which was on the southeast outskirts of Jerusalem waiting for the Passover festival to start.

The owner of the donkey probably knew or would certainly have heard of Jesus, and so was happy to let Jesus borrow his donkey to go to Jerusalem on. It might have even been the donkey's owner that told people that Jesus was riding into Jerusalem and so the crowd formed.

Bethany was outside the city wall, so was not 'officially' part of Jerusalem, but there would have been a few houses and trading stalls all along the road into Jerusalem itself. And at that time of year, with the Passover festival under a week away, there would have been lots of pilgrims and sight see-ers camping on the side of the road into Jerusalem.

The people in the crowd would have mostly been Jews waiting for a great Messiah or leader to come and rescue them from the occupation of the Romans. They would have heard about Jesus, being a great teacher and a person able to do miracles, and so would have seen him as quite a likely person to lead them to freedom.

So when they heard about Jesus coming into Jerusalem, they lined the road to greet him. Throwing cloaks and the branches of the trees, that were growing along the road, was like a red carpet being put out for someone important today, it showed respect and also helped the donkey to get a grip on the dusty road. The Palm leaf was also a sign of Israel, so waving it was like waving the Jewish national flag. The Romans would not have liked this as they were in control and had claimed Israel as part of the empire.

The words that the crowd sang and shouted in praise were taken from Psalm 118:25-26 and were chanted in the temple during important festivals like Passover. It was also a custom for the people of Jerusalem to welcome important pilgrims to the city by singing the first verse, with the pilgrims responding with the second. However, on this occasion the words were sung much more loudly and with more celebration than normal, also all the crowd joined in all the verses, so this was very unusual and important. The word 'Hosanna' means 'God Saves!' or 'Save Now!'. So the people recognised that Jesus was a very important prophet who was popular with the people and special, although they didn't think of him as the Messiah or Saviour.

The Jewish leaders and religious Pharisees didn't like what the crowd were doing as Jesus was getting far too much praise for their liking, so they asked Jesus to tell the people to stop. But Jesus replies that if they stopped, the stones on the road would start singing. This is part of an Old Testament prophesy that says that Jerusalem itself would know when the Messiah was coming into it. So I should think this made the Pharisees even more unhappy!

The place where Jesus wept was probably a bit further down the road to Jerusalem where the road goes down and round a hill, so you look over the whole of the city. Jesus cried because he could see the beauty of the city he had come to save and also that he knew this is where he would die in less than week. He then went onto prophesy about the destruction of Jerusalem, by the Romans, that happened about 50 years later.