Cultivating Rhythms of Remembering in a Hyper-Forgetful Age: Palm Sunday

One year ago, we were collectively celebrating Easter from a muffled distance—either online or behind masks. What struck me then was the significance of the historical roots of the Passover, an event born out of darkness and stifling oppression. Exodus tells the extraordinary story of God’s deliverance of Israel from their bondage to Egypt and provides details the purpose behind the first Passover and the significance of the lamb’s blood. Exodus also records the details behind God’s devastating judgment against Egypt and Israel’s deliverance from slavery to freedom.

This very first Passover changed everything for Israel and remains a prominent theme across the canon of Scripture. What seems like an unforgettable moment, falls between the cracks of history time and again until God raises up someone to refresh Israel’s memory. Remembering is another prominent theme in the true story of the whole world.

This Easter I am exercising a spiritual discipline by writing. I am making a concerted effort to remember why we celebrate Easter, because it is so easy to forget.

 In this first post, we remember the sobering significance of Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, in the second post we follow Jesus on the Via Dolorosa—the sorrowful road to the cross, and in the third, we celebrate the resurrection—He is Risen!

Palm Sunday commemorates that moment in history when Jesus—loved by many and hated by more—enters Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. John 12 sets the scene for us by describing the large crowd of Jews that had assembled primarily to see Jesus and, if things worked out well, they might catch a glimpse of Lazarus whom Jesus had raised from the dead.

Seeing is believing, or so they say.

The sense of anticipation is almost palpable as people gather to see this man Jesus. Was he, in fact, the long-awaited King of Israel, the Messiah? While behind the scenes, the Jewish chief priests and religious leaders plotted to kill Jesus (and Lazarus too) as wafts of roasted lamb floated in the air, signaling that Passover meal preparation was in full swing.

“The large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt!” (Zech. 9:9)

The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.”

You might remember, some three years earlier Jesus entered a synagogue and read from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah stating, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
    and recovering of sight to the blind,
    to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor” (Isa. 61:1–2; Luke 4:17–21).

Jesus makes it clear that he is doing the will of the Father as he fulfills the words of the prophets. He truly is their long-awaited Messiah, the King of Israel, but he is unlike any king or ruler they have ever known. He makes his entrance on a borrowed donkey.

Then, he announces,

“The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit… Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.

Then a voice came from heaven: ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’ The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, ‘An angel has spoken to him.’ Jesus answered, ‘This voice has come for your sake, not mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.’ He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.” (John 12:23-26, 31–33).

Yes, Jesus, the Son of Man, the long-awaited King, will be glorified—wearing a crown of thorns, and lifted up on a cross naked, mutilated and humiliated. Jesus knows this “triumphal entry” leads to his death, the jubilant cries of “Hosannah” will soon turn to angry shouts, “Crucify him!”

A closer reading of the text reveals that this impending doom is what occupies Jesus’s mind. Earlier in the chapter, he commends Mary for anointing his feet with her expensive perfume as preparation for his burial. Later, when he addresses the adoring crowd, we learn that his soul is troubled. Then, after a hero’s welcome, Jesus hides himself from them,

“Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, so that the word, spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled, “Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” (Isa. 53:1) Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said, ‘He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.’ (Isa. 6:10) Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him. Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God” (John 12:37–43).

If you are anything like me, and if we are anything like the disciples, we need this reminder as we celebrate Palm Sunday. The time-honored tradition sets in motion a series of events that in rapid succession led to the death of the King.

“His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him” (John 12:16).