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Palm Sunday | Holy Week Day 1
2 Playsin 9 hours
Palm Sunday is one of my favorite days in the Christian calendar — and it marks the beginning of something bigger than the crowds even realized. In this first episode of our Holy Week series, I walk through the triumphal entry of Jesus, the history of Palm Sunday in the church, and why the crowd's cry of "Hosanna" carried more weight than they knew.
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Transcript
Introduction to Holy Week Series
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello, friends. Welcome to Verity Podcast. You are joining me in this episode at the beginning of our Holy Week series. So you're going to receive a mini episode of Verity every day of Holy Week from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday.
00:00:19
Speaker
And this episode is the very first one. So we're talking about Palm Sunday.
00:00:29
Speaker
Now, if you don't have our free Holy Week guide that goes along with this podcast series, be sure to grab that. You can go on my website, feliciamasonheimer.com to free resources, and it's right at the top of the page. You can just enter your email to download that guide. You're going to want to have it to read along with this series over the course of the week. The way we've designed the guide is to be helpful both for individuals and for families. So if you want to use this as your devotion each day of Holy Week and watch this video in accompaniment with the guide, that would be a fantastic way to engage with the content here. So as a reminder, head to feliciamasonheimer.com to free resources and you can download our Holy Week guide that goes with these videos.
Significance of Palm Sunday
00:01:22
Speaker
Today is Palm Sunday. This is one of my favorite days in the Christian calendar. When I was growing up, this was a day of such rejoicing. I grew up in the charismatic Pentecostal tradition, and so Palm Sunday was a big deal. Everyone was waving palms and singing this praise music. It was just such a time of rejoicing, and I really miss that.
00:01:46
Speaker
But what I experienced as a child in my church actually looks a lot like what the original Palm Sunday would have been about because that celebration was the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ.
00:02:04
Speaker
We can read about this triumphal entry in all four Gospels in Matthew 21, Mark 11, and Luke 19, and John 12. Each of these passages will give you a picture, ah a different angle of the triumphal entry of Jesus. Now, you might wonder, why is it called the triumphal entry?
00:02:25
Speaker
Well, I'm glad you asked. It's because Jesus is coming into Jerusalem like a king who's returning from war. He's riding a donkey, though, instead of a horse. And this is not only a fulfillment of prophecy, it's also a sign of his humility.
00:02:43
Speaker
As Jesus enters the city, the people are waving palm branches and laying their coats down before him. And they're saying, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest.
00:02:55
Speaker
This phrase, Hosanna, means pray, save us. And it's quoted by David in Psalm 118.25, where he says, Lord, save us and Lord, grant us success.
00:03:10
Speaker
So Palm Sunday has an interesting history. Of course, we see it here in the Gospels, but you might wonder, when did Christians start celebrating this holiday? When did they start celebrating this day?
Traditions and Symbolism
00:03:23
Speaker
After the Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity in 313 AD, Jerusalem became a place where people, Christians, would celebrate with palms. They would reenact the triumphal entry, in fact, and they would actually have a bishop or someone in the congregation who would ride a donkey and and kind of represent Jesus as they reenacted the story of Jesus' entrance to Jerusalem as a king.
00:03:53
Speaker
Now, because Jerusalem did this, pilgrims who would travel between Rome and Jerusalem eventually took this tradition to Rome, and they started reenacting it as well. By the 9th century, the palms that were being used in this processional would be blessed by the leaders of the church, and Sometimes in other parts of Europe, you would see instead of someone riding a donkey at the head of the processional, and you would see either a crucifix or a carved depiction of Jesus riding a donkey that would be held up at the front of the processional.
00:04:27
Speaker
In some countries that didn't have palms, they would use evergreens or pussy willows to represent the the same concept, but in a different cultural context.
00:04:39
Speaker
So many liturgical churches will actually take the palms that are being waved and used on Palm Sunday, collect them after the service, and save them until Ash Wednesday. And those palms, which are burned...
00:04:55
Speaker
are then used as the ashes to mark individuals with the sign of the cross on Ash Wednesday, which is the beginning of Lent. And so this beautiful cycle of the Christian calendar continues year after year.
00:05:12
Speaker
Psalm 118 is the verse from which we take that word Hosanna. And the reason that um we see it here in this significant passage is that this psalm was often sung by Israelites as at the festival of Passover.
00:05:30
Speaker
And so as Jesus is coming in to the city, the triumphal entry, they're singing Psalm 18 as the Passover is coming because the Passover is that week, Holy Week, um that we call Holy Week in the Christian calendar. In the Gospels, what was happening the week of Jesus' crucifixion was the Passover, the Jewish festival, commemorating what happened in the Exodus.
00:05:56
Speaker
when God rescued Israel from slavery.
Reflecting on Jesus's Sacrifice
00:05:59
Speaker
And so they would say this this Psalm, Psalm 118, um a part of the Passover.
00:06:07
Speaker
So as they're saying Hosanna to Jesus as he comes into the city, celebrating him as king, little do they know that they're actually celebrating the true Passover lamb, the one who is going to fulfill all things and fulfill the sacrificial system of the Old Testament.
00:06:28
Speaker
So as you study and and read through today's reading in Luke 19 in Zechariah 9-9, which is a messianic prophecy fulfilled during the triumphal entry,
00:06:39
Speaker
As you ask the questions that we've given you in your Holy Week guide, I want you to think about a theme for today. And I'm going to give you a theme for each day of Holy Week, a main takeaway that you can sit with and meditate on as you go about the rest of your day.
00:06:56
Speaker
The theme I have for you for Palm Sunday is rejoice. The King is here. And I think this is something that we need to be reminded of every single day, not just on Palm Sunday. Yes, it's true of the triumphal entry that Jesus, the King, he's here. He's coming to rescue us. But what are you going through right now that you need to be reminded that the King is here?
00:07:24
Speaker
He's near. He's coming to rescue you. Not only did he do that on the cross, which Jesus knew when he entered Jerusalem, what he was about to go through.
00:07:36
Speaker
He's doing it every single day. He's here to rescue you. Rejoice because the King is near.
Conclusion and Subscription Reminder
00:07:45
Speaker
Thank you for following along with our Holy Week series on Verity Podcast. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss an episode every day of Holy Week. And I'll see you tomorrow on Holy Monday.