Promised Treasures - Palms

Palm Sunday/Sunday of the Passion

April 2, 2023

John 12:12-19

 “Promised Treasures – Palms”

Today in worship, here and throughout all the world, followers of Jesus are given a palm branch. This connects us with that first Palm Sunday when Jesus rode into Jerusalem and people welcomed him by waving palm branches amidst shouts of “Hosanna!,” meaning, “Save us, Lord!” As we enter into this great and holy week in which we contemplate all that Jesus did for us and for our salvation, it begins with palms. All of that is true, but on a deeper level, palm branches represent victory, life, joy and peace. That’s how they were understood in the ancient world, and in Jesus, that is what we celebrate today. Our Lenten series, “Promised Treasures,” continues today as we focus on palms. May the Lord’s rich and abundant blessing rest upon the preaching, the hearing, and the living of his Word for Jesus’ sake.

On that first Palm Sunday, when the people welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem and cried out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” (John 12:13), they were expecting a certain kind of king. They were looking for a conquering warrior king with an army following him who would restore the glory days of old, remove outsiders and overthrow foreign domination, and establish an earthly kingdom in Jerusalem. That’s what popular opinion held, but here comes Jesus riding in lowliness and humility, not on a war horse, but on a donkey. He comes in peace as the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). He comes to fulfill what the prophet had written hundreds of years before (Zechariah 9:9).

So what about us today? What kind of a king are we expecting Jesus to be? As we wave our palm branches, do we, like the people on that first Palm Sunday, want that conquering warrior king to step in and clean house?  The world is a messed up place – no question – as evidenced by yet another school shooting this past week. Do we feel victorious today as we wave our palm branches? Do we identify with what palm branches originally meant: victory, life, joy and peace? Many people do not feel these things. Instead, they feel beaten down, discouraged, hopeless. The circumstances of life can do that to a person; to people. This is exactly why Jesus rode into Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday: to restore life and hope.

Jesus entered into Jerusalem as a king who would wear a different kind of crown; not one of gold, but thorns. His throne would be the wood of the cross. Jesus entered into Jerusalem to do the hard work – the excruciating, soul-shattering, bloody work – on the tree of the cross. One week from today is Easter Sunday. Everybody likes Easter Sunday: the joy of new life, egg hunts and chocolate candy. But you can’t get to Easter without going through Good Friday. If we show up only for festival worship on Easter Sunday but haven’t walked the way of the cross on Good Friday, we reduce the enormous price that Jesus paid for our salvation into some feel-good, superficial nonsense that avoids Jesus’ suffering and cry of dereliction from the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). We would prefer, of course, to avoid all of this; not to deal with it; in fact, to run away from it. But until we grapple with that harsh and terrible reality of Jesus’ suffering and death, the good news of Easter morning falls flat. In order for the palm – symbol of victory, life, joy and peace – to have its full meaning, it must lead us to the cross.

This is the king we have – not a conquering warrior who sets up some kind of earthly realm, but One who “humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8b). Through all that Jesus has done, he has given eternal victory, life, joy and peace to all who trust in him. Come what may, the victory is already ours in Jesus. Even death itself cannot destroy that. The palms we hold in our hands today will become palm branches in the hands of God’s chosen and elect in heaven, clothed in white robes, washed in the blood of the Lamb (Revelation 7:10). Our Palm Sunday shouts of “Hosanna!” will give way to something far greater as we await that promised treasure, that great day when “every knee shall bow… and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10-11). Amen.