March 20 marks Palm Sunday and the beginning of the Passion Week of Christ.
What is the biblical meaning of Palm Sunday and Christ's passion?
Palm Sunday starts the final week of Jesus' ministry, when he entered Jerusalem to a jubilant crowd of celebrating people, who greeted Him by singing a song commonly sung during Passover, “Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest” (Psalm 118:25-26), as the people waved palm branches and laid them before Him. Notably, all four Gospel writers include this event in their accounts.
When Jesus chose to enter Jerusalem mounted upon a donkey, He purposely presented Himself as a king. But not just any king.
John and Matthew indicate that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey in order to fulfill the promise of Zechariah 9:9: “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt.”
Jesus wasn't merely presenting Himself as a king, but as the promised Messianic King of Israel.
Second, Jesus condones the praises and accolades of the multitudes (Luke 19:39-40). So Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem obviously reveals Jesus to be the Messiah, the King of Israel.
God promised Israel that He would establish one of David's sons upon the throne forever. Jesus is the fulfillment of that promise.
Palm Sunday, therefore, is a day when we acknowledge Jesus of Nazareth to be the promised Messiah.
It's easy to lose sight of the original meaning of Palm Sunday and Easter week. It is the literal fulfillment of Messianic prophecy. Understand, the probability of Jesus fulfilling all Messianic prophesies is said to be 1 in 10 to the 17th power; that is 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000. Yet He did.
God intended this event to reveal gospel truth. What many followers in Jesus' day may not have understood was that the Messiah would first come as a Lamb to be slain – the suffering Messiah (Isaiah 53).
In fact, He was to die so that through His shed blood all humankind could find peace with God (John 3:16-18).
The Cross of Christ is not the end of the story. Three days later came the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Jesus completed His work. He didn't fail. In fact, we are given a promise that He will return as the Lion of the tribe of Judah and all people will confess Him to be Lord (Philippians 2:10).
All nations, governments and peoples of the earth are given a mandate to raise God's standard of truth and righteousness. When governments fail to uphold the standard of God's word, they will meet Him as their Judge. Our founding fathers of Canada declared from Psalm 72:8 “He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth.”
This is etched in the Peace Tower at Ottawa's Parliament Hill.
May the true church stand resolute, proclaiming God's dominion and that Christ is soon returning.
Gerald Bradbury is the pastor of the Parkland Community Church.
