Palm Sunday 2020
Palm Sunday
Sunday, April 5
Palm Sunday commemorates Jesus' jubilant entry into Jerusalem. It’s essentially a piece of street theater dramatizing Zechariah’s ancient prophecy: the long-awaited divine monarch arrives on a humble donkey, announcing “peace to the nations” (Zech 9:9-10). Shout hosanna! The new era, the Great Jubilee, has begun!
Jesus’ arrival from the Mount of Olives isn’t incidental: this route is also an enactment of Zechariah’s vision, since God was expected to arrive via the Mount of Olives on the “day of the LORD” and become monarch “over all the earth” (Zech 14:4-9). The point is that Matthew goes out of his way to underscore that Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem bears all the marks of Zechariah’s ancient promise: the new era has dawned.
Why palm branches? Because they iconically evoke the celebratory Feast of Booths (Hebrew Sukkot, pronounced, “Soo-COAT”), during which worshipers processed around the temple altar, rejoicing by waving branches in accordance with God’s instructions to Moses: “you shall take the fruit of majestic trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days… You shall live in booths [temporary shelters made of leafy branches] for seven days; all that are citizens in Israel shall live in booths, so that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God” (Leviticus 23:40-43). In other words, the palm branches signal the people’s joyful hopes that, like Moses, Jesus will lead a new exodus and deliver them from bondage. And likewise, by “spreading their cloaks on the road,” the crowds signal that they recognize Jesus as royalty (compare 2 Kings 9:13; Zech 9:9).
Worship with us online today. Maybe you could pick branches from your yard or neighborhood. Have a procession through each of the rooms in your home. In each room shout, "Hosanna!" and give thanks for the space.
Consider keeping a Holy Week journal to write about your thoughts for each day. Or you could use art to recreate the story, children can then tell their family about the story they've recreated.
Visit our Holy Week at Home for Families page for more ideas on how to celebrate Palm Sunday in your home.
