[Article prepared by Conejo Member, Derek Estes]
Imagine you’re in a buzzing crowd in Jerusalem about 2,000 years ago. Take a look around: the sun is peaking through the clouds on a beautiful springtime day, the smell of fresh produce, spices, and meats wafts in the wind from the nearby market, and the soldiers who are responsible for crowd control are somehow both on alert and unbothered. Although there’s a palpable sense of anticipation in the crowd where you are, a bit further in the distance is where the real party’s happening. It’s hard to tell, but it looks like there’s a path being formed—people are putting down palm branches and coats as though to welcome royalty into the city. And then you see him. He’s not impressively tall as you might expect royalty to be, and he rides on a donkey instead of a royal steed, but nonetheless it’s clear: this is a king. Suddenly you hear the crowd chant, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” You feel your heart skip a beat as you turn to those around you and ask, “Who is this man?” Unable to contain their smile, they tell you, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”
This is the scene that Matthew depicts in 21st chapter of his gospel. It is a depiction of a crowd who has been beaten down for a long, long time. They have been exiled or have lived under foreign rule for as long as anyone can remember. And they have hoped. They’ve hoped that one day the God of their ancestors Abraham and Isaac and Jacob would send to them a new David, who would chase out their oppressors, who would usher in an era of prosperity and religious devotion, and who would finally lead God’s people to keep their covenant with the Lord.
Of course, Jesus accomplishes all of these things, though not in the way anyone expected. God tends to do that.
Today is what Christians throughout time have called Palm Sunday. It is the last Sunday of Lent, which is a season of mourning and fasting. For those who have observed Lent, it is easy to feel tired and beaten down at this point, and so on this last Sunday of Lent, we celebrate with palms and parades as a re-enactment of the excitement and anticipation of the crowd in Jerusalem some 2,000 years ago. On this day, we are reminded that even though we go through seasons of darkness and hardship in life, God’s inbreaking is near, and he invites us to join the throngs of saints, both living and dead, to shout, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
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