The Story

When the Lord and the disciples passed through Jericho where the Lord healed the blind man by the wayside and where He stayed at Zaccheus' house, they were on their way up to Jerusalem. They have now come to the villages Bethphage and Bethany on the Mount of Olives, the Bethany where Mary and Martha and Lazarus lived. They were almost in sight of Jerusalem. A short walk further, and they would look down from the Mount of Olives upon the beautiful city. It was the time of the great Passover feast and many pilgrims were coming by all roads to the city. There were many on this road from Jericho. It was a gay festival time, and much rejoicing.

The disciples and the people with the Lord now felt a special joy when the Lord sent two to the neighboring village to bring a young ass. The owners asked, "Why loose ye the ass?" And they answered, as the Lord had told them to do, "The Lord hath need of him." Now some put their clothes upon the ass, and some spread their clothes as a carpet in the way. Others spread leafy branches and waved palm leaves. Kings and judges in old times used to ride on asses, and they thought that the Lord would now establish His Kingdom. They shouted joyfully: "Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest." Other people in the temple courts below heard the voices from the hill and took palms and came to join the glad company. Some of the Pharisees wished the Lord to rebuke the disciples, to tell them to be quiet, but He refused. As we have it in our song:

"Thou didst accept their praises,
Accept the prayers we bring,
Who in all good delightest,
Thou good and gracious King.

All glory, laud, and honor,
To Thee, Redeemer, King!
To whom the lips of children
Made sweet Hosannas ring."

Yet it was not all rejoicing. Looking down upon the city, the Lord wept over it. It was great and glorious, but the people were selfish and the priests were selfish. They were not really ready for His kingdom.

Why is this Sunday, a week before Easter, called Palm Sunday? Do you know the story of the Lord's riding into Jerusalem? As the disciples and the company of people went with the Lord up the road from Jericho to Jerusalem "they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear." The thought strengthened to enthusiasm when, approaching the city near Bethany on the Mount of Olives, the Lord sent for a young ass and rode as kings and judges used to ride. Read of the old custom in Judges 5:9, 10; and 12:14; 1 Kings 1:32-34. How did the disciples and others show their reverence and joy? What did they do? What did they shout? See also Mark 11:9, 10. The palm leaves that they waved were ancient emblems of victory. "Hosanna" means "Save now," and was an acknowledgment of the Lord as Savior. Why were the roads to Jerusalem and the courts of the temple thronged at this time with people? What great feast was being kept? That helps to account for the company who joined the disciples and the Lord coming to Jerusalem, and for the company who went up from the temple courts to meet Him. Why would the Lord not silence the people? He was truly a King, of a kingdom far grander than they were expecting. When they called Him King and Savior, it was truer than they knew. At least their honor and their cries pictured a real confession. As we read the story and join in the hosannas in our songs, we must try to do so with real acknowledgment, with praise for victory which the Lord has given us in times of temptation. Such acknowledgment and praise are our hosannas and palms.

Looking down upon Jerusalem, the Lord wept over the city, saying, "If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes." Compare His words, "0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem," in Luke 13:34, 35. Forty years later the Roman army under Titus besieged and destroyed the city. The triumph is pictured on the arch of Titus at Rome.

If this chapter were the only record we should think that the Lord on the Palm Sunday drove out the people buying and selling and changing money in the temple courts, but Mark says definitely that it was on the following day when the Lord came again from Bethany. (Mark 11:11-19) Early in His ministry the Lord had driven out the traders (John 2:13-17) but they had gone back to their abuse of the temple.

There are these sad things connected with the story, and before the next Sunday still greater sadness, for the Lord was crucified. But the Lord's power and glory shine out in the gladness of Palm Sunday and of Easter.

1. What event of the Lord's life do we remember on Palm Sunday?

2. How did the Lord ride into Jerusalem that day? What did the disciples and the people with Him do?

3. What did Pharisees say? What did the Lord answer?

4. Why did the Lord weep over the city? What did He find in the temple?

Spiritual Study

Although there was with the Palm Sunday multitude little real appreciation of the Lord as King and of the real glory of His kingdom, escorting the Lord into Jerusalem with the shouting of hosannas and the waving of palms pictured a real welcome of the King and a real rejoicing in His saving power. Compare in Revelation 7:9-17 the great multitude seen by John before the throne, clothed in white robes and palms in their hands, who cried "Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb." And these had come out of great tribulation, in which they had learned the Lord's power. The hosannas of Palm Sunday and the "Salvation to our God" of the multitude in the Revelation are the acknowledgment which every young man and woman should be making for the Lord's help in temptation. He will not rebuke us; we owe Him praise. The palms in the hands of the multitudes are emblems of such praise to the Lord for His saving power. This is the meaning of the palm, the grand tree of the desert, which the wise ancients recognized as an emblem of victory. See the chapter on the palm in The Language of Parable [also titled God's Explanation of Bible Symbolism]. (E. 458; R. 367; A. 8369)

Do you see the significance of the Lord's riding on the ass, and of the custom of kings and judges to ride on mules and asses? Contrast the scene in Revelation 19:11-16, where the Lord rides on a white horse. See the chapter on the horse and ass in The Language of Parable .  Both these animals correspond to powers of thinking and understanding, the horse to the power of spiritual understanding and the ass to careful attention to details of natural fact and circumstance and decision in relation to natural things. The Lord on the white horse represents the Lord in the power of spiritual truth, the inner truth of His Word. His riding on the ass expresses His coming to bring order into our natural thought and life. (A. 2781)

The Lord would not rebuke His disciples for their glad welcome, but said, "If these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out." Stones represent eternal truths. The fact that the Lord was King was such a truth, which could not be suppressed.

The prediction in verses 41-44 would have literal fulfillment, but it was the destruction of the spiritual Jerusalem, the church, for which the Lord wept, the lifeless condition of the Jewish Church at that day and the lifeless condition which the Lord saw would come in the Christian Church. It was for this that He wept. (A. 5480; E. 365)

What deeper work is pictured in the Lord's cleansing of the temple? (E. 840)

The enthusiasm of the Palm Sunday welcome shows that there is a right place for enthusiasm in religion and worship, in connection with our acknowledgment of the Lord as King. It is welcome to the Lord. The spreading of garments upon the ass and in the way expresses the utter subjection of ourselves, especially of our thoughts, to the Lord's rule and guidance. The experience here pictured may be youthful, but it is acceptable to the Lord; it is fundamental to all spiritual experience. (A. 9212)

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