Palm Sunday Is Over: One Day Closer to the Cross

We had a good Palm Sunday sermon this morning in church. My pastor talked about the donkey and the colt. I imagine all over the world, pastors preached about the palm branches, the cloaks on the ground, the donkey fulfilling the Zechariah prophesy, and the crowd screaming “hosanna”, which means “save me”; “Son of David”, a messianic title; and “Jesus, the King of Israel!” Powerful stuff. I wonder how the disciples felt about all of this adulation? “About time” they probably thought. “Finally, He is about to make His move.”

But what about Jesus? What did He think about all of this hubbub? He knew that in a few days He would be hanging on the cross. He knew this adulation would quickly turn to scorn. So my guess is that he didn’t look right or left, He didn’t pay too much attention to the crowd. He rode into Jerusalem and went directly to His primary objective — the temple.

The temple — the seat of Jewish power. The place from which all authority in Israel flowed. Jesus — He never wavers, He never gives up. He presses on and on and on, ‘speaking truth to power’.  His mission is almost accomplished, but on what we call Palm Sunday He had a message for Israel and for us that echoes across time. It is not about the crowd, the hosannas, the praise, and the glory. It is about this:

“Is it not written, My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations? But you have made it a den of thieves” (Mark 11: 17 NKJV).

Jesus is referring to the great prophecy in Isaiah 56: 6 — 8, which confirms God’s covenant with Abraham, to make him the father of many nations. Isaiah wrote, and Jesus is reminding Israel of this:

“And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to serve Him, to love the name of the Lord, and to worship Him, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant — these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations” (Isaiah 56: 6, 7 NIV).

Jesus scatters the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sell doves in the temple. He is really angry. Most people probably focus on Jesus’ righteous anger and the usurious activities in the Outer Courts. I don’t think that is Jesus’s main message in the temple. Jesus is telling Israel, “I don’t see anyone in this temple other than good Jews. Where are the other nations — the foreigners — that God intended to ‘graft’ into your family? Why have you made this relationship with God so selective? And why do you hate the Greeks, the Romans, the Samaritans, and the other foreigners who are supposed to be worshiping My Father alongside of you?” And maybe Jesus, referring to the den of thieves or robbers, means at least in part, “You have robbed My Father of His glory.”

For me Palm Sunday is more than the triumphant entry into Jerusalem. Palm Sunday is the bold and unmistakable announcement that the landscape is about to shift, the Kingdom of God is about to break out, and that Jesus will welcome the entire world to join. Palm Sunday signifies that the foundation of a new humanity, a new human race — where there in no longer “alienation but reconciliation, no longer hostility but unity and peace”, no longer hatred but love — will be laid down for eternity on the day that Jesus lays down His life and rises from the dead 3 days later. ‘Foreigners’ and Jews will worship and pray together in this new temple — rooted in His broken, bleeding, but ultimately risen body. Good news for us!

To drive home this point (that we can see, but was impossible for the Priests, Pharisees, and His disciples to grasp) Jesus turns from the wreckage of the tables and stools, with loose pigeons walking around the outer courts of the temple, to a group of the blind and lame, the outcasts in Jewish society, and He heals them. The Kingdom will be for them also. And in the Kingdom of God there will be healing and wholeness.

The tables will be turned upside down; the first will be last, the last first.

“Then He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and He lodged there” What we call ‘Palm Sunday’ was over. Phew!! What a day!

Palm Sunday is the day that points to the work and accomplishments of the cross. The hard work is yet to come. But to me, the message Jesus sends is clear. It is coming so you can begin to rejoice now. Wave the palm fronds, shout ‘hosanna’, even throw in a ‘hallelujah’ or two. Salvation is just around the corner. They didn’t know what Jesus was showing them — for one thing, it was too radical. But for me, this is the message of Palm Sunday.

It is also a message for the Church today — open your doors to all who seek a relationship with Jesus. Do not exclude the ‘foreigner’. This Kingdom is for all people. Paul wrote, “This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2: 3 — 5 NIV). Not all men will be saved, because not all men will seek to know Jesus. But the Palm Sunday message is clear — this Body of Christ, this new temple, will be a house of prayer for all nations. Or else!

Or else what? As I far as I know, there is no Plan B.

John