What Palm Sunday means (and how to fold a cross with a palm!)

GALVESTON (OSV News) — It is a time of despair, perplexity and contradiction. The very people who applaud Christ’s entrance into Jerusalem that morning, shouting out “Hosanna” and words of adoration will, within a week, be crying, “Crucify him.” 

They will go from acclaiming him as the new King of Israel to urging his life be traded in favor of a convicted criminal; they will first praise him and then mock him. Even friends entering Jerusalem at his side will desert Jesus.

All this discord will take place during one week beginning on what we call Palm Sunday, which falls on March 29 this year. As we read in the Gospels, Jesus went to Jerusalem to join with throngs of other Jews to celebrate the Passover feast as had been prescribed in the Old Testament books of Exodus and Deuteronomy.

From hosanna to the cross
According to the Gospel of St. John, Jesus and many of his followers journeyed the less than two miles from Bethany on that Sunday, arriving outside Jerusalem. As was the custom, pilgrims that had already arrived in the city went out to greet newly arriving groups; some had never seen Jesus but had heard about the miracles attributed to him and were caught up in the excitement.

Those arriving with and greeting Jesus were large in number as explained by John’s Gospel: “When the great crowd … heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, they took palm branches and went out to meet him, and cried out: ‘Hosanna! / Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, (even) the king of Israel’” (12:12-13).

This adulation was not lost on the Pharisees who were present. They said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He said in reply, “I tell you, if they keep silent, the stones will cry out” (see Lk 19:39-40). The Pharisees reported the events back to the Jewish high council, the Sanhedrin, which regarded Jesus’ ever growing popularity as a threat to their cozy relationship with the Romans. They were, in fact, planning to murder him.

A KING OF PEACE, NOT POWER
Previously, Our Lord had deliberately avoided popular acclaim, even fled, but this, upon entering Jerusalem, he accepts. Yet his actions are different than the people expected. He doesn’t present himself as a rival to Caesar; he is not the political messiah or the warrior king the multitude had clamored for. Instead of entering Jerusalem on a war horse or chariot, he enters on a donkey, a sign of peace; and not just any donkey, but one on which no one had ever sat, the prerogative of a king. 

Seeing him on the donkey, the Jews surging around him recalled the words of the Prophet Zechariah 500 years earlier: “Exult greatly, O daughter Zion! / Shout for joy, O daughter Jerusalem! / Behold: your king is coming to you; /a just savior is he, / Humble, and riding on a donkey, / on a colt, the foal of a donkey. / He shall banish the chariot from Ephraim / and the horse from Jerusalem” (Zec 9:9-10).

Pope Benedict XVI said these Old Testament words as they related to Jesus: “He is a king who destroys the weapons of war, a king of peace and a king of simplicity, a king of the poor. … Jesus is not building on violence; he is not instigating a military revolt against Rome.”

JOY SHADOWED BY SUFFERING
Riding on the borrowed donkey, Jesus made his humble entrance into the city as crowds scattered garments before him and waved palm branches. This joyful scene already carries the shadow of what is to come, as the one hailed as king will soon be crucified like a criminal.

St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153) reflected on this dramatic reversal, noting the contrast between shouts of “Hosanna” and cries of “Crucify him,” between green branches and the cross. Those who once honored him as king would soon declare, “We have no king but Caesar.”

Palms were symbols of life among the nomadic tribes, who, when crossing the desert, rejoiced at seeing the palm tree as it indicated an oasis with life-giving water was near. Palms have long been a sign of victory, success and glory. Victorious armies or leaders returning from the battlefield or a long military campaign were welcomed by the populace jubilantly waving palm branches. Despite Jesus’ peaceful manner, when the Jews waved the palms at him and spread their clothing over which he rode, they were affording him the honors of a conquering hero and simultaneously defying the Roman occupiers.

Palm Sunday from the beginning to today
On Palm Sunday, we still go out to meet Him, carry the blessed palms, joyfully sing out our hosanna and join in his triumphant entrance into Jerusalem. But soon our joy turns to somberness as, clutching our palm, we hear the narrative of Christ’s passion. We realize, once again, that his triumph, his true victory, will come through the cross. 

We know, as Jesus did, how Holy Week will end. We know that joy will turn to sorrow and back to joy. We know that through the horror of his suffering, followed by the glory of his resurrection, good will trump evil and life will trump death.

The palms we take home and put in a special place serve to remind us that Palm Sunday is not lost to the ages but that by Christ’s victory we, too, can achieve everlasting life.

Soon after the Resurrection, Christians sought to visit and reenact the events of Christ’s Passion, including his entry into Jerusalem. These practices became possible after religious persecution ended in the fourth century.

A Spanish pilgrim named Eigera described Palm Sunday processions in Jerusalem, noting how believers gathered outside the city and walked through the gates carrying palm branches. Modern Palm Sunday processions echo what she witnessed 17 centuries ago.

By the ninth century, the procession with blessed palms had expanded beyond Jerusalem, and during the Middle Ages they became widespread throughout Europe. In the 17th century, Christians were not only processing into church with palms but, during Mass, holding the palms while the Passion was being read.

By the ninth century, Palm Sunday processions spread throughout Europe. Over time, customs evolved, including varied forms of blessing palms and processing before Mass. Most typical was the blessing of the people and the palms at a place outside the church and then processing in.

In 1955, the Church standardized and simplified the different entrances used on Palm Sunday: either an organized procession that begins somewhere outside the church, a solemn procession starting inside the church, or no procession at all. The church calls this day Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord.

D.D. Emmons writes for OSV News from Pennsylvania.