Palm Sunday received its name because it is written that “the next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed is the king of Israel!”
It is how its name came around, though actually only the comparably latter written Gospel of John mentions the palm branches, all the other Gospels talk about mere branches of trees without further details. More than likely that the Greco-Roman culture of the Roman Empire strongly influenced the Christian tradition embedded in the Gospel of John, as the palm branch was a symbol of triumph and victory.
We can be lucky to have more Gospels in the Bible than one as it may have been thought by some people in the Greek Orthodox Churches and wherever in the world else, because in this case they can use any green branches whatever they just have at hand.
The options went so far that they used willow instead of the palm branches wherever palm branches were not available, or almost any other green branches of trees as a substitution like box-tree, olive, willow and yew. In some countries they changed the name of the festivity to Branch Sunday, Willow Sunday or even Yew Sunday.
Often in the Balkan and Eastern Europe, and for some reason in Spain it is called Flower Sunday. In brackets that is how Florida in the US got her name. It is also still a living saying in Eastern Europe regarding Flower Sunday that whosoever loves flowers he can not be a bad man.
The diversity of the accounts of the Gospels regarding green branches is maybe a by -God- preordered- ease on the mind of the churches, because Palm Sunday happens a week before the date of the actual Easter Sunday, which is a moving Holiday every single year, as Easter falls on the First Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox.
Every year this moving has a range of around a month from March 21 toward the very middle or the two-third deep in April. That is why we always celebrate Easter and a week before Easter, Palm Sunday on an other date in every year, though it is still the same recurring festival.
The Palm Sunday occurred as a factually historical day as probably thousands witnessed the processional of Jesus, the Galilean leader of the baptizing movement, into and through the Holy City of God, which is Jerusalem. It was also a cross-road day in the salvation history when the promised Davidic-line king was cheered by the crowd, carrying the claim not only for the throne of David in Jerusalem, but also riding the donkey as a peace Messiah, as a Savior .
It was a joyful day, happy people shouting the greetings, as the multitudes who went before him, and who followed kept shouting, "Hosanna to the son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!"
However there were three shadowy clouds in the hearts of the people who read the book of Prophet Zechariah. Jesus read it too. We could say that Jesus knew the whole book by heart or rather we say that he knew it by the Spirit.
It must have been three concerning clouds, because according to the ancient tradition, at least at the very time of the second temple era, they were expecting not one but two Messiahs. A priestly one, and a royal one from the line of David the King. These are two clouds, the third cloud is the fate of the temple.
The Book of Zechariah says in its chapter four as Zechariah asked the angel of the Lord whom he talked to that “What are these two olive trees on the right and the left of the lamp-stand?” ; and again he asked that “What are these two olive branches beside the two gold pipes that pour out golden oil?” So the Angel said, “These are the two who are anointed to serve the Lord of all the earth.”
The Hebrew text is using the term beni hayitzhar which means the sons of the oil, which is the same term what the book of Malachiah is using depicting the Messiah, where the Messiah is an anointed person, anointed with the holy oil. AND Zechariah talks about two anointed ones.
It looks like that the very role of John the Baptist, who was from a prominent priestly clan, was a little bit downplayed in the Christian tradition, as John said it in the Gospel about Jesus, who was from the royal line of David, that eventually “He must increase, but I must decrease.”
However Jesus mentioned to his disciples regarding John that "For I tell you, among those who are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptizer, yet he who is least in the Kingdom of God is greater than he."
As John baptized Jesus and Jesus joined John’s baptizing movement, it is obvious that at first John was the master of Jesus by the flesh. Accordingly Jesus said it to the disciples as well regarding his master, John the Baptizer, that I tell you that Elijah has come, and they have also done to him whatever they wanted to, even as it is written about him."
Of course what was written in this stance it was written in the book of Zechariah chapter 13: “Awake, sword, against my shepherd, against the man who is close to me!” declares the Lord Almighty. “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered, and I will turn my hand against the little ones.”
Thus the First Cloud on that sunny Palm Sunday was that someone was missing already in the processional march, and it was John the Baptizer, who had been captured, imprisoned and beheaded by the sword, exactly as it was prophesied.
The Second Cloud on that sunny day was that Jesus knew the fate what could happen to him, if he goes to Jerusalem, especially as it was already written and foretold. Where?
Of course in the very book of Zechariah: “ I will pour on David’s house, and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they will look to me whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for his only son, and will grieve bitterly for him, as one grieves for his firstborn. In that day there will be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.”
The third cloud was the by - Jesus - foreseen - future of the city and the temple, the coming devastation, when no stone will be left unturned. The account of the event had been also written already as a prophesy, where else than in the book of Zechariah chapter 14 that “Behold, a day of the Lord comes, when your plunder will be divided within you. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city will be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished. Half of the city will go out into captivity, and the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city. ”
All shadows were considered, and Jesus continued his processional, exactly as it was prophesied by Zechariah: “Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion! Shout, daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King comes to you! He is righteous, and having salvation; lowly, and riding on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
Palm Sunday as a Holiday and a part of the Lenten Season is usually a little bit less in weight than Good Friday or Easter. However the Palms Sunday, as the visitation day of the Lord was a game changer in the line of events that happened during the ministry of Jesus between his Baptism and His Cross and Resurrection.
Actually Palm Sunday should gain a little weight in our meditations, because we are obviously living in the end times, by that I mean an end of a world era or a zodiac part in the great recycling of the universe, and we are now waiting for the Return of Jesus.
And it will be exactly a second Palm Sunday, which is the day of the decision-making one. Either we bless he who comes in the name of the Lord, and sing Hosannah together with the angels in the Highest Heaven, or we do not deserve the grace of the returning King and his Peace Kingdom.
Actually every single day can be a Psalm Sunday, where we have a lifespan but only a lifespan of opportunity to receive the processional of Jesus, who is our brother and friend, our master and the only head of the Church.
May his name be blessed, by the will of God the Father and the sanctifying Holy Spirit. AMEN.
Actually every single day can be a Psalm Sunday, where we have a lifespan but only a lifespan of opportunity to receive the processional of Jesus, who is our brother and friend, our master and the only head of the Church.
May his name be blessed, by the will of God the Father and the sanctifying Holy Spirit. AMEN.
