Sunday 20: Palm Sunday
When I started reading books as an adult, I quickly learned that I loved reading books that became movies. To date, I have read 89 and have several more that I am working on. On more than one occasion, I have seen an image depicted from a book and thought, "that is not what I had pictured."
I think this might be what we would say if we could travel back in time and experience Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. We read the description in John's gospel like this:
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!”
Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written: “Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.”
At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him. (John 12:12-16, NIV)
While the other gospels have other details (like laying down cloaks and palm branches), the above account is the basic narrative. Too often we can't replicate stories from Scripture, but Palm Sunday is one that we can easily experience. At the church I I work at, we start Palm Sunday outside of our church building. We read scripture, wave palm branches, and shout Hosanna before processing into the Sanctuary. Even this experience does not allow us me to fully appreciate the spectacle that was Jesus' entry to the city, but it's a good place to start.
