John 12:12-19: The Symbols of Palm Sunday: Part 1 Triumphal Entry

Palm Sunday is a significant day in the Christian Church. Any of us who have grown up in the church or who have been going to church for a few years have inevitably been to a few Palm Sunday services. Do we know what the big deal is about Palm Sunday?

John in his gospel does a great job of telling us the meaning of Palm Sunday in his record of the triumphal entry. He uses a lot of symbolism – not unlike Shakespeare in ‘Julius Caesar’. This week we are going to pull out five pieces of that imagery and then put it back together for a full picture of what Palm Sunday looks like in our life today. In this entry we are going to look at Triumphal Entry and Jerusalem. First, let’s re-read John 12:12-19:

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.

Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word. Many people, because they had heard that he had performed this sign, went out to meet him. So the Pharisees said to one another, “See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!”

1. THE TRIUMPHAL ENTRY

Image number one: Palm Sunday is about the Triumphal entry. What is a triumph? It is victory. These days we have victory parades when teams win championships. In Regina, they officially called part of one of their busiest streets ‘the Green Mile’ for Roughrider fans paraded down there when they won the championship. Many teams have official parades when they win championships. What about Toronto? When the Argonauts or the Blue Jays won the championship, did they have a parade, a triumphal return to the city after winning the championship? Can you imagine if the Maple Leafs win? What kind of a celebration would happen then? This is what is happening here. Jesus is riding into the city and it is celebrated as a triumph. But it is before the game that Jesus' triumph is being celebrated. It is in advance of the Great Cup or Game 7, it is in anticipation of the coming victory.

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