Palm Sunday

On this most precious and victorious Lord’s Day Sunday, the first day of the week known as Holy Week, we celebrate Palm Sunday, or Passion Sunday, with many believers all over the world. We celebrate as we remember our Lord’s Triumphal entry into Jerusalem, where His Blood Works will reach its climax. In Jerusalem, He will live out His final hours before He is crucified on a cruel cross. His Blood will be shed for the sins of the world

For us however, who have been travelling for forty days and forty nights, less one week, with our Counsellor, Leader, Comforter and Enabler, we have arrived at the place of more intense travelling. We are, in Jerusalem, a place of excitement and celebration, for it is Passover time. This is what Mark tells us. On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover Lamb, Jesus’ disciples asked him, Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover? Mark 14: 12. Passover resonates and resides with us, for we have been travelling the path of Passover for some time now, as we were being filled and quickened with the Blood Works of Jesus.

On this first day of Holy Week, our eyes are centred on branches. Perhaps in your culture, as is in mine, many Churches have Palm Sunday processions of witness through the streets. People have palm branches in their hands and wave them as they sing and chant, honouring Jesus, King of the Jews, entering Jerusalem, riding on a donkey. The branch plays a vital and significant role for us and we need to have it all revealed by our Guide and Teacher.

On Jesus’ final entry into Jerusalem, before He died, branches from Palm trees were used as a visible means of assisting in giving glory to the Son of David. The next day the great crowd that had come for the feast heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went to meet him, shouting, Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the king of Israel! John 12: 12 – 13. Everyone could see these branches as they were lifted high above the procession. We can see that branches played a significant role in celebrating Jesus.

Later on, we see branches again, not palm branches this time, but hyssop branches. Where are we? We are looking at Jesus, the Sacrificial Lamb, as His Blood is being shed on a cruel cross. He knows that it is all finished and to fulfill Scripture, He speaks one of His final words. He says, I thirst. A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. John 19: 28b - 29 ESV. Does it not intrigue you that this branch was also held high? On this occasion however, it was held high to feed Jesus who was lifted high on a cross. Where is this taking us, you wonder? It is taking us to branches, but branches not of the palm or the hyssop, but of the vine.

We listen to Jesus’ words when He tells us this fact. I am the vine; you are the branches. John 15: 5a.

For the remainder of this Holy Week, we shall travel an uphill path which leads to the place of the Skull, also known as Golgotha. It is where the Blood of Jesus was shed for sinners. Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). Here they crucified him, and with him two others – one on each side and Jesus in the middle. John 19: 17 – 18. We shall travel this circuitous path, as we follow some divinely spiritual lessons, gleaned from the allegory of the vine and its branches.

This will be our accompanying text.

If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. Romans 11: 17 – 18.

We leave this Palm Sunday, this first day of Holy Week, as branches of Jesus, the True Vine. We have seen the role of the palm branch being held high in the air, towering above the large crowd, celebrating a King in all humility. I asked myself this searching question. Will you ask yourself also? Am I a branch that towers over crowds, to give high honour, respect and praise to Jesus, our King?

We have also seen the hyssop stalk or branch, used in a serving position. Will you ask yourself, as I have asked myself, with deep concern, this question? Am I a branch being lifted up, to serve the physical needs of my Master in this world of pain, sorrow, sadness and hurt?

You and I are Jesus’ branches, to love and serve Him as the Spirit enables all who will acquiesce to Him.