Palm Sunday

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On the first Palm Sunday, even though it would appear that the people of Jerusalem overwhelming sided with JESUS being their Messiah and King, by Friday of this week, we will be able to say that they did not hold fast to an early 20^th century historical maxim concerning positive, prospective outcomes. That maxim is the following: ‘Memory of past, and anticipation of future, should go hand in hand happily along.’ (cf. Carl L. Becker) The people of Jerusalem, though they knew and understood most of the historical prophecies of the coming Messiah, they could not, ultimately, during the course of Holy Week, see JESUS as manifesting their anticipated future. — We are helped to understand their challenge in seeing JESUS as the One who would resolve the tension of Israel’s storied past, with her hopeful future, by what St. Paul says in his letter to the Philippians, chapter two. He writes that Christ JESUS, “Who, being in the form of GOD, thought it not robbery to be equal with GOD: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:6-8). – The hopeful anticipation of Israel’s future, the people imagined, would be characterized by the might of their glorious past as the most powerful and influential political and military nation in Judea and Samaria. Instead, and to the people’s dismay, and to the confusion of the world (cf. 1 Cor. 1:18-25), GOD desired to unveil the future with His great Love for humanity, through the humility and obedience of His Son. This was a disappointment to the people, as we will see during the course of this Holy Week, for JESUS yielded the glory that was by right His own, for the similitude of servanthood. 

To receive glory by yielding His glory, Paul says, thus, JESUS thought it not robbery to be equal with GOD. For before His Incarnation, JESUS, the Word of GOD, was in the form of GOD. As St. John says in his Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (St. John 1:1) Though GOD from the foundation of the world, JESUS, claimed the Biblical mantle and mandate of the Christ, the Anointed One of GOD. This role, as described in the Bible, was of a particular person who would bring redemption and liberty – justice and truth – and peace and reconciliation to mankind with GOD.  

In his epistle to the Colossians, Paul describes JESUS of Nazareth, ‘Who’ thought it not robbery to be equal to GOD, in this way: “He is the image of the invisible GOD, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist” (Colossians 1:15-17). — As one theologian has put it, JESUS was the “‘icon of the unseeable GOD’ … and He was the One who made all of created reality, and keeps it all working – literally, ‘holding it all together.’”¹ 

And yet here, JESUS, in the context of today’s historical narrative, is sitting astride a foal of a donkey, riding into Jerusalem, surrounded by people whom He created, waiving palm fronds and blessing Him with the words: “Ride on! Ride on in majesty! Hark! All the tribes, hosanna cry!”² The people longed for their historical legacy, but GOD in Christ, anticipated another future, and unfortunately, these two would not go hand in hand, happily along.   

Bishop Joseph Lightfoot of Durham, England, in the late 19^th century, “paraphrased the opening verses of St. Paul’s second chapter of Philippians as follows: ‘Though He pre-existed in the form of GOD, yet He did not look upon equality with GOD as a prize which must not slip from His grasp, but He emptied Himself, divested Himself, taking upon Him the form of a slave.’ By ‘form’ one should understand ‘not the external semblance only. . . but the characteristic attributes,’ that is, the very nature.”³ — Concerning JESUS’ incarnation and purposeful self-subjection to meanness and humility, our collect for this Palm Sunday says: ‘to take upon him our flesh’ and to experience the human condition, fully and completely, this JESUS did to show GOD the Father’s ‘tender love towards mankind.’ 

That first Palm Sunday must have been like the most magnificent ‘ticker-tape’ parade.  No greater thing could have been witnessed by JESUS’ generation then to have seen their promised King’s arrival, as it had been foretold five hundred years earlier. — As the prophet Zechariah foretold of the Jewish Christ: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass” (Zechariah 9:9). — And this was exactly as it happened. St. Mark writes, “Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes on it, and He sat on it. And many spread their clothes on the road, and others cut down leafy branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Then those who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: “Hosanna! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” (St. Mark 11:7-11). 

From this prophecy, Israel envisioned their Messiah appearing in military might to restore the invincible political & geographical commonwealth of kings David and Solomon. A powerful commonwealth that would alleviate their temporal and immediate aggravations and inconveniences. The Kingdom of GOD in Christ, they hoped, would be capable of driving Rome from Israel’s sovereign borders, thereby allowing them to once again be a free and independent nation under GOD. — Yet, the political and ethnic nation of Israel did not understand GOD the Father’s ‘tender love towards mankind’ as revealed by JESUS. Though heralded as Israel’s true King and her Messiah, being blessed with hosannas and praises, JESUS would, within a week’s time, collapse Israel’s immediate anticipation for the future, by ‘humbling Himself, and becoming obedient to the point of death, even the death of the Cross.’ For cursed, Israel understood, is everyone that hangs upon a tree. (cf. Gal. 3:13) Yet, to reveal GOD’s ‘tender love towards mankind,’ the LORD JESUS would need to pay the ultimate sacrifice to redeem mankind, and hanging upon a tree He bore the curse of you and me.  

It was not enough to solely esteem not equality with GOD the Father, but GOD the Son would need to submit Himself to the shame, inconvenience, and curse of human death. — Concerning JESUS’ great act of humility, Matthew Henry, that renown theologian of the seventeenth century writes: “JESUS not only took upon him the likeness and fashion of a man, but the form of a servant, that is, a man of mean estate … One would think that the LORD JESUS, if he would be a man, should have been a prince, and appeared in splendor. But quite the contrary … His whole life was a life of humiliation, meanness, poverty, and disgrace; he had nowhere to lay his head, lived upon alms, was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, did not appear with external pomp, or any marks of distinction from other men. This was the humiliation of his life. But the lowest step of his humiliation was his dying the death of the cross. He became obedient to death, even the death of the cross. He not only suffered, but was actually and voluntarily obedient; he obeyed the law which he brought himself under as Mediator, and by which he was obliged to die.”⁴   

On this Palm Sunday, two thousand years later, it is still unfathomable to consider that GOD, the GOD of all creation who was, and is, and is to come, should enter into His created reality, and become like one of His creatures. It is even more unfathomable to consider that when He did so, He would voluntarily acquaint Himself with the griefs and sorrows of His creation, even to the point of being despised, rejected, and cursed by them. — Yet, the echo of our Collect continues to resound and call us to this hopeful understanding: GOD in Christ did all to reveal His ‘tender love towards mankind.’ — “No pain did JESUS refuse to suffer in His own body, that he might deliver us from pain everlasting – (the pain of separation from the Father that results from the death of sin). His Love it was to do for us. Though we deserved it not.”⁵  

Our Collect prayer for today, this Palm Sunday, concludes that JESUS Christ’s act of obedience, humility, and denial of His eternal prerogatives as GOD, was a means of expression of GOD’s ‘tender love towards mankind.’ — “ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who, of thy tender love towards mankind, hast sent thy Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, to take upon him our flesh, and to suffer death upon the cross…” — JESUS revealed Himself as the blessed Messiah of Israel, and in the short span of a week, was celebrated, exalted, rejected, abused, and killed, exactly because He thought it not robbery to be equal with GOD, but exactly because He knew, by His death upon the Cross, He could redeem you and me.  

‘Dear Church, ‘memory of past and anticipation of future, should go hand in hand happily along.’ Our storied past is of GOD’s tender love that He showed us by sending His only-begotten Son to take upon Him our fleshly condition, and to suffer humility as a servant, even the humility of death on a Roman cross as a sacrifice for sin. JESUS did this for the sake of GOD’s Love towards us. If we will accept this historical truth, then we can and should have an anticipation of a redeemed and sanctified future, that will go hand-in-hand with GOD’s Love for mankind. If we will accept this JESUS, this humble and obedient Servant of GOD, faithfully following His example, then by GOD’s grace, we too will become inheritors of JESUS’ Resurrection. — Until then, let us rightly rejoice in the King, the Messiah JESUS, evermore praising Him and saying: “Ride on! Ride on in majesty, O JESUS! In lowly pomp ride on to die. Bow Thy meek head to mortal pain; then take, O GOD, Thy power and reign’ — Blessed be King JESUS, who has come in the Name of the LORD. All praise to Thee, for thou, O King Divine; didst yield the glory that of right was thine. Hosanna in the highest! Hosanna in the highest! Amen!  

1 Willard, Dallas, The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering our Hidden Life in GOD, (New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1998), 21 & 94.
2 Book of Common Praise, “Ride on! Ride on in majesty!”, (Newport Beach: Anglican Press, 2019), 105.
3 Sheppard Jr., Massey H., The Oxford American Prayer Book Commentary, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1950), 214.
4 Henry, Matthew. BlueLetterBible.org. “Commentary on Philippians 2”. Accessed 12 April 2025. https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/mhc/Phl/Phl_002.cfm?a=1105008.
5 Various Anglican Divines, The Anglican Book of Homilies, (London: The Prayer Book and Homily Society, 1852), 358.