Let’s talk about Holy Week! What Advent is to Christmas, Holy Week is to Easter. But the interesting thing is, neither of these Words are found in the Bible. Not Advent, not passion week, not holy week. They’re terms we have assigned to describe these seasons in the church.
Advent refers to the 4 weeks prior to Christmas where we step back and intentionally and with great detail look at the events leading up to Jesus’ birth. Holy Week is where we do the same for the events that take place the week prior to Jesus’ death.
Advent is about waiting. Holy Week is about preparing.
The events of Holy Week (also called Passion Week), are found in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. There are only ten other events in the life of Jesus that are found in all four Gospels, so this is rare. The accounts list the happenings in somewhat different orders. For example, John shows Jesus’ anointing with perfume before the triumphal entry and Mark shows it as happening afterwards. In all the Gospels, these events happen quickly and close together.
Some people say this difference in order could discount the veritas of the Bible. I disagree. Have you ever listened to two people tell the same story? My husband and I rarely remember things in exactly the same way. To the contrary, when we share a story together, we go back and forth, adjusting details and timelines as we remember them. Different things take precedence in our individual minds regarding the events because that is what carries more meaning for us separately. And that’s what we see happening in the telling of the events of Passion week from the different authors of the Gospels.
So let’s talk about Passion Week.
Palm Sunday is the first day we celebrate. It’s also called The Triumphal Entry, and it starts with a prophetic moment. Jesus tells His disciples to do something out of the ordinary.
Now when they drew near Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples; 2 and He said to them, “Go into the village opposite you; and as soon as you have entered it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has sat. Loose it and bring it. 3 And if anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it,’ and immediately he will send it here.” 4 So they went their way, and found the colt tied by the door outside on the street, and they loosed it. 5 But some of those who stood there said to them, “What are you doing, loosing the colt?” 6 And they spoke to them just as Jesus had commanded. So they let them go. 7 Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes on it, and He sat on it. 8 And many spread their clothes on the road, and others cut down leafy branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 Then those who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: “Hosanna! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ 10 Blessed is the kingdom of our father David That comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” 11 And Jesus went into Jerusalem and into the temple. So when He had looked around at all things, as the hour was already late, He went out to Bethany with the twelve.
Mark 11:1-11 nkjv
Why is this significant?
This is happening on the sixth day before Passover. This isn’t the first Passover that they have celebrated together. But it is the first one that Jesus told His disciples to take a donkey that didn’t belong to them and bring it to Him.
It wasn’t the first time Jesus entered Jerusalem. But this certainly was the first time anything like this had happened, with the crowds putting their cloaks and palm branches on the road before Jesus and shouting Hosanna! What started as any other sixth day before Passover ended in the prophetic moment of what we now call Palm Sunday.
Those people in that crowd were fulfilling a prophecy found in Zechariah 9:9, and they had no idea the significance of the moment.
“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your King is coming to you;
He is just and having salvation,
Lowly and riding on a donkey,
A colt, the foal of a donkey.
Zechariah 9:9 nkjv
Jesus didn’t call it the triumphal entry. He didn’t call His disciples together that we know of and say, “Get ready to see something cool. We’re about to see prophecy fulfilled before our eyes.” But we look back and see the depth of what happened and give it a name, The Triumphal Entry, Palm Sunday, Passion Week.
This is a picture of something relating to military strength. In history, kings who were victorious in battle would ride through their city streets on a horse, declaring victory. Their subjects would lay clothes and palm branches before them on the road and they all celebrated the victory together. Throwing the garments down was a token of submission to their king, and laying the palm branches were tokens of victory.
There are just a few things I want to point out here.
Remember, God’s people were expecting Messiah to bring military strength that would deliver them from the tyranny of Rome. That’s why so many of the religious leaders missed who Jesus was. He didn’t look like what they expected Messiah to look like. Even of the ones that followed Him, many didn’t follow Him because of who He was. They followedHim because of who they wanted Him to be.
They wanted freedom from Rome. Jesus came to give freedom from sin.
Jesus didn’t tell His disciples to bring a battle-ready horse. He told them to get a donkey. A horse was a sign of conquering military strength. Instead, He came riding on a donkey, which was a symbol of humility and peace.
Palm Sunday happened BEFORE Jesus’ victory on the cross. He prophetically celebrated with the people before it happened, and many had no idea what they were saying or why or they were saying it. Hosanna doesn’t just mean praise God! It’s a prayer that means, “Save us now!” Jesus was answering their prayer before they even prayed it.
The entire city of Jerusalem was in an uproar as he entered. “Who is this?” they asked in Matthew 21:10. Luke 19 tells us Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem before He entered because “they didn’t recognize God when He visited them.”
Many in the crowd were just along for the ride. “Who even is this?” They were living in this fulfillment of prophecy completely clueless. And then I ask myself, would I have known? Would you have been aware? Let’s not miss our moment. As we celebrate Palm Sunday today, let’s search our hearts and pray.
Lord, help us to be discerning of the times and aware of the significance of the moments we are living in. Jesus is coming back. Prophecy is being fulfilled all around us. Father, what part can we play in Jesus’ soon return?
In Jesus’ Name, we pray all of this.
Amen.