(This Meditation on the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem was given on 24 March 2024 at the First Presbyterian Church of Alpena, Michigan.)
It is the Sunday before Easter. Our lectionary this Sunday has two options for reading and emphasis. Depending on the inclination of the pastor, this Sunday is either Palm Sunday or it is Passion Sunday.
I find it interesting that it is on this Sunday we are given a choice between Jesus coming into Jerusalem and being proclaimed King by an adoring crowd, or Jesus being led through trial and torture to the cross. Both scenes are crucial to our theology, and both deserve to be recognized.
It is important for us to know and to remember that Christ was betrayed by Judas. He was brought before Herod and He was brought before Pontius Pilate. He was condemned to be crucified. He died and he was buried.
In faith, we believe Jesus went through all of this for us. He sacrificed himself on the cross in atonement for our sins so that we could be forgiven for all the evil that is within us as a species and frankly as individuals. None of us are exempt from the consequences of the evil that we do, nor from the saving Grace that is given to us by God, because of Jesus.

Without this saving Grace we are doomed, saddled with guilt for all eternity...not a pleasant thought. The implications of all that guilt would be a heavy burden on our lives, so Jesus allows us to live in a kind of freedom that we could not have otherwise. Yet, even the idea that someone, and I am speaking of Jesus, has taken upon himself the punishment for our sins is a solemn thing to contemplate. Yet we owe it to him to live a life of joy in response...holding solemn gratitude in juxtaposition with that joy.
One way we come to understand how significant the sacrifice of Jesus is and to celebrate Jesus at the same time, is recognizing just how far Jesus had to fall. We need to remember that Jesus is the Son of God. To sink that into our brains, we uphold Jesus as king. And a place in the Gospels we see Jesus exhibiting the marks of kingship is when he makes a triumphal journey into Jerusalem. And it is this, the joyful side of the ledger of this balance we may hold in our hearts.
This is the emphasis I personally like to place on this holy day we recognize on the Sunday before Easter. And there are a couple of reasons. First, I tend to be an optimist. I gravitate toward the lighter side of things...at least when the daylight is streaming in through the stained-glass windows.
But also because I think the story of Jesus has an arc, well, wave might be a better way to describe it. If you think about the birth of Jesus, we have the humble stable where he was born, but then we have the appearance of angels along with wise men. Then we have Jesus learning and doing the humble work of a carpenter. This is followed by his rise as prophet and preacher culminating in this entry into Jerusalem. Then there is his arrest and torture and crucifixion. And finally his rising and ascension! I am grateful it all ends on a high note.
All those ups and downs can be disconcerting, but I am comforted that behind the whole story there is the implication above all else that Christ is, indeed, King. He is proclaimed to be king first by the wise men, then by the people, and even Pilate seems to recognize Jesus’s status as king when he has the soldiers place a placard above his head saying “King of the Jews”. In the Gospel of Mark, the first words spoken after the death of Jesus are from a Roman Centurion who says, “Surely, this man was the Son of God.” How the mighty has fallen and yet risen again!
The highs and the lows of the life of Christ contrast so sharply that we cannot deny their poignancy. It is a story we can all identify with. Jesus, fully human, has his ups and downs. We, too, have our ups and downs. They will not be as high and low as the life of Jesus, but we know that we can be shouting “I’m king of the world” from the prow of a ship one moment and sliding into the frigid waters of the North Atlantic the next.
Probably the biggest reason that I like to emphasize the triumphal ride of Jesus into Jerusalem occurred ten years ago on Palm Sunday. It was on that day that I experienced one of the high points in my own life. The year was 2014. (It is amazing how quickly the time passes.) It was a cold blustery day, much like today, and I was standing behind a pulpit giving a sermon describing the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.
I was an Elder at the Presbyterian Church in Harbor Beach. Because I was an elder and we did not have a regular pastor, I was called on to give a sermon every other month or so. By God’s providence I happened to preach on that fateful day. As part of the sermon I spoke of how, “Wherever two or three are gathered together there too is God…”
I was talking in the context of the presence of God not in some abstract form, but as a palpable presence that you could feel. When I had written this, they were words I believed, but they were just words on a piece of paper. When I spoke the words before my friends in that sanctuary I knew at once that they were true words. They had been lying dormant on the page and needed a demonstration, the words spoken aloud to give them substance and form, to make them a reality.
And at that moment I felt the palpable presence of God, not simply the general knowledge that we all accept, but surety that impinged on my senses filling me with a sense of wonder, awe, and unity with all who were there present. And the residue of that feeling has traveled with me ever since.
I could imagine at that moment what it must have been like for the crowd who watched Jesus head for the gates of Jerusalem. He is fulfilling all the prophecies of the prophets. He rides into Jerusalem on a colt. People placed their cloaks on the road for Jesus to ride on and spread branches from the fields to soften the way and to keep down the dust. And the Gospel of Mark tells us, “Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! … Hosanna in the highest heaven!” ...over and over.
They recognized Jesus as their king that day, the palpable presence of God. Sure, many of them were looking for an earthly king. But there were others who knew that this man was not merely king in name only. The laws he spoke from his mouth would not be canceled out. The acts he performed were miracles. And his Kingship would be not just for a day, not just for the moment, but for all time.
And then Jesus enters Jerusalem, and all the excitement abates. It is like the high point of a wave coming on to the shore. It rolls up on the beach and smooths out to a little ripple, then it rolls back into the sea. Jesus and the Apostles enter into the temple courts. And the passage tells us that “He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.”
And the excitement of the moment is over. Jesus is king! But they enter the courts and it is quiet. Everyone has gone home for the day. The crowd proclaiming Jesus has dissolved into the city. I imagine the apostles looking around and talking in low tones. The reality of Jesus as king is just really dawning on them.
But then there is this weighty quiet that surrounds them, and though they are in the temple, the goal of their travels, there is a kind of subdued normalcy, as if what happened out there on the road to Jerusalem never really happened.
There are no longer adoring crowds waving their palm fronds, only the empty temple court where it would be hard to imagine all the activity that would be hosted there for the Passover celebration. Yet it is at this moment that they need to hold on to the realization, the knowledge of Jesus’ significance in their lives, the palpable presence of God.
We too, when we go home from this Palm Sunday service, as we make our way through Holy Week in the midst of our mundane activities, must remember the moment when Christ is proclaimed king. We must remember its importance. So now, at this moment, we should be waving the branches in the air, proclaiming Christ as king! We should recognize the greatness of God! So that in the quiet moments we can marvel that he, Jesus, the King, would come down to us. That he would sacrifice himself for us. Making our lives better in the here are and now, and for the eternity we experience thereafter.
Ἀμἠν
Resources:
NIB Vol. VIII, p. 657-658
Barclay, The Gospel of Mark, p.272-276
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, NT2, p.154 ff.
CEB Study Bible p.89-90 NT
N.T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God (Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 1996) 489-490