Palm Sunday and Politics
The story behind the tradition of waving palm branches
We have been covering the topic of the church, and specifically addressing the question of “who is right about what is right”, since there are so many different Christian groups (some odd 45,000 different groups) who hold differing opinions about so many things. We have attempted to point out that as Methodists, we ground our understanding of scripture and orthodox Christian practice in the original ancient Christian tradition. We are directly connected to the earliest Christian tradition through a uniquely American episcopacy. It was providentially established as a consequence of the American revolution as an offshoot of the ancient episcopal Church of England.
The problem with tradition and traditions is that over time, we tend to lose touch with the original meaning that traditions are intended to explain and maintain. They can very easily just come to function as empty rituals and ceremonies that no longer communicate the powerful stories they once told. That is why many modern expressions of Christianity have jettisoned tradition all together.
We want to avoid that at all costs, because maintaining our connection to tradition is what keeps us anchored to the proper understanding of truth found in the original message of Jesus Christ, preserved for us by his Apostles in scripture primarily and church tradition secondarily, which keeps us from straying off into uncharted destructive ideas and practices. It keeps us from becoming sheep who get lost, in other words.
The question we want to address this week is, “why does the church practice the tradition of waving palm branches on palm Sunday?” Not every Christian church does this of course, but the higher order of churches rooted in tradition, or in the ancient historic church, do.
I asked my fourth grader if she knew the answer to this question? She replied, “because they waved palm branches in front of Jesus in the Bible?”. I said, “that’s exactly correct, very good, but why do you think they were waving palm branches in front of Jesus?” That stumped her a little, but she attempted to answer with, “because there are lots of palm trees where he is from?”
Now look, that isn’t wrong. Good effort. But it isn’t sufficient either. And that’s probably where most of our understanding of this tradition would end as well. So let’s dig deeper and look together at the meaning behind people waving of palm branches in front of special people on special occasions.
First off, here’s how the Bible describes that particular scene from the Gospel of John chapter 12:
12 The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. 13 So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” 14 And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written,
15 “Fear not, daughter of Zion;
behold, your king is coming,
sitting on a donkey's colt!”
It’s easy to listen to sermon’s that delve into specific details of this story but miss the big picture entirely. The details are important, but not if we “can’t see the forest for the trees”, as they say.
Here is how wikipedia summarizes the symbolism of palm branches in the Ancient Near Eastern world:
“The palm branch, is a symbol of victory, triumph, peace, and eternal life (because they are evergreen) originating in the ancient Near East and Mediterranean world. The palm was sacred in Mesopotamian religions, and in ancient Egypt represented immortality. In Judaism, the lulav, a closed frond of the date palm is part of the festival of Sukkot. A palm branch was awarded to victorious athletes in ancient Greece, and a palm frond or the tree itself is one of the most common attributes of Victory personified in ancient Rome. . .
The palm became so closely associated with victory in ancient Roman culture that the Latin word palma could be used as a metonym for "victory", and was a sign of any kind of victory. A lawyer who won his case in the forum would decorate his front door with palm leaves. The palm branch or tree became a regular attribute of the goddess Victory, and when Julius Caesar secured his rise to sole power with a victory at Pharsalus, a palm tree was supposed to have sprung up miraculously at the Temple of Nike, the Greek counterpart of Victory, in Tralles, later known as Caesarea, in Asia Minor.”1
The palm branch similarly was not unimportant to the Jewish people, the Temple of Solomon was heavily decorated with palm trees (1 Kings 6:29). Look at what is written in Psalm 92 of the palm tree:
9 For behold, your enemies, O Lord,
for behold, your enemies shall perish;
all evildoers shall be scattered.10 But you have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox;
you have poured over me fresh oil.
11 My eyes have seen the downfall of my enemies;
my ears have heard the doom of my evil assailants.12 The righteous flourish like the palm tree
and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
13 They are planted in the house of the Lord;
they flourish in the courts of our God.
14 They still bear fruit in old age;
they are ever full of sap and green,
15 to declare that the Lord is upright;
he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.
The message of this Psalm is likely what the people gathered to Jerusalem for the Passover celebration had in mind when they waved their palm branches before Jesus as he rode into the city. They were offering a cry for national freedom from what they perceived as a corrupt and evil Gentile/Roman government. They were Jewish patriots aroused at their most important national holiday, commemorating God’s deliverance from another gentile political oppressor, Egypt. They were asking for Jesus to be like Moses and deliver their own government back to them.
That is why the Jewish religious leaders got nervous, prompting them to insist of Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples (Luke 19:39).” They were nervous about blowback from the Roman government on their own home turf because of a potential political uprising, directly implied by the waving of palm branches before a rising leader.
We can easily identify with what is going on here. People all over the United States are waving palm branches before a man named Donald Trump to “save us from the corrupt political deep state in Washington D.C.” You have people in centers of privilege and power waving palm branches in front of the Democratic party to “save us from the vulgar and stupid orange man”.
All the while, anyone with any measure of country simple logic can read the palm branches and see that there isn’t a nation sufficiently full of uncorrupted people who are capable maintaining a utopia even if it were handed to them by some political savior.
That is why Jesus wept over Jerusalem. That is also why “America will never be great again”. Our government, along with her aspiring political saviors, is corrupt because her people are corrupt. No deliverance is in the realm of possibility until the real problem is addressed, the character of the people.
That is why Jesus’ first stop after the “triumphal entry” as he enters Jerusalem isn’t the center of corrupt government, it is the center of corrupt religion, the Temple. Only he doesn’t come to worship, he comes to bring the judgement and wrath of God on the religious leaders who are held responsible for keeping people from proper worship and learning.
Luke 19:45 And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, 46 saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.”
47 And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him, 48 but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words.
Notice it’s not the people who appear to be the primary problem, they seem quite hungry for truth (they are the ancillary problem not the primary). It’s the religious establishment who undermine Jesus’ ministry and message. Jesus alone understood that a spiritual reformation was necessary before a political reformation could be maintained by the populace.
Now you typically here this message preached something like this, “Jesus didn’t come to bring a political revolution but a spiritual revolution” (spoken in the most weak, condescending pastor voice I can muster). That is soccer mom theology. Again, it isn’t that it’s wrong, it’s just not sufficient to bring to light the larger plans and purposes of God at work.
The triumphal entry of Jesus is a dress rehearsal foreshadowing a coming political revolution. Read Zechariah 14 in combination with Revelation 19. But just like with the first coming of Jesus to Jerusalem, at the second coming, the most important problem to be dealt with isn’t political, but spiritual. The focus of the work of the Holy Spirit in that time frame will once again be on the cleansing of his temple, the church, not on political reform.
Revelation 21:2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. . . .
9 Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” 10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, 11 having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.
That is why when we see the “PRAY” signs poked in lawns all around Lamesa, we need to shift our focus away from worrying about electing political saviors, who won’t be able to change anything. We need to be reminded instead to pray for the bride of Christ. To be clear, we do pray for elections, again, in an ancillary way. But our primary energy and time should be spent on praying for the church if we want to be in agreement with what the Holy Spirit is focused on. The church is the primary vehicle through which God intends to work to make things right before the ultimate political solution is brought to bear. And as we have been demonstrating in this series, although large and wealthy, the church in America is very sick, weak, indulgent, and greedy.
I’ll end by returning back to Palm Sunday and palm branches and such. Just like with Jesus first triumphal entry, palm branches will make a reappearance with his second and final entry into the holy city. Hear is our closing reading from Revelation chapter 7:
9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, WITH PALM BRANCHES IN THEIR HANDS, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (representing a combination of permanent spiritual AND political reform) 11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” 14 I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. (the temple has been cleansed)
15 “Therefore they are before the throne of God,
and serve him day and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.
16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore;
the sun shall not strike them,
nor any scorching heat.
17 For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd,
and he will guide them to springs of living water,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
And then . . .
Revelation 22:17 The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.”
20 He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_branch