Palm Sunday Meditation

The Son of David

"Hosanna" means "save us" or "rescue us" or even "give us salvation”. So the crowds shouting out "Hosanna to the son of David" are calling out to Jesus (Yeshua - Yahweh Saves) to save them, spreading out their garments along the royal road to Jerusalem. Christ enters on a donkey, as Solomon did in 1 Kings 1. When King Solomon, the literal son of David, enters Jerusalem, he does so on a mule into the city with great crowds celebrating.

A few days later those same crowds are crying out at Jesus, but instead of "Save us, Son of David!" They are crying out for his death, "Crucify him!" Ironically, the answer to their first cry "Hosanna!" is through their second cry, "Crucify him!" The reversal becomes salvific. It was by his stripes that we are healed.

It is as if Jesus hears the future Good Friday echoing backward to the Palm Sunday procession: I will save, but not from Roman oppression, but from the very powers of sin, idolatry, and darkness. I will save you from your sins. In fact, I will do so through the very symbol and force of Roman oppression, the cross.

And now the King, the lawful Son of David, enters in triumph into Jerusalem. He comes in peace, not war and violence, riding not a warhorse, but a donkey. Yet, his very existence is a threat to the powers that be, and the dark powers behind those powers. We see this as Herod and Pilate, longtime enemies, unite over killing Christ. We hear this when the leaders scream out, "We have no king but Caesar." The sickness of sin compounds and amplifies. 

This recalls 1 Samuel 8 and the birth of the Israelite kingship with Saul, who would be supplanted by David. Israel was not to have any King over them save that of Yahweh. Judges would arise, of which Samuel the prophet and his unfortunately wicked sons were the last of the judges. The elders of the people came to the prophet and demanded "Give us a king to govern us." This was God's response to the sad heart of Samuel:

"And the Lord said to Samuel, “Hearken to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them..."

"We have no king but Caesar." "They have rejected me from being king over them." 

The reversals continue. 

On Sunday the garments were spread out lest the donkey's hooves touch the dirt on the royal road to Jerusalem. On Friday the only garments were Christ's, stolen from his body and gambled at the foot of the cross by pagan soldiers. This is the new royal road, up the hill of Calvary. The triumphal entry is a death sentence. Christ spent most of his time up north in Galilee where the lost 10 Tribes once resided. Every time he comes south to the realm of Judea, to the centers of power in Jerusalem, the shadow of the Cross is cast outward and over everything. 

For instance, when Christ moves to the raising of Lazarus, whose family lives a few miles from Jerusalem, we get this interaction with his disciples:

Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go into Judea again.” The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were but now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?” ... Then Jesus told them plainly, “Laz′arus is dead; and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

Jerusalem, the City of Peace, becomes the epicenter of murder and idolatry. The Pharisees adorn the monuments of the very prophets their fathers murdered. As Christ says, "Thus you witness against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers" (Mt. 23:31-32). The widespread corruption of the Sadducees, the Levites, the political rulers is commingled with the misguided zeal of the Pharisees. Jesus, in the heart of the holy city, cries out:

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! Behold, your house is forsaken and desolate. (Mt. 23:37-38).

The true and ultimate Son of David has returned to rescue his people. God's kingship was spurned 1,000 years earlier by the elders of the people. But God, in spite of their sinfulness, did a new thing that had never been done before. God was dethroned in their hearts and thus over Israel. They wanted an earthly king and not Him. In giving them what they wanted, however, he gave them himself because the Word became flesh and he came to his own people. The Son of God became the Son of David, and thus God re-enthroned himself over Israel.

And hanging over his cross-shaped throne above the crown of thorns, it was written: "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews."