On Palm Sunday we hear two stories about Jesus. Both involve Palms. Palm branches strewn in his path and the palms of Jesus’ hands, nailed to a cross. Two different palms with two different meanings.
The first of these stories is the story of Jesus triumphal entry into the capital city of Jerusalem for the festival of Passover. Jesus enters on a donkey with crowds shouting blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna to the son of David. Jews awaited a Messiah to liberate them from foreign rule and establish true worship of their God Yahweh. Their God was a deliverer who had delivered them from the Egyptian Pharaoh and from Babylon. The history of their God Yahweh was that of redemption and freedom from oppressive foreign rule. What God had done before, God would do again according to God’s covenant promises to Israel. God would send an anointed King with God’s power. This King would rule forever and would usher in an age of peace. Passover, the Jewish memorial celebration of the Exile from Egypt represented the hopes of the Jews. Passover inspired people to take up the cry for justice and the hope for Messiah to come. Passover was revolution time and often led to violence and Roman crackdown to quell it. Already before Jesus of Nazareth one such Messiah had been killed by the Romans.
