Together Holy Week Coming up, Christians are preparing for Palm Sunday, which honors the last days of Jesus, his trial and crucifixion.
It is celebrated on the first day of Holy Week and the Sunday before Easter.
Pastor Mark Jobe, president of the Moody Bible Institute and founder of New Life Community Church in Chicago, said Palm Sunday is a celebration of Christianity around the world commemorating the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Jobe states that the first recorded Palm Sunday dates to the 4th century, after the first celebration in the Gospel. The ceremony was not introduced into Western Christianity until the 9th century.
According to the Gospels, Jesus rode a donkey into Jerusalem and the people welcomed him as their king, he said, thinking he would free them from Roman oppression. Days later, he was crucified.
The book of Luke, Jobe said, notes that as Jesus approached the cheering crowd welcoming him, he saw that his people wanted political peace but were in dire need of “spiritual peace.”
“Palm Sunday doesn’t mean anything until you consider that soon Jesus will die and pay the price for anyone, whether a prostitute or a religious person, to forgive their sins and usher them into a new kingdom which is called the kingdom of heaven,” Jobe said.
Bishop Vashti McKenzie, interim president and secretary general of the National Council of Churches, said Jesus came to the city knowing he would be crucified.
“The first chapter in Genesis talks about how God made the world,” she told USA Today. “Palm Sunday begins the journey of how God saved the world through the death and resurrection of Jesus.”
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What do the palm branches represent on Palm Sunday?
Jobe said that large, tall palm branches were common in the Holy Land. In ancient times, they were symbols of goodness and victory.
“It was not something unique to Jesus,” he told USA Today. “When kings entered the city or when victorious warriors came, they greeted them with palm branches, which they threw on the ground in front of them.”
And during the Grecian Games, winners would be greeted with branches, he said.
What is the donkey a symbol of?
Jobe noted that victorious kings usually rode in chariots or on the back of horses, so Jesus riding a donkey went against the norm.
The donkey was a symbol of peace, he said, but it also represented the fulfillment of a prophecy in Zechariah 9:9.
“Your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, Chapter reads.
The donkey is also a symbol of humility, said McKenzie from the National Council of Churches.
What does the modern Palm Sunday celebration look like?
Today, the celebration of Palm Sunday varies by denomination.
Some people wear red or purple clothes that day, Jobe said.
McKenzie of the National Council of Churches called it “a very festive worship service”, saying that churchgoers sing praise songs and raise palm branches of various sizes.
The branches are blessed and some families take them home, placing them on desks or shelves to commemorate the event.
“Traditionally, some branches are saved,” she said. “They are not given to people. They are saved and when you go to Ash Wednesday, which is the beginning of Lent, the ashes come from those burnt palm branches.”
He insisted on a true understanding of why Christians celebrate Palm Sunday.
“It is time for celebration,” she said. “Jesus died on the cross and when he died on the cross, he died for all of us, not for some of us, not for the chosen few, but for all of us.”
Saleen Martin is a reporter with the USA TODAY NOW team. He’s from Norfolk, Virginia , 757 , and likes all things horror, witches, Christmas, and food. follow him on twitter @sleen_martin or email him [email protected],
