Palm Sunday...

21 Matthew 1: 11

“Hosanna to the Son of David!”
“Blessed is who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Hosanna in the highest!”

Palm Sunday is the holiday of Jesus’ last trip to Jerusalem. Palm Sunday is the Sunday before Easter. In the Christianity Palm Sunday means the beginning of the Holy Week. In the liturgy of the western Christian Churches Palm Sunday is always one Sunday between 15 of March and 18 of April.

Why Jesus went to Jerusalem?

The Jew always remembered in this occasion about their escape from Egypt and they had lamb sacrifices. This was their Passover Holiday. Jesus possibly went to Jerusalem a few days before Passover. Nobody can now the exact date when. So Palm Sunday, based on agreement, became the day of Jesus’ entry to Jerusalem.

By this time Jesus was well known. The crowd of pilgrims went to the walls of Jerusalem thinking that the Messianic Era had begun which would free them from the Roman oppression. The crowd greets that one who comes on the back of a donkey and sees him as the fulfiller of the prophecies (Zachariah).
Jesus’ appearance on the Palm Sunday was especially important in the light of the fact that the Jews went continuously through national tragedies because Babylonian, Persian, Greek, and Roman conquerors during the past eight century. Only the Maccabees Era was an exception under this when in 167 BC the Maccabees army drove out the oppressors for a short period of time even from the Church of Jerusalem as well.
In the era of Jesus the desire of the rise of the nation strengthened the waiting of the Messiah what reached its culmination in the happenings of Palm Sunday. According to this prosperity, happiness and national glory was waited from the Messiah.

The crowd was enthusiastic about the person said by them to be the Son of God. But Jesus didn’t satisfied the expectations because he didn’t become a king, didn’t crowned himself and he didn’t foment sedition against the Romans.

The description of the crowd’s marching is not detailed in the Bible. In it only appear the enthusiastic being together and the experience of the common being. It is possible that the pilgrims gathered in Jerusalem counted on that that Jesus would appear as the Messiah and the Saver in the Passover.

After the triumphal entry named later the Palm Sunday the leaders of the Jews didn’t take the open act against Jesus. But a few days later they do this secretly and they capture him and sentence him. (Good- Friday, Easter)