Today is Palm Sunday. Most all Americans know the meaning of Easter from Sunday school, church, or even the movies. However, Palm Sunday is also a significant day in the Christian faith and actually provides proof of who Jesus was. So on this Palm Sunday lets explore the significance of this day.
First, let us review the story of Palm Sunday. Jesus was journeying from the area of Galilee to Jerusalem. During his journey, Jesus stopped to perform many of his miracles. Among these miracles was the raising of Lazarus from the dead. As you can imagine, the word of someone being raised from the dead must have caused quite a stir even in ancient times when they did not have the benefit of television, radio, or the internet. So, as Jesus approached Jerusalem a throng of people were waiting.
Jesus told his disciples to get a donkey for him to ride into Jerusalem on. This seems odd, for the Messiah and promised King of the Jews to ride into town on a donkey. However, the method of his entry was a code designed for the Jews in town to understand, but not the Romans occupying the city.
In ancient times when a king approached a city, if he was on a horse, he was coming to wage war. However, if he approached the city on a donkey, he was coming in peace. By coming on a donkey, Jesus was signifying that he was not coming to wage war, but to bring peace. However, the people living in Jerusalem greeted him with cries of hosanna and were waving palm branches, which also are code. These actions by the people signified that they did not understand the true reason for Christ’s entry into Jerusalem and mistakenly thought he was coming to overthrow the Roman government.
The true reason for Christ’s entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday was to sacrifice his life for the sins of man. He was to be the ultimate Passover lamb. In fact, he entered into the city through the sheep gate, which is also the same gate through which lambs were brought into Jerusalem to be used as Passover lambs. It will not be until the second coming of Christ as described in Revelation 19 that Jesus will come on a horse to wage war and establish his kingdom on earth. However, even then he will actually be coming to end the battle of Armageddon. So, his war will actually be a righteous war with the purpose of ending global annihilation by the armies of man. Another way of expressing this is that the first coming of Jesus was to save the souls of men and his second coming is to save the planet from destruction by man.
Jesus response to the reaction of the throng as reported in Luke is that he wept. He wept because the people did not understand what was going on and, as we would later see the same throng that was elated by his triumphal entry would turn on him and call for his crucifixion. However, there is one more significant fact about Palm Sunday that provides irrefutable proof that Jesus is indeed the promised Messiah.
In Daniel 9:25, the exact date of the Messiah’s triumphal entry into the city of Jerusalem is predicted. In this verse, Daniel talks of 7 weeks followed by 62 weeks after the decree is issued to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. In Bible code, a week equals 7 years. By doing some simple math we can determine that Daniel is talking about 483 years after the decree is made.
Archeologists have actually found the decree and converting the date to our present calendar, they have determined the date to be March 14, 445 B.C. Since they used a lunar calendar in these times using a 360 day year, accounting for leap years, they have determined that the date of the triumphal entry of the Messiah into Jerusalem would be April 6, 32 A.D. This happens to be the date the first Palm Sunday occurred and since history does not record any other triumphal entries into Jerusalem on this date, Jesus must be the promised Messiah.
As Easter Sunday, or as I like to think of it, resurrection day approaches, I encourage you to take a moment and think of the significance of Palm Sunday. Do not be like the Jews of the time of Christ and miss the true meaning of the triumphal entry. The price for our sin is death. The Bible is not speaking of just physical death, which we all will experience someday, but it means eternal separation from God. Jesus paid the price of death for our sins by dying on the cross and rising from the dead in victory three days later. His victory means we can escape our destiny of eternal separation from God by simply accepting his gift of salvation as payment of our debt. If you have not already done so in your life, I encourage you to take a moment to pray. All you need to do is acknowledge that you have sinned, that you believe Christ came and paid the death penalty for your sins, and that you accept his payment for your debt.
After you have done this, I encourage you to click on the link “Spiritual Help”. Go to the link about how to know God. They will not hound you or put you on some eternal mailing list. They only want to send your some information about what to do now.
Once again, I want to wish everyone a happy Palm Sunday.
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