“The next day, a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him and cried out ‘Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! The King of Israel!”
John 12:12-13
The feast of the Passover. Families from all over Israel had come to Jerusalem to celebrate the great Passover, the final plague in their deliverance from slavery in Egypt when the angel of death killed the first born of the Egyptians and left the children of God who had obeyed God and placed the blood of the lamb over the door posts. The blood of the lamb had delivered them from death.
The palm branch, in Jewish tradition, is a symbol of triumph and victory. The crowds of people who gathered to greet Jesus as He entered Jerusalem waved the palm branches and blanketed the ground as He entered the gates on a young colt. “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! The King of Israel!” Shouts of joy and praise rang through the throngs of people.
“Quiet your followers! They are making too much noise!” The indignant Pharisees ordered Jesus. The Pharisees feared Jesus and His influence. They were unwilling to see Him as the Messiah, as He truly was.
“If they don’t shout and rejoice, surely the rocks will cry out instead!” was Jesus reply.
The people believed Jesus would overthrow the tight rule of the Romans. Many believed He would be a warrior who would storm the gates, destroy the soldiers, and set up an earthly kingdom that would deliver the people. They didn’t understand what the deliverance would be. They didn’t see that Jesus was entering the gates at the time of Passover to become the Passover lamb, the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world.
Wave palms of triumph and victory! Christ came to deliver us from the rule of sin and death. Rejoice! Shout praises before the rocks cry out! The Lamb of God has taken away the sins of the world. Mark your door posts with the Blood of the Lamb, declare to the world that Christ has come to set all mankind free – and soon He will come again!
“…I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice, saying “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” Revelation 7:9
