The Meaning of the Palm
The Meaning of the Palm – Mark 11:1-11
The palm tree is something that we associate with countries both in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean. When we think of them we imagine them as large and majestic swaying in the gentle tropical breezes. Perhaps we wish we were there instead of here. For Christians this is the Sunday on which we begin again that journey with our Lord from great expectation through a time of sombre reflection to a time of great sorrow and angst from which we emerge with fresh hope on Easter morning.
Today we are at that place in the story where the people are gathering to celebrate the Passover. This is the single most important religious event in the life of the people. While there have been many times when the people have experienced deliverance from persecution, the flight from Egypt was a turning point for the people. Every restoration that they experienced after this one was a return to the land promised to them by God but the exodus from Egypt with Moses was its beginning. Before this they were a nomadic family whose journey had taken them across many lands and placed them in the midst of foreigners. But with the exodus from Egypt the people were not only released from their bondage to the Egyptians, they also became a people whom the angel of death had passed over. And so the Passover marked for the people a turning point in their life as a nation. Clearly that experience of deliverance from the hand of death set them on a path with God – one which required of them a response. Their deliverance was marked by a new covenant relationship between the people and God. God would be their God and they would be His people. The Ten Commandments were given by God to Moses as guideposts for the people in this new relationship.
And so the people had begun to come to Jerusalem to celebrate this wonderful event. Perhaps we find it strange that the people felt such a strong pull to come to Jerusalem. We live in a vast land filled with many places where we can go to celebrate the key events of the faith. We also probably do not think of a certain place in the world where we would want to go to celebrate these events. But then we do not celebrate the Christian Passover once a year. We celebrate it 4 times a year and other communities celebrate it more often.
But for the Jewish people it is the Sabbath that they observe every week. And so for them the Passover is very special. And with Jerusalem being the spiritual capital of the faith and the place where the temple was built, that is the place to celebrate this most momentous occasion.
And so for Jesus who knew that His ministry would lead Him to be condemned to death, it made the most sense that He would go with His disciples to the very spiritual centre of the nation and there not only celebrate the Passover with them but change the meaning of Passover forever.
And so we are here in this the year of our Lord 2015 to celebrate His coming to Jerusalem. Jesus, the Son of God, the Lamb of God, come to the spiritual centre of that time to reveal to the people that God was not just to be remembered for what He had done in one time and place but for what He was doing now that would have an effect on the life of the world and its people from this time forward.
It wasn’t until the 4th century that the ceremony of the blessing of and procession with palms began. The first place where it originated was Jerusalem. Gradually it was introduced into the ancient land of Gaul and then in Rome. In the Middle Ages the rite became quite elaborate and a procession was held from church to church through the towns. But it was not until 1955 when Pope Pius XII restored the practice of Holy Week that the procession of the palms became part of the annual celebrations of the church.
As for the palm itself, it has always been a choice tree in the area of the Middle East for centuries and among all peoples of the region. It is a princely tree. Anything that stands that tall and commands attention would naturally be viewed in that way. The fact that it grows in areas bordering desert lands and that it provides shelter and shade from the heat of the sun as well as providing fruit when it is a date palm. A branch of the palm tree was used as a symbol of victory and well-being by both the Romans and the Jews. Palm branches were also used on festive occasions as part of the bouquet given as a sign of homage to a hero or to celebrate victory. Later in the New Testament they are connected with martyrdom (Rev 7:9) and even later still they were used to decorate tombs in the catacombs as a memorial of the triumphal death of the martyrs. Even in the Psalms (92:12-13), the palm was already the symbol of the just man who flourishes like the palm tree: strong, supple and graceful. Finally on early sarcophagi and mosaics, Christ and the Apostles are pictured amid palms or carrying palms, which have become a symbol of paradise.
So the choice of the Palm branch as a sign to welcome Jesus to Jerusalem was not just a matter of convenience. It was not used because it was a common plant. It was used with great intention. For the people who met Jesus as he entered Jerusalem, Jesus was a hero. He was a person who had taught them about God in a way they had never before heard. They had been taught to understand their relationship to God in a new way, a deeper way. They had learned that their God was not so much a God of rules but a God of mercy. They learned that He was not so much a God of judgment and condemnation as a God of forgiveness and reconciliation. The people had found in Jesus one who understood their pain and healed their diseases. They found in Him a person who could show their God to be a God of love not hate, a God of compassion not vindictiveness, a God who realized that they would always struggle to do everything commanded of them.
In Jesus they saw the human face of their God. And they were drawn to that humanity. It was always God’s desire to walk in the garden with the people, to ever be in a place where there would be no gulf between them. Jesus was creating that bridge between God and the people. And while they still did not fully understand all that God was willing to do for them in Jesus, they understood enough to know that it was a wonderful thing to see Jesus in Jerusalem and especially at the time of the Passover. Jesus would change what Passover meant but on this day He was for the people a hero because He had made God real to them in a say that had been lost for so many years.
The words from Isaiah 50 are part of what we consider to be the servant songs and prophecies concerning the life of Jesus. Our passage today reads like a picture not only of the life of Jesus but of His trial, suffering and death.
It’s probably a good thing that we do not know what the future holds but one thing we do know – Jesus, our hero, our friend, our Saviour, has walked the road before us. Today we welcome Him as a hero! Today we celebrate His journey knowing that His steps brought Him closer to that moment when He would reveal the final gift of God to His people – eternal salvation from death through the perfect sacrifice of the guiltless lamb, God Himself!
Amen.