The Donkey and the Palm
Palm Sunday seems like such a strange turn of events in the narrative of Jesus’ ministry. Previously, he had worked pretty hard at staying under the radar. But here, he shifts gears and steps onto center stage…riding a donkey. There are so many interesting things happening in this passage. Jesus pre-arranges transportation into Jerusalem with locals from a nearby village. Not a horse, but a donkey and its colt. Odd. He’s so close to Jerusalem. Why get a donkey at this point…unless he had a message and he wanted to be noticed. As a typical Jewish teacher, he was taking this pivotal moment as a chance to use his every move to teach; everything planned and choreographed.
A donkey was not only a common service animal in first century Israel, it had quite a long history in the Hebrew Bible. Donkeys showed up all over the place in the Torah, the history writings and in the prophets.
One story that may have come to mind for on-lookers of this scene can be found in 1 Kings 1:33-38 when Solomon uses David’s donkey to ride into Jerusalem as the rightful king while Adonjah, a usurper, tries to impress with a triumphal entry on a war horse.
The donkey move sounds like God, doesn't it?
Choose an enslaved people to show the world who He is.
Use a shepherd boy to be king of a nation.
Use an outsider from Nazareth to change the entire world.
Palm branches were a symbol of victory and conquest. This palm branch ceremony was a bit preemptive. Jesus hadn’t conquered Rome yet, but the people assumed he would. Jesus lets them do it even though their expectations are misplaced about HOW he would be the king. They were right about the identity, but very wrong about how things would play out.
Jesus’ kingdom is a subversive, upside down kingdom, that is activated by sacrifice, service, love, and mercy. Not conquest, oppression, and condemnation. We want so badly for Jesus to simply fix all that is wrong. Take away our suffering and stomp on those who have done us wrong, but that is not how He operates. If He did, we would be done for. When we look at injustice and oppression of ourselves and our loved ones, we want justice, but as we look out at the suffering in front of us, we forget that we are also part of the problem.
Palm Sunday is a prophetic performance to remind us that Jesus’ ways are different from our own, and reflect a God who often works outside our expectations.
First Century Jews wanted freedom from oppression and occupation by Rome. And who wouldn’t want that? But that’s not the freedom that Jesus was here to give. They thought he was riding in to change the world order and he was…just not in the way they anticipated.
How often do we do the same thing? We imagine how Jesus is going to work something out. We pray and do our best to trust. He shows up in a situation and we are so happy….he’s doing it! This is it! Hosanna! Here’s all my things….I’m so grateful that you listened to my prayer.
But then Jesus does something that you didn’t expect. Perhaps you are disappointed. Angry. Confused. You might question if He is good and if you can trust Him. Maybe what He ends up doing in a situation feels like it’s the opposite of what would fix things.
When Jesus does this, what are we supposed to do? How do we respond?
Go back to Scripture. Watch what God does and why He does it.
If something feels confusing, wrestle with it. There is purpose in that.
Ask God’s Spirit to give you eyes to see what He is doing.
He gives wisdom to those who ask.
Keep an open heart and mind in the midst of confusion.
And choose to trust — even in disappointment.
We must remember that the freedom that we need is freedom from our sin. Freedom from our fleshly nature. What Jesus came to do for us is not make our circumstances more palatable. He came to provide us with real life that doesn’t require perfect conditions or even good ones. He came to give us life that flourishes no matter what is going on.
Dig Deeper: Matthew 21, Zech 9:9, I Kings 1: 33-38