This Palm Sunday, Ponder Donkeys, Not Palm Branches

Christianity Today:  This Palm Sunday, Ponder Donkeys, Not Branches, by Esau McCaulley (Wheaton College; Author, The New Testament in Color: A Multiethnic Bible Commentary  (2024)):

Christian churches throughout the world will begin our holiest week of the year on what is popularly known as Palm Sunday. It commemorates one of the few events in the life of Jesus recorded in all four gospel stories: his entry into Jerusalem, followed by a raucous and warm welcome and a lot of waving branches. (Only John 12:13 mentions they were palms.) In Israel today, churches still reenact the journey from the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem—the route supposedly taken by Jesus all those centuries ago.

As I study this story in Scripture, I’m struck by the fact that the primary symbol for this day—a palm—was not chosen by Jesus.

John writes, “They took palm branches and went out to meet him” (John 12:13). Why did the crowd choose palm branches? It could simply have been that palms were nearby. But history tells us there might have been a deeper reason: Those plants were symbolically linked to military victories and Messiahship.

A generation before Jesus, when Simon Maccabee drove Israel’s enemies out Jerusalem, people celebrated by waving palm branches. ... 

All the Gospels are clear that Jesus chose a symbol, a way for his people to make sense of his kingship. But it was the young donkey, not the palm branch (John 12:14). John rightly sees the donkey as Jesus intended. It was the fulfillment of Zechariah 9:9, which says, “Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

Jesus picked a symbol that emphasized humility and lowliness instead of military strength. That fact should inform how we celebrate and remember his entry into Jerusalem. Of course, it would be impractical for every church across the globe to find a donkey to drag into and out of its sanctuary. But we can spend Palm Sunday reflecting on what it means to follow a king who rejected the way of violence. ...

We have forgotten that the world is both the object of God’s affection and a place in rebellion against its creator. Christian faithfulness involves holding these things in tension. We have granted so many exceptions to the love command that it’s almost empty of meaning. We have hoarded God’s grace for ourselves while refusing to offer it to others. All of us are shouting about Jesus but not paying attention to his own words and actions. ...

I have no desire to snatch the palm branches out of the hands of happy children or to end the long tradition of processions and hymns that mark this day. Instead, I hope that during Holy Week celebrations, we can slow down enough to think about the conflicting messages of Palm Sunday.

Jesus’ claim to be the Messiah was not simply about a goal—God’s rule over all things. He and the crowd agreed on that point. His earthly life and ministry were also about the means of accomplishing that goal: namely, sacrificial love. Jesus gave us not only the gift of forgiveness, flowing through his Passion and resurrection, but also a way to follow. That way needs to inform our public and private witness.

Stated differently, I’m worried that, in our desire to defeat enemies, we’re losing Christian virtues—the fruit of the Spirit.

If we strive to establish God’s rule through self-assertion over neighborly care, pragmatism over principle, and malice over love, then whatever else we accomplish, we are no longer following in the way of Jesus. God chose meekness, integrity, and love to gather his people. That is the message of Palm Sunday. For all the shouts of acclamation, Jesus never lost sight of the cross.

This Holy Week, then, let’s follow the one who sits atop the donkey, so that he can remind us again of the way to life eternal.

Other op-eds by Esau McCaulley:

• War and Faith (Dec. 17, 2023)
• Why I Am Still A Christian Despite The Evils Done To My Enslaved Family (Oct. 8, 2023)
• The Streets Sent Me to the Pulpit (Sept. 24, 2023)
• Frederick Douglass Knew What False Patriotism Was, Especially On The 4th Of July (July 4, 2023)
• My Father Failed Me. Here’s How I Learned To Forgive Him. (June 18, 2023)
• Lent: The Season Of Repentance And Renewal (Apr. 2, 2023)
• There Is Glory And God In Our Struggles (Feb. 12, 2023)
• Does The Meaning Of A Christmas Song Change Depending On The Race Of The Man Who Wrote It? (Dec. 25, 2022)
• MLK's Legacy: Push Past Tweetable Quotes To True Christlike Love (Jan. 17, 2022)
• The Dangerous Politics Of ‘We Will Not Forgive’ (Oct. 3, 2021)
• Why Christians Must Fight Systemic Racism (Aug. 1, 2021)
• MLK's Legacy: Push Past Tweetable Quotes To True Christlike Love (Jan. 18, 2021)
• What The Bible Has To Say About Black Anger: 'The Cross Helps Us Make Sense Of The Lynching Tree' (June 21, 2020)
• The Christian Response to the Coronavirus: Stay Home (Mar. 22, 2020)

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