The Palm: A Symbol of Hope Luke 19:28-40

I believe it was Clare Boothe Luce who said, “There are no hopeless situations; there are only people who have grown hopeless about them.”

A couple weeks ago, I used as an introduction for my sermon, a story about a farmer whose donkey fell into a well, and thinking that he would not be able to get the donkey out, he called his friends to help him bury the donkey alive. However, with every shovel-full of dirt they threw into the well, the donkey shook the dirt off its back and stepped on the dirt until it was out of the well.

I do believe that there is no hopeless situation, not as long as God is in charge. Since God is always in charge, every situation simply becomes a matter of perspective.

Today we celebrate or Passion Sunday, depending on what we choose to focus on in our worship of God. The story of Palm/Passion Sunday is well-known as that time of the Christian calendar of rituals when we remember the account of ’ final journey into for the Passover Feast, just before he was crucified.

On this Palm/Passion Sunday, I wish to focus on the theme of “hope” as this morning is we reflect on where is God in this world crisis of the coronavirus. And so especially in a time when people will cleave to anything that offers the slightest glimmer thereof. Some place hope in politics and politicians, some in their mates, some in their child/ren, some in their jobs, some in their bank account, some in their intellect, some in their beauty/comeliness. The truth is that we have a need to hope in something.

Isn’t it amazing that in this season of and going forward into Easter that the world is gripped with one of the most terrifying and monumental crises to have ever be visited upon humanity? As the season of Lent winds down, we remember that it is a time when we recount the hardships and trials of Jesus, which foreshadowed the hardships and trials of those who follow him. As undesirable as that may sound to many, Lent does not merely recount Jesus’ suffering and foreshadow his followers’ suffering but very importantly, it predicates and is the pathway into the promise of Easter.

In the context of today’s excessively glum reality, from which not even the Church is spared, where may the suffering, the hurting, the wounded, the broken, the ailing, the dying, the helpless, the confused, and the lonely find hope in a menacing and perplexed world? To find an answer to that question, I will turn to the Scripture passage for today.

Luke paints for us a picture of a royal procession – Jesus entering Jerusalem one last time to attend the Passover Feast – where he was greeted by enthusiastic followers who hailed him as the King who comes in the name of the Lord.

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In the words of Jack Zavada: “The… people cut branches from palm trees, laid them across Jesus' path and waved them in the air. They greeted Jesus not as the spiritual Messiah who would take away the sins of the world, but as a potential political leader who would overthrow the Romans. Their shout, "Hosanna" meant, "save now."”

To help us understand the symbolism of the palm, an anonymous source writes:

“The palm branch was a symbol of triumph and victory in pre-Christian times. The Romans rewarded champions of the games and celebrated military successes with palm branches... Jews followed a similar tradition of carrying palm branches during festive times.

“Early used the palm branch to symbolize the victory of the faithful... In , martyrs were usually shown holding a palm (branch) as an attribute, representing the victory of spirit over flesh, and it was widely believed that a picture of a palm on a tomb meant that a martyr was buried there... Palms also represented heaven, evidenced by ancient art often depicting Jesus in heaven among palms.”

We all know that Jesus was not a political figure and neither was he a military figure. The people hailing him as “King”, might have mistaken the triumph and the victory that they pre-celebrated with the use of palm branches. Surely, Jesus delivered triumph and victory to all of humanity but it was not a political or military victory and triumph.

Why were these Jews’ hopes dashed? The victory hailed by the palm procession was tied up in Jesus’ Passover passion. For this reason, to celebrate Palm Sunday is to celebrate a great event of the sacrifice of God. Though the Passover was not yet, Exodus 12:3, 5-6 points us to the significance of the time:

“Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household… Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight.”

The lamb mentioned here in Exodus was regarded as the “paschal lamb.” In , the Paschal lamb was the lamb sacrificed at the first Passover, on the eve of the Exodus from Egypt. The story of the Passover in Exodus 12 tells us of how the Jews marked their doorposts with the blood of lambs, and this sign spared them from destruction.

Fast-forward to Jesus’ coronation as King of the Jews riding into Jerusalem, Jesus was that Lamb of God that was without blemish, chosen not only by God but also by the people, albeit unbeknownst to them. Their cry of “hosanna,” which means, ‘save now,’ was heard by Jesus, the Lamb of God which was slain before the foundations of the world for God’s wrath to pass over the soul of everyone marked by Christ’s blood. This is the hope of Palm Sunday! That we gaze again upon the Paschal Lamb of God, who promises not only to cover us under his blood as protection from the evils of this world, but also that after our own season of passion, Easter will come.

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Hope is the state which promotes the desire of positive outcomes. [Wikipedia.org]

To hope is "to cherish a desire with anticipation"; "to desire with expectation of obtainment"; or "to expect with confidence". [Merriam-Webster]

According to John Piper, there are three ways by which we understand hope:

1. Hope is the desire for something good in the future 2. Hope is the good thing in the future that we are desiring 3. Hope is the basis of the reason for thinking that our desire may indeed be fulfilled.

Piper continues, that ‘ordinarily our expression of hope is to express uncertainty. The Biblical meaning for hope, however, is not an expression uncertainty but rather, certainty.’ We generally express hope as wishful thinking.

The hope that the Bible expresses is the hope that not only ‘desires something good for the future; it expects it to happen. Also, it not only expects it to happen; it is confident and knows with unequivocal certainty that it will happen. This hope says that there is a moral certainty that the good we expect and desire will be done.’ This hope is moral because ‘it is rooted in the commitment of the will, and the will is the seat of morality.’

As Jesus brings us the hope of Easter that is rooted in truth and moral certainty on this Palm Sunday, the hope that can never be contradicted or distorted, there are a couple of considerations I would like to offer you for your own reflection.

1. Hope is a Choice

Hope is a function of the will that is rooted in the knowledge of the truth and is incontrovertible. It defies logic, reason, and science.

Can we but have hope in the midst of what we now face in the world? All of our lives have been disrupted and turned upside-down. And, to make matters worse, the pessimists are hard at work, forecasting the apocalypse. We hear the negative talks all over the media, and the truth be told, we are better off listening and watching less than more of the media hysteria and sensational frenzy about what is happening now and what will happen next. Only God knows what is happening now and what will happen next.

We must choose to believe that though the sky may seem to be falling that we are covered under the protection of the Lord. We must trust that there is a silver lining in the dark cloud of the virus and its impact on the world that hang over our heads. We must stop letting those who know little to nothing tell us what our future looks like. Only God knows what our future looks like because he holds our future in his hands. We must believe that one day sooner rather than later, this too shall pass.

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In times like these when persons are shaken to the core of their beings and the future seems wholly uncertain, we cling with confidence to the One who created order out of chaos, and out in the darkness says, “Let there be light.” The One who holds our future! In times like these that cast a long shadow over the future of a struggling church that we put our hands in the hand of the One who says, “Upon this rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” That “rock” is the faith or the hope of those who believe. That rock is the confession of those who believe and exclaim, ‘behold the Lamb of God who comes to save.’

Hope is a choice! It is not wishful thinking.

2. Hope excites, encourages, looks ahead

Despite all that is going on around us presently, I am excited about the future. I do not know what it is about me but when I am down, I tend to look up.

The people waved palm branches as Jesus rode into Jerusalem. He was riding to his death and he knew that. They were under siege from the Roman Empire and that weighed heavily on their motivation for Jesus to be the King who would save them. Seeing Jesus, they were excited and encouraged, and possibly imagining a future where Jesus reigned as their King, having freed them from Roman tyranny. However ill-motivated was their hope, it was not misplaced. Hope rightly placed produces positive outcomes. Though they were excited, encouraged and looked ahead to an ill-informed outcome, they were in the right place, at the right time, for the right moment.

Those who hope are excited and encouraged about the future to which they look ahead. Though it seems that life is getting the better of us and we are cut down to size, our Palm Sunday today is a sign that Easter is coming. We will rise from the groaning of Gethsemane, which tells us that this is the way we must travel; we will rise from the anxiety and the fear of the possible suffering from the coronavirus effect that lies ahead; we will overcome, we will triumph, we will rise to enjoy a more glorious state.

I dare to assert that is no coincidence that the lamentations of the world will coincide with the of the Church of the paschal Lamb of God. Though in this time suffering will be great, Palm Sunday still tells us that Easter is coming, and we will rise again. Wave your palm branches, knowing that victory is sure. In Jesus’ name, amen!

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