"Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!"

Two thousand years ago, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a humble donkey as the King of Peace, fulfilling the ancient prophecy of Zechariah: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey."

He came through the Golden Gate — the Gate of Mercy — the very gate through which tradition said the Divine Presence would return. And as He drew near, He looked upon the city and wept: "If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes."

The crowd spread their garments and palm branches before Him, greeting their King. "Hosanna!" they cried — literally hoshi'a na, "Save now!" — words drawn straight from Psalm 118.

The palm branch is a symbol of victory, triumph, peace, and eternal life, with roots reaching deep into the ancient Near East and the Mediterranean world. The palm (Phoenix) was sacred in Mesopotamian religions, and in ancient Egypt it was carried in funeral processions to represent immortality. The word Phoenix itself derives from the Greek Phoinix, meaning both "date palm" and "Phoenician".

Yet the same crowd that shouts "Hosanna!" will shout "Crucify Him!" within days. The palms and the thorns are only one week apart.

A Course in Miracles invites us to see something deeper here — something that transforms the whole meaning of Holy Week:

This is Palm Sunday, the celebration of victory and the acceptance of the truth. Let us not spend this holy week brooding on the crucifixion of God's Son, but happily in the celebration of his release. For Easter is the sign of peace, not pain. A slain Christ has no meaning. But a risen Christ becomes the symbol of the Son of God's forgiveness on himself; the sign he looks upon himself as healed and whole. This week begins with palms and ends with lilies, the white and holy sign the Son of God is innocent. Let no dark sign of crucifixion intervene between the journey and its purpose; between the acceptance of the truth and its expression. This week we celebrate life, not death. And we honor the perfect purity of the Son of God, and not his sins. Offer your brother the gift of lilies, not the crown of thorns; the gift of love and not the "gift" of fear. You stand beside your brother, thorns in one hand and lilies in the other, uncertain which to give. Join now with me and throw away the thorns, offering the lilies to replace them. This Easter I would have the gift of your forgiveness offered by you to me, and returned by me to you. We cannot be united in crucifixion and in death. Nor can the resurrection be complete till your forgiveness rests on Christ, along with mine. Easter is not the celebration of the cost of sin, but of its end… The time of Easter is a time of joy, and not of mourning. Look on your risen Friend, and celebrate his holiness along with me. For Easter is the time of your salvation, along with mine.

The journey from palms to lilies — from triumph to seeming defeat to resurrection — is the journey every soul undertakes on the way home to God.

And in the final triumph at the end of all things, palms appear once more in the Book of Revelation:

"After these things 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 with 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 7:9–10

The crowd's cry of "Hosanna" was not just for a moment in history. It is the eternal cry of the soul recognizing its King — the divine innocence within, riding humbly into the holy city of the heart.

"Lift up your heads, O you gates! And the King of glory shall come in."

PALM SUNDAY — 9th of Nisan

Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem — Jesus rides a donkey from Bethany over the Mount of Olives. Crowds spread cloaks and palm branches, crying Hosanna and Psalm 118: "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD." Fulfills Zechariah 9:9.
Jesus weeps over Jerusalem — "If you had known the things that make for peace..." (Luke 19:41-44)
Jesus enters the Temple, looks around, and returns to Bethany for the night (Mark 11:11)

Palm Sunday: The Triumphal Entry of the King into Jerusalem

"The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree." — Psalms 92:12

“Entry into Jerusalem” Giotto di Bondone (Italian, c. 1267–1337)

Yeshua’s journey through Holy Week is a mythic representation of the spiritual journey we all go through in finding our way to God. In the Gospel story, he enters Jerusalem to shouts of "Hosanna!" as palm branches are laid at his feet. But we can see this moment in a new light — not just as the beginning of Jesus' final days, but as your own entering into the holy city as savior and returning King.

The Prophecies

The Triumphal Entry was the fulfillment of ancient prophecy. Centuries before Jesus rode into Jerusalem, the prophets foretold the coming of a humble king.

Zechariah 9:9

"Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey."

Zechariah 14:4 further declared that the Messiah would come to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives — the very route Jesus took.

Psalm 118:25–26 — the source of the crowd's cry of "Hosanna":

"Save now, I pray, O Lord; O Lord, I pray, send now prosperity. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We have blessed you from the house of the Lord."

"Hosanna" is literally the Hebrew hoshi'a na — "Save now!" — drawn directly from this Psalm. Psalm 118 is part of the traditional festive Hallel, sung each morning by the Temple choir during the Feast of Tabernacles, so every Jew in that crowd would have known these words by heart.

Psalm 24:7–10

"Lift up your heads, O you gates! And be lifted up, you everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O you gates! Lift up, you everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory."

The Triumphal Entry — A Unified Gospel Account

Synthesized from Matthew 21:1–11, Mark 11:1–11, Luke 19:28–44, and John 12:12–19 (NKJV)

When He had said this, He went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. Now when they drew near Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mountain called Olivet, Jesus sent two of His disciples, saying to them, "Go into the village opposite you; and as soon as you have entered it you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her, on which no one has ever sat. Loose them and bring them to Me. And if anyone says to you, 'Why are you doing this?' you shall say, 'The Lord has need of them,' and immediately he will send them."

All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying:

"Tell the daughter of Zion, 'Behold, your King is coming to you, Lowly, and sitting on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.'"

So the disciples went and found it just as He had said to them — the colt tied by the door outside on the street. But as they were loosing the colt, the owners of it and some of those who stood there said to them, "What are you doing, loosing the colt?" And they spoke to them just as Jesus had commanded, saying, "The Lord has need of him." So they let them go.

Then they brought the donkey and the colt to Jesus, and they threw their clothes on them, and they set Jesus on the colt. And as He went, a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down leafy branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 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 — for the people who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of his tomb and raised him from the dead bore witness, and for this reason the people also met Him, because they heard that He had done this sign.

Then, as He was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen. The multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying:

"Hosanna to the Son of David! 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!' The King of Israel! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David That comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest! Hosanna in the highest!"

And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, "Teacher, rebuke Your disciples." But He answered and said to them, "I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out." The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, "You see that you are accomplishing nothing. Look, the world has gone after Him!"

And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, "Who is this?" So the multitudes said, "This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee."

And Jesus went into Jerusalem and into the temple. So when He had looked around at all things, as the hour was already late, He went out to Bethany with the twelve. His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about Him and that they had done these things to Him.

Flevit Super Illam — Jesus Weeps over Jerusalem

As Jesus drew near to Jerusalem, He looked upon the city and wept over it — an event known in the Latin tradition as Flevit super illam ("He wept over it"). In Luke 19:41, He foretells His coming Passion and the suffering that will befall the city in the destruction of the Second Temple, crying: "If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes."

Enrique_Simonet_-_Flevit_super_illam_1892

St. Andrew of Crete, whose sermon is the traditional reading in the Orthodox Office of Readings for Palm Sunday, invites us to enter the scene ourselves:

"Let us spread before His feet, not garments or soulless olive branches, which delight the eye for a few hours and then wither, but let us spread ourselves before Him, clothed in His grace, or rather, clothed entirely in Him… Let us spread our hearts before Him like cloaks, so that He may enter with the whole of His being, and plant within us entirely the whole pattern of His divine life."

— St. Andrew of Crete (c. 650–740)

The King of Peace

Jesus' final entry into Jerusalem carried a profound symbolic weight. He was entering solemnly as a humble King of Peace.

In the ancient Near East, a king riding a horse signaled war; a king riding a donkey declared peace. Christ's entry on a donkey thus fulfilled Zechariah's vision of a king who would "speak peace to the nations" — arriving not as a conqueror on a war-horse but as the Prince of Peace upon a humble beast of burden. There are thus at least two levels of meaning: the historical event as the Gospels record it, and the deeper symbolism woven within it.

"He did not enter upon a war-horse, or with great state, but upon a colt, the foal of an ass, showing His meekness even thereby." — St. John Chrysostom (c. 349–407)

The twentieth-century scholar William Neil wrote: "Our Lord enacts his first messianic symbol by entering Jerusalem on the back of a donkey. This, as Zechariah had depicted, was the means by which the Messiah when he came would enter Zion, not as a conqueror upon a warhorse but as the prince of peace upon a humble beast of burden."

N. T. Wright observed: "Within his own time and culture, Jesus riding on a donkey over the Mount of Olives, across Kidron, and up to the Temple mount spoke more powerfully than words could have done of a royal claim. The allusion to Zechariah is obvious. The so-called 'triumphal entry' was thus clearly messianic."

Biblia moralizada de Nápoles f. 162r- Entrada en Jerusalén (Mateo 21, 1-8)

The Golden Gate & the Mount of Olives

Bethany, where Jesus began His ride, lay east of Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives. The Gospels tell us He traveled by way of Bethphage — the very place from which the paschal lamb was traditionally brought and led to the Temple Mount.

The Golden Gate stands in the northern section of the eastern wall of the Temple Mount. In Jewish tradition it is called the Gate of Mercy (Sha'ar HaRakhamim), and it is believed to be the place from which the Messiah will enter in the last days. According to tradition, the Shekhinah — the Divine Presence — once appeared through this eastern gate and will appear again when the Anointed One comes (Ezekiel 44:1–3). It is believed to be the very gate through which Christ entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.

Les Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berr

The Palm Branch — Victory, Triumph, and Eternal Life

In Greco-Roman culture, the palm branch was a universal emblem of triumph and victory. In Jewish tradition, the palm is one of the Four Species carried during the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot), as commanded in the Torah:

Leviticus 23:40

"And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days."

In many lands of the ancient Near East, it was customary to cover the path of someone deemed worthy of the highest honor. The Hebrew Bible records that Jehu, son of Jehoshaphat, was treated in this very way. All four Gospels report that the people gave Jesus this form of honor: the Synoptics describe them laying garments and cut rushes on the road, while John specifically names fronds of palm (phoinix).

Palm branches also appear in the celebration that followed the liberation of the Temple under Simon Maccabeus, creating a direct historical parallel to Jesus' entry:

1 Maccabees 13:51

"On the twenty-third day of the second month… the Jews entered the citadel with praise and palm branches, and with harps and cymbals and stringed instruments, and with hymns and songs, because a great enemy had been crushed and removed from Israel."

And in the final triumph at the end of all things, palms appear once more — a magnificent bookend across the whole arc of Scripture:

Revelation 7:9–10

"After these things 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 with 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!'"

Palms at the entry into Jerusalem. Palms at the entry into the New Jerusalem.

The Entry of Christ into Jerusalem. Lippo Memmi

the entrance of Christ into Jerusalem, in a legendary prose, French, anonymous. Manuscript copied probably around 1328

Hosanna & the Cry of the Crowd

The one cry all four Gospels agree on is: "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!" — a direct quotation from Psalm 118:26. But each Gospel shades the crowd's acclamation differently. In Matthew and Mark, they hail Jesus as the "Son of David," emphasizing His hereditary right to the throne of Israel. In Luke and John, the crowd proclaims Him king directly — and Luke uniquely adds "Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!", portraying the coming kingdom as spiritual rather than as a political threat to Rome.

All Jewish males were obliged to ascend to Jerusalem for the three pilgrimage festivals. The Sabbath before Passover is known in Judaism as the Great Sabbath (Shabbat HaGadol), when each household sets apart its Passover lamb. Passover celebrates God's deliverance of Israel from bondage in Egypt, and by the post-exilic period it had become a pilgrim feast centered on the Jerusalem Temple. Into this charged atmosphere — a city swelling with pilgrims, alive with messianic hope — Jesus rode.

In the Orthodox Church, Palm Sunday is called "The Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem" and is one of the Twelve Great Feasts. The troparion sung on this day captures the link between Lazarus, the Entry, and the Resurrection in a single breath:

"By raising Lazarus from the dead before Thy Passion, Thou didst confirm the universal resurrection, O Christ God. Like the children with the palms of victory, we cry out to Thee, O Vanquisher of Death: Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord!"

The Paradox of Palm Sunday

And here lies the dramatic irony at the heart of it all: the same crowd that shouts "Hosanna!" will shout "Crucify Him!" within days. The palms and the thorns are only one week apart.

Across the Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran, Orthodox, and many other traditions, the Palm Sunday liturgy pairs the triumphal Gospel account with readings that foreshadow the Passion to come. The Old Testament lesson is Isaiah's "Third Servant Song" — the voice of one who knows what awaits:

Isaiah 50:4–9a

"The Lord God has given Me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear to hear as the learned. The Lord God has opened My ear; and I was not rebellious, nor did I turn away. I gave My back to those who struck Me, and My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard; I did not hide My face from shame and spitting."

And the Responsorial Psalm in the Catholic lectionary is drawn from Psalm 22 — the very psalm Jesus will cry from the Cross:

Psalm 22:8–9

"All those who see Me ridicule Me; they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, 'He trusted in the Lord, let Him rescue Him; let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!'"

Assisi-frescoes-entry-into-jerusalem-pietro_lorenzetti

A Course in Miracles — "Holy Week"

Text, Chapter 20: The Vision of Holiness, Section I

This is Palm Sunday, the celebration of victory and the acceptance of the truth. Let us not spend this holy week brooding on the crucifixion of God's Son, but happily in the celebration of his release. For Easter is the sign of peace, not pain. A slain Christ has no meaning. But a risen Christ becomes the symbol of the Son of God's forgiveness on himself; the sign he looks upon himself as healed and whole. This week begins with palms and ends with lilies, the white and holy sign the Son of God is innocent. Let no dark sign of crucifixion intervene between the journey and its purpose; between the acceptance of the truth and its expression. This week we celebrate life, not death. And we honor the perfect purity of the Son of God, and not his sins. Offer your brother the gift of lilies, not the crown of thorns; the gift of love and not the "gift" of fear. You stand beside your brother, thorns in one hand and lilies in the other, uncertain which to give. Join now with me and throw away the thorns, offering the lilies to replace them. This Easter I would have the gift of your forgiveness offered by you to me, and returned by me to you. We cannot be united in crucifixion and in death. Nor can the resurrection be complete till your forgiveness rests on Christ, along with mine. A week is short, and yet this holy week is the symbol of the whole journey the Son of God has undertaken. He started with the sign of victory, the promise of the resurrection, already given him. Let him not wander into the temptation of crucifixion, and delay him there. Help him to go in peace beyond it, with the light of his own innocence lighting his way to his redemption and release. Hold him not back with thorns and nails when his redemption is so near. But let the whiteness of your shining gift of lilies speed him on his way to resurrection. Easter is not the celebration of the cost of sin, but of its end. If you see glimpses of the face of Christ behind the veil, looking between the snow white petals of the lilies you have received and given as your gift, you will behold your brother's face and recognize it. I was a stranger and you took me in, not knowing who I was. Yet for your gift of lilies you will know. In your forgiveness of this stranger, alien to you and yet your ancient Friend, lies his release and your redemption with him. The time of Easter is a time of joy, and not of mourning. Look on your risen Friend, and celebrate his holiness along with me. For Easter is the time of your salvation, along with mine. - A Course in Miracles, T-20.I.1–4

The journey from palms to lilies — from triumph to seeming defeat to resurrection — is the journey every soul undertakes on the way home to God. And in the final triumph at the end of all things, palms appear once more. In Revelation, the redeemed of every nation stand before the throne clothed in white, with palm branches in their hands, crying out: "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!" (Revelation 7:9–10)