Have you ever observed a tradition and not known quite why? This might be a family tradition, a personal habit, or a church related ritual. You know something fits this category when someone new observes it, asks why you do it that way, and you respond with an answer like "that's the way we always have done it" or "that's the way my parents did it" or even "that's the right way to do it." All of those answers should immediately alert you to the fact that what you're doing is a ritual, tradition, or habit that you do without much understanding of why you do it.
Possibly even worse than observing some practice, ritual, or habit without understanding is finding out the reason behind the particular tradition only to discover the reason is a poor one. For example, my wife grew up singing the song "Lord I Lift Your Name on High" (Lyrics with Music), with a certain set of motions. The origin of those motions, it turns out, came in part out of teens mocking and ridiculing others (if you would like the full story, ask her about it). Needless to say once she found out this fact, it kinda ruined the song for her.
I suspect that for many of us, Sunday mornings are filled with many of these rituals, habits, traditions, etc. that we have no real understanding of. Hopefully these practices aren't like the above song motions, but rather have good reasons behind them. One such practice is the observance of Palm Sunday. Luke's account of the event (Luke 19:28-40) contains the Mount of Olives, a donkey, palm branches, cloaks, and stones. Many Christians would be hard pressed to explain what significance all, some, or any of these things have. To help answer those questions the below list briefly explains the purpose/meaning behind each of the above:
Mount of Olives - Zechariah 14:4 says that the Messiah would come from the Mount of Olives to enter Jerusalem.
Donkey - Zechariah 9:9 says that the Messiah would come riding a donkey.
Palm Branches - these were common to the area, and they symbolized victory.
Cloaks - 2 Kings 9:13 says that the people laid their cloaks down on the ground before King Jehu.
Stones - symbolic of creation and creation's affirmation of Jesus as Messiah.
It's the last symbol, the stones that symbolize creation, that I would like to focus on. The stones are unique to Luke's account of Palm Sunday, they carry an important message for us. The stones represent creation's steadfast witness to Jesus as Messiah. The whole point of the Palm Sunday story is that Jesus is in fact the Messiah, the one who would come to bring salvation and redemption for all humanity. The problem for the people of that first Palm Sunday, who stood in the crowd shouting and proclaiming this fact, was that Jesus was not the kind of Messiah they wanted him to be. They wanted a king who would be victorious in battle, and set up an earthly kingdom. What they got was a suffering servant who died on a cross to set up an everlasting kingdom.
Fast forward to Good Friday, and only creation is willing to procclaim Jesus as Messiah. We are told that as Jesus died there was an earthquake and that the curtain in the temple was torn in two (Matthew 27:50-51). During his final moments the crowd had scattered, his disciples only observed from a distance, and truly only creation was willing to proclaim Jesus as Messiah!
The question for you, now that you know some of the meaning behind the ritual, some of the method behind the madness, is will you remain with the crowd or will you join those stones in proclaiming Jesus as Messiah. Will you scatter during Good Friday, avoiding the cross, or observing from a distance, or will you draw near and witness to a suffering servant, a crucified Messiah?
Grace & Peace,
Pastor John
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