IX

"PALM SUNDAY”

(Preached in the Cathedral, Garden City.)

"A great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took the branches of the palm trees, and went forth to meet him." -St. John XII:12, 13

Our Lord's entrance into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday made a powerful impression both on His friends and His foes. When the four Evangelists penned the story of His life, each felt this could not be omitted and each added characteristic comments. From the apostles' day to our own, the narrative has appealed with peculiar force to the Christian imagination.

Perhaps the popular mind has here seen an approach, on however humble a scale, to that glory to which Jesus Christ was justly entitled as Head of the Church and King of kings, as Saviour of men, and Son of God. Though on other occasions our Lord collected great throngs about Him, it was generally with their hope of witness

ing a miracle, whereas here the multitude seems intent on doing honor to Himself.

There is every reason to suppose that the Christ purposed to make the act of entering the Holy City on this day significant of His work, His character and His redemption. It is impossible, in the time, to treat the various features of the history-the fulfilment of Zachariah's prophecy; the use of the she-ass and her young foal; the shout of triumph, "Hosannah, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." So let us examine more closely the use that was made of the Palms that have given name to this Sunday.

At the outset we must distinguish between two incidents.

St. John says: "A great multitude that had come to the feast when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took the branches of the palm trees, and went forth to meet Him." Do not confound this with another incident. St. Matthew and St. Mark tell us that a great multitude cut down branches from the trees and strewed them in the way. Mark says that they cut these branches from the fields. An eminent scholar declares that these apparently similar actions were really distinct. It would not have been practical, he points out, to cut branches on the moment from palm trees which reached a

height of eighty to one hundred feet. The branches strewn in the way were in all probability from the smaller olive trees. Those who used them had come with our Lord from the direction of Bethany and Beth-phage, while those who had the palms came from Jerusalem, and, on meeting the others, faced about and returned to the Holy City and Temple, bearing, as was the custom on occasions of victory and rejoicing, these branches of palm.

It is, then, the palm that we shall study to-day. Now, first we are all used to the palm as a symbol of victory. The leaf is a hand which branches out into many fingers, and the waving of palms produces a like sense of exaltation as does the lifting of the hand in applause, or blessing.

When Simon Maccabæus, after the surrender of the tower at Jerusalem, made a formal entrance, it was with music and thanksgiving and branches of palm trees. So, when he had recovered the Temple in the city, "They bare branches and palms, and sang psalms also unto him that had given them good success."

So our Lord to-day presents Himself to the Holy City, to the Temple, to the nation as a King, victorious. Not over enemies, but over evil. Here had been Israel's error. They miscon

ceived His Royalty; they did not understand of what sort His conquering was.

No doubt many acted from mixed motivesin part cherishing the hope that at last heaven had sent the expected Messiah who would deliver the political Israel from submission to Rome and would establish her national independence and build her up in prosperity and glory; in part desiring that the Nazarene would essay the rôle of a social reformer and elevate humanity to a condition from which poverty, or at least disease, would be forever banished.

The old predictions as to the Messiah had been strangely misread by the people. They were rejecting Him because he was not a great military leader, inciting revolt against Rome. No such thing had been promised; no such thing was to be seen. Just exactly what had been predicted, Jerusalem was to behold. Our Lord selected a moment when, with the gaze of the whole land upon Him, He might give one unmistakeable portrait and symbol of what He was, and of what He had come to do.

As her king, He advances to Zion.

Observe that we have not the unconscious fulfilment of a prophecy, but the deliberate making good of an ancient saying. Jesus of Nazareth calmly goes about realizing what had been fore

told of the Messiah. Prophecy had said that Zion's King would come to her lowly and just, riding on a colt, the foal of an ass. Our Lord proceeds to conform literally. Jerusalem he would enter, a king, but such a king as the world had never seen—not cruel but just; not attended by an army but by throngs of children; not crowned and clothed in purple, but habited in the travelstained garments of a peasant; not fabulously wealthy but very poor; not acclaimed with the rattling of shield and spear and sword, but with shouts of Hosannah; not on superbly caparisoned horse, but on a young foal whereon never man had sat; not erect in a golden chariot drawn by prancing steeds, but seated on an ass's colt; not decreeing the fall of empires and the enslaving of the conquered, but proclaiming deliverance from sin and an everlasting salvation. Yes, He is a king to-day but not such a king as the world ever saw before or since.

Can we see all the grandeur in this manifestation of poverty? Are we more spiritually minded than were those who lived with Him? Can we recognize the divine splendor?

2. The palm branch may symbolize the world expansion of the influence of Jesus. In at least two respects these trees surpass all others in their adaptation to the daily needs of humanity