Palm Sunday
Matthew
21:1-11
Palm Sunday Exegetical Notes by
Brian Stoffregen
PALM SUNDAY:
Exegetical Notes on Matthew 21:1-11 and parallels
I will offer a
few comments about the Palm Sunday text(s) [Mt 21:1-11;
Mk 11:1-11; Lk
19:28-40; Jn 12:12-16].
Only John
mentions branches [baion] of palms [phoinix]. In Mark the
disciples cut
leaves [stibas] from the field [agros]. In Matthew they
cut off branches
[klados] from the trees [dendron]. There are no
branches of any
kind in Luke!
Whatever they
crowds were carrying, what do they mean? There is
nothing quite
like this in the OT.
One suggestion
is that the actions described by John resemble one of
the standard
processions of Tabernacles where the people carried twigs
of myrtle,
willow, and palm. Originally these were used in the
construction of
booths (Nehemiah 8:13-18). Later some of them, at
least, were
bound together into a sort of festal plume, called the
lulab, to which
a citron was also attached. The lulab was a symbol of
rejoicing and
was carried ceremonially during the daily singing of the
Hallel (Psalms
113-118).
Another
connection -- a stronger one, I think -- is with 1 & 2
Maccabees. I'll
quote the appropriate sections from the CEV.
1 Macc 13:49-52
-- Capture of the Pagan Fort in Jerusalem
49 The enemy
troops in the Jerusalem fortress still could not go into
the country to
buy food, and many of them starved to death. 50
Finally, the
survivors begged Simon for peace. He agreed, then ordered
them to leave
the fortress, so he could remove everything that made it
unclean
according to their religion.
51 On the
twenty-third day of the second month in the year 171 of the
Syrian Kingdom,
Simon led his soldiers into the fortress. They carried
*palm branches*
and praised God with all kinds of songs and musical
instruments. God
had completely crushed their powerful enemy! 52
Simon decided
that a joyous festival should be held on this same day
every year. He
strengthened the wall on the side of the temple hill
that faced the
fortress. Then he and his troops made the fortress
their
headquarters.
2 Macc 10:1-8 --
The Rededication of the Temple [Hanukkah]
1 The Lord led
Judas Maccabeus and our troops into battle, and they
recaptured the
temple and the city of Jerusalem. 2 Then they
destroyed the
places where the foreigners had worshiped, including the
altars they had
built in the public market.
3 Judas and his
followers made the temple an acceptable place of
worship once
again. They built a new altar for sacrifices and started
a fire on it by
rubbing flint rocks together. After this, they offered
sacrifices for
the first time in two years. They burned incense, then
lit the lamps
and brought out the sacred loaves of bread.
4 When all of
this was done, the troops lay face down on the ground
and prayed, "Our
Lord, please don't let us suffer such terrible
troubles again.
If we should ever turn from you, don't correct us so
harshly. And
please, never again hand us over to these foreign
savages, who
insult you."
5 The dedication
of the temple took place on the twenty-fifth day of
the month of
Chislev -- the same day of the same month that the
foreigners had
made the temple unfit for worship. 6 We celebrated a
joyful festival
for eight days, and it was just like the Festival of
Shelters. In
fact, while our people celebrated, they kept remembering
the recent
Festival of Shelters, when they were forced to roam the
hills and live
in caves like wild animals. 7 But now they walked
around carrying
sticks decorated with twisted ivy and holding up
branches,
including some from *palm trees*. They sang hymns and
thanked the Lord
for making our holy temple clean again. 8
Afterwards,
everyone decided to make this a yearly festival for our
whole nation.
The use of palm
branches in Maccabees was related to military
victories. Is
that what the people were expecting from Jesus? When
they shout
"Hosanna" = "Save us" (not part of the shout in Luke); do
they consider
that "salvation" to be like that of the Maccabees --
driving out the
occupying forces from Jerusalem? If so, then Jesus
failed miserably
to live up to their expectations.
What about the
animal? What does it symbolize?
Only Matthew and
John make reference to Zechariah 9:9. John's shorter
quote avoids the
strange situation of Jesus riding on a donkey AND on
a colt. It is
one of Matthew's themes that Jesus actions fulfill OT
texts. Because
we know what will happen to Jesus in Jerusalem, we have
tended to
emphasize the "humble" aspect of the king who comes riding
into town on his
donkey. However, the context of Zechariah's oracle in
ch. 9 is one of
"defeat and destruction for the foreign nations and
return and
restoration for Israel" [Harper's Bible Commentary].
Given this
context of Zechariah's humble king riding into town and the
use of palm
branches when the Maccabean forces defeated the foreign
nations and
rededicated the temple, I would assume that similar
expectations
were in the minds of the crowd on the first "palm"
Sunday.
Robert Capon in
Hunting the Divine Fox maintains that the typical
American
paradigm of the Messiah is not Jesus, but Superman. We don't
want a savior
who does a stupid thing like rising from the dead. We
want one who
never dies.
A contrast
between the Palm Sunday's crowd's expectations (as well as
our own) of the
superstar, saving (meaning: helping us avoid pain)
Jesus and the
real, suffering and dying messiah who promises life on
the other side
of pain, may be the message we need to proclaim on
Passion Sunday.
Brian Stoffregen
Faith Lutheran
Church, 2215 S 8th Ave., Yuma, AZ 85364
e-mail:
brian.stoffregen@gmail.com