A Sunday to Remember
Meditations on Palm Sunday2024
Palm Sunday. Thus begins the sacred days dedicated to the memory of our Lord’s passion, crucifixion, and resurrection. Holy Week is a veritable feast of truth from redemptive history. No week surpasses this one in the life of the Christian Shepherd. I treasure every Palm Sunday and Holy Week in the years of my ministry. Oh, if I could rise again and declare, “ It is Palm Sunday. This is the day the Lord has made, so let us rejoice and be glad in it. Let us worship God.” But there is a thorn that inhibits me. So, with this humble means, I hope to fulfill my calling, however falteringly, to declare the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ as we begin yet another passion week.
Every season is a season of his grace. Every season offers particular virtues, warnings, and blessings to sanctify the saint and to call sinners to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. Palm Sunday and Holy Week bring enormous opportunities for discipleship and evangelism. They are also deeply nourishing for the Christian soul in meditation. I have prepared some thoughts for you and scriptures for this day.
Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.— Philippians 2:9-11 KJV
The ancient covenant of God anticipated Palm Sunday and its meaning in redemptive history. Thus, we read:
"Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in." - Psalm 24:7
"Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We bless you from the house of the Lord. The Lord is God, and he has made his light to shine upon us." - Psalm 118:26-27a
"Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you; righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey." - Zechariah 9:9
All Glory, Laud, and Honor, no. 235 (Choir with words for you to join in worship), Trinity Hymnal (rev. ed.) (Theodulf, Bishop of Orléans, 781). Public video (Second Presbyterian Church, Memphis, Tennessee), 2014:
All four Gospels provide an account of Jesus triumphal entry into Jerusalem:
Matt. 21:1–11
Mark 11:1–10
Luke 19:28–38
John 12:12–18
Some Literary Sources of Meditation
A Poem on Palm Sunday (Anon.)
This heartfelt poem from my library notes captures the complex emotions and spiritual reflections stirred by Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem.
Now to the gate of my Jerusalem,
The seething holy city of my heart,
The saviour comes. But will I welcome him?
Oh crowds of easy feelings make a start;
They raise their hands, get caught up in the singing,
And think the battle won. Too soon they’ll find
The challenge, the reversal he is bringing
Changes their tune. I know what lies behind
The surface flourish that so quickly fades;
Self-interest, and fearful guardedness,
The hardness of the heart, its barricades,
And at the core, the dreadful emptiness
Of a perverted temple. Jesus come
Break my resistance and make me your home.
A Devotion from One of our Greatest Hymn Composers, Augustus Toplady (”Rock of Ages”)
Toplady eloquently contrasts the people’s physical act of laying garments before Christ with the spiritual act of surrendering our righteousness at His feet, encouraging deep personal reflection.
When Christ entered into Jerusalem the people spread garments in the way: when He enters into our hearts, we pull off our own righteousness, and not only lay it under Christ’s feet but even trample upon it ourselves. — Augustus Toplady (1740-1778)
Looking to Holy Week and “The Crown”
John Donne’s profound work reflects on the sacrifice of Christ and its transformative power, inviting us to draw closer to Him through the imagery of His death and resurrection. As we remember Palm Sunday, we lift our eyes to the cross and the La Corona—crown:
Now thou art lifted up, draw mee to thee,
And at thy death giving such liberall dole,
Moyst, with one drop of thy blood, my dry Soule
—John Donne (1572-1631),
La Corona (”The Crown” 1610)
Almighty and everliving God, in your tender love for the human race, you sent your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, to take upon himself our nature and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.
—The Collect (a gathering prayer) for Palm Sunday, Book of Common Prayer (1928)
Liturgical Fragments for Private Devotion
Our devotions include fragments of a biblical liturgy (the people’s worship arranged by scripture and prayer), expressing our reflections in communal and individual praise:
Call to Worship
This is the day the Lord hath made.
Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the LORD.
Hosanna in the highest! (—from Psalm 118:26)
Prayers
Let us pray.
Our heavenly Father, who sent Your only son to live the life we could not live and die the death that should have been ours. Grant that many people may turn to the Lord Jesus Christ and join those of us who have received the grace to believe so that the Church, the sacred assembly of all The people throughout all time, may grow and the glory of your name resound through every nation, tongue and tribe. We pray this in your name of Christ. Amen.
And so we pray as You taught Your own to pray, saying together:
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those
who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.
Standing with believers in Jesus Christ throughout all ages and all tribes and tongues, we affirm our faith according to the Holy Scriptures.
The Affirmation of Faith
Christian, what do you believe? Together:
I believe in God, the Father almighty
maker of heaven and earth;
And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord;
who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried.
He descended into hell.
The third day he rose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven,
and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father almighty.
From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.
And so we come before the Lord in humility and awareness of our sin and His provision in Christ Jesus, our Lord, to hear and forgive.
Confession of Sin and Assurance of Pardon
Let us humbly confess our sins to Almighty God.
Almighty and most merciful Father,
we have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep.
We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts.
We have offended against thy holy laws.
We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done;
and apart from thy grace, there is no health in us.
But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders.
Spare thou those, O God, who confess their faults.
Restore thou those who are penitent, according to thy promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesus our Lord.
And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake,
that we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life, to the glory of thy holy Name. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon
Grant, we beseech thee, merciful Lord, to thy faithful people pardon and peace that we may be cleansed from all our sins, and serve thee with a quiet mind; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Scripture and Sermon: “A Sermon to Remember” (Matthew 21:1-11)
“This is a message I preached a few years ago. You will hear a reference to the pandemic. However, we trust the message is expository and, thus, evergreen. May it be a blessing to that sovereignty-appointed part of the Body of Christ who might hear. May some be saved, and others be encouraged.” — Michael A. Milton
Prayer for Illumination
Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts always be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our Rock, and our Redeemer. And let me preach as if never to preach again as a dying man to dying men. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Benediction
Receive now the benediction from God‘s word:
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost be with us forevermore. Amen.— 2 CORINTHIANS 13:14
Go forth this Palm Sunday, and enter Holy Week praising God and thanking Him for Christ Jesus, the Promised Messiah, the Ark of Salvation, and our Passover Lamb.
Thanks be to God.
Sources
Book of Common Prayer (1928, 2019)
Presbyterian Book of Common Worship (1946)
Donne, John. Poems of John Donne. vol I., E. K. Chambers, ed. London: Lawrence & Bullen, 1896. 152-156.
Slater, R. E. “Palm Sunday Readings, Poems & Observances.” The Poetry of R.E. Slater (online collection), April 8, 2017. https://reslater.blogspot.com/2017/04/palm-sunday-readings-poems-observances.html.