What the Palms Have to Say on Palm Sunday - John 12: 20-43

What the Palms Have to Say

Today is Palm Sunday. There is a guest preacher with us today for this solemn day. It’s the palm cross in your hand. I say it’s our guest preacher because the preaching of the palms is too loud to ignore.

Do you hear the message? Palms preach a loud message about our sinfulness. I know this is not comfortable to hear; its even less comfortable to visibly see. But, you are not given this cross to leave behind in your pew or give back to the ushers after the service. Take it home. Take it home and tack it up on your wall where you have other crosses, or crucifixes, or other pictures of Jesus. Place it where you have other religious artwork in your home. I’ll put mine on my wall in my office.

And, when you place it there and when you see it there, you will hear the preaching of the palms. The cross is now brown, but it used to be green and full of life, bending and flexing in the breeze. But it’s not able to bend, now: it’s dry, crisp and hard, a far cry from it’s lovely green self. It’s been cut off from the stem, separated from the life-giving sap that flowed from root to leaf. This cross shows you a vivid picture of death because it’s been cut off.

This cross preaches to you about the sin and death that is naturally ours apart from Christ. From birth, blind and dead – enemies of God – we were separated by sinfulness from God, far from Christ the Vine.

We don’t see the reality of our sins, neither the original sin that we inherited from our parents and parents’ parents nor the actual sin that we do each day. It’s sort of like we don’t realize our own aging until we look at a photo from the past. We don’t see it, so the dried palms remind us that the wages of sin is death.

The palms tell a story over the course of the year. Traditionally, the dried and dead palm leaves would be returned to the church on Transfiguration Sunday, the Sunday before Ash Wednesday, when they would be burned and ground into fine ash. Then, on Ash Wednesday, the Palm Sunday palm waver would be marked with ashes made from the palms. The palms preached a message year-round, a message of sins marking the owner. 

You may be thinking, at this point, that if that’s the message of the palms, you don’t want to take them home. You would rather leave them on the pew, or in the narthex, or even in the trash can – anything to avoid the constant reminder of sins and death as the consequence of sins. That’s too much. But, that’s not the only message the palms proclaim. They also speak clearly and distinctly of our Lord’s Passion, His suffering. They remind us of Palm Sunday, Jesus entry into Jerusalem, when He was welcomed as a conquering king. With palm branches waving and garments cushioning the foot-falls of the donkey, Jesus rides in like an Old Testament king. 

In His ministry, Jesus kept all of God’s Law perfectly, obeying all that we disobey. In His Passion, Jesus submitted to the punishment, to the torture, to the mockery, to the wrath of God we so keenly deserve. No one “got it” then: not the crowds, not the civil leaders, not the religious leaders, not even the disciples. The crowds are busy yearning for a man who has the power to raise Lazarus from the grave to rise up and overthrow Rome; instead, He throws the moneychangers out of the temple. The disciples are jockeying for position in the kingdom; meanwhile, Jesus rides on the bank of a donkey by Himself heading toward the cross.

Jesus does nothing that was expected: He didn’t display Divine power. He didn't resist when arrested. He didn't defend Himself when accused. He didn't struggle when whipped, spitted on, beaten, or crucified. He didn't show Himself to be God in the flesh. He showed himself to be a frail, palm that withered passively under mistreatment and torture. The palm crosses hanging next to our crosses and pictures will preach to us of this. While they remind us of our sins, they also remind us of the fact that Jesus the God-Man passively withered till He cried, "I thirst." Though He was God's Green Tree He allowed Himself to be nailed to a dead one till He shriveled up and died. He meekly, humbly, and passively allowed Himself to be burned by the wrath of God so that God's wrath against us sinners could be satisfied.

All the world was willing to welcome a conquering king, but whom God sent on this day of the palms was a Lamb to suffer passively, a Lamb to quietly carry away the sins of the world. John wants you to notice this. John is the only Gospel writer to tell give you a time reference "on the next day." And this is the last chronological reference John gives you in Holy Week. John is highlighting that today is the 10th of Nissan. On this day, according to Exodus 12:3, the Passover lamb was to be selected. God is sending the True Passover Lamb whom He Himself has selected to shed His blood for the sins of the world so that the wrath of God would Passover us.

In our liturgy we remember this every Sunday. Right before the Words of Institution we say exactly what the Palm Sunday crowds did: "Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest." Then right after He has come we pray to Him singing, "O Christ the Lamb of God that takest away the sin of the world, have mercy on us." Do you see that as God the Son on Palm Sunday came humbly riding on a donkey hidden to all but the eyes of faith, so He comes today among us hidden in Bread and Wine?

However, there is a difference. We aren't welcoming our Lord Jesus into our midst as the suffering Lamb. No, we are welcoming Him as the Conquering Lamb who has finished suffering and so has won our salvation. We are welcoming the Lamb who has conquered and won and so comes to distribute His forgiveness, life and salvation to sinners. The palms don't just preach to us about Jesus' humble suffering and death for sinners; they also preach to us about His victory over suffering, death and sin. Palm branches have always been recognized as a symbol of joy and victory. Leviticus 23:40 specifically mentions using palm branches for this purpose. Our palm crosses, made of dead palm fronds, remind us that death has died it’s own death in Christ. The cross is empty; Christ has won the victory. 

There is one thing these palm branch crosses cannot teach you. No matter how hard you try, you cannot make them alive again. Outside of Christ, there is no life after death. But in Christ, there is hope; there is life; there is salvation. In Christ, through the empty cross, there is the promise of the resurrection of the body and the life of the world to come.

Let living palm branches remind you of this - not these you hang by your crucifixes and pictures because they are brown, but ones you see growing. John too wishes you to notice this. John's is the only Gospel to specifically mention palm branches on Palm Sunday. Matthew, Mark and Luke do not. Do you know the only other time in the New Testament that you read about palms? In heaven. In Revelation 7:9, St. John tells us: "After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no one could count from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues standing before the throne and before the Lamb clothed in white robes and palm branches were in their hands."

The palms preach loudly of our sins, of Christ's passive suffering for sinners, and of our victory in Christ over sin, death and the devil. May they preach to us all year. Amen.