MK 11:1-10
“When Jesus and his disciples drew near to Jerusalem,
to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives,
he sent two of his disciples and said to them,
“Go into the village opposite you,
and immediately on entering it,
you will find a colt tethered on which no one has ever sat.
Untie it and bring it here.
If anyone should say to you,
‘Why are you doing this?’ reply,
‘The Master has need of it
and will send it back here at once.’”
So they went off
and found a colt tethered at a gate outside on the street,
and they untied it.
Some of the bystanders said to them,
“What are you doing, untying the colt?”
They answered them just as Jesus had told them to,
and they permitted them to do it.
So they brought the colt to Jesus
and put their cloaks over it.
And he sat on it.
Many people spread their cloaks on the road,
and others spread leafy branches
that they had cut from the fields.
Those preceding him as well as those following kept crying out:
“Hosanna!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is to come!
Hosanna in the highest!”
What was Jesus doing at the Triumphal Entry?
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI explains:
Jesus claims the right of kings, known throughout antiquity, to requisition modes of transport.
The use of an animal on which no one had yet sat is a further pointer to the right of kings. Most striking, though, are the Old Testament allusions that give a deeper meaning to the whole episode. . . .
For now let us note this: Jesus is indeed making a royal claim. He wants his path and his action to be understood in terms of Old Testament promises that are fulfilled in his person. . . .
At the same time, through this anchoring of the text in Zechariah 9:9, a “Zealot” exegesis of the kingdom is excluded: Jesus is not building on violence; he is not instigating a military revolt against Rome. His power is of another kind: it is in God’s poverty, God’s peace, that he identifies the only power that can redeem [Jesus of Nazareth, vol. 2].
Read more.
https://www.ncregister.com/blog/9-things-you-need-to-know-about-palm-passion-sunday-q4j3z8q3
Something to think about. I just saw this in a video. On Palm Sunday, Jesus did something radically different. For the first time, he allowed “people to proclaim him and treat him as king” to quote the video by Father John Sims Baker of of Ashland City, Tennessee. Jesus enters the royal City of David as the royal descendent of that King, the one foretold. It is the only time he allowed himself to be treated as royalty. Very quickly things changed, but for that moment, a few people were allowed to see the long awaited King return to Jerusalem.
He has entered the Holy City, making his claim to Kingship clear.
Please, no political commentary. None.
TY for the beautiful post…Menagerie
One of my favorite Palm Sunday Easter songs
Thanks for posting this song. I first heard this a few years ago when I was tutoring at a Catholic school whose 8th grade class performed a passion play all in mime. About half of the students came from low-income minority homes and the others were white working class – middle class from suburban areas. As a retired teacher from the low-income district that half of these students came from, I was expecting some silliness or unserious “attitudes”. Instead what happened completely astonished me.
The performance was one of the most beautiful things I have ever experienced. And I say “experienced” because it was not something I just “watched”. I could not hold back the tears as this song played during the enactment of the Stations of the Cross. It was inspiring.
John’s account adds this directly after referencing the entrance (John 12:16-19):
“His disciples did not know these things from the first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of Him, and these things they had done to Him.
“Therefore the crowd being with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him out from the dead, continued to bear witness. On account of this also the crowd met Him, because they heard of His having done this sign.
“Therefore the Pharisees said among themselves, “You see that you gain nothing. Behold, the world has gone after Him.”“
Another remarkable event recorded by John in the same chapter (verses 27-33):
““Now My soul has been troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But on account of this I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.”
“Therefore a voice came from heaven: “I have both glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”
“Therefore the crowd having stood, and having heard, was saying, “There has been thunder.” Others were saying, “An angel has spoken to Him.”
“Jesus answered and said, “This voice has not come because of Me but because of you. Now is the judgment of this world; now the prince of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all to Myself.” Now He was saying this, signifying by what death He was about to die.“
This has been in my Lenten meditations book this week, something I have been thinking about all week. Modern man wants comfort above all else, but we were not put here for comfort.
It is only through trials and travails that we are strengthened. My favorite analogy in his regard is that of an airplane. It is only through resistance under its wings that it is able to lift itself into the Heavens. It is the same for us as God fulfills his Promise to “proof” the believer.
Great analogy.
This reminds me of a section in a book by Coach Lou Holt that I read years ago. He was talking about how we just naturally want praise and recognition and resent correction. He then described the job of an air traffic controller who guides pilots in, not by telling them what they do right, but what they need to correct, and that the pilots could not land properly without them, nor fly safely from place to place.
Thank you Menagerie for these reflections at the beginning of yet another sad Holy Week.
Peace and blessings on all Treepers.
Thank you Patrick.
Knowing the whole story I am somber but never sad when I contemplate this week in the life of Christ. I also most always remember my daughter (age 4) at a Passion performance of our church in NC. She was watching the entrance of the man we knew playing Jesus at the very start of the play. She was standing on the pew looking to the back of the church when he entered. In a loud whisper she said, “Mom, they’ve got God! This is going to be good!”
This is going to be good my friend. It will all be good!
This is absolutely awesome. And how right she was.
Begins in sadness and ends with light and hopefulness.
Oh so true. The sadness began with the fall of man into his sinful nature but God had a plan for redemption from His Judgement and it lay in the Love and Hope that is Jesus Christ Our Lord.
This may be the link above in case a not found response is returned. https://www.ncregister.com/blog/9-things-you-need-to-know-about-palm-passion-sunday-q4j3z8q3
Should be from Oh Henry!
Thank you Menagerie
Have referenced this at https://freedomaustralia.freeforums.net/thread/1019/palm-sunday-holy-week-begins
Thank you for sharing the message.
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.
AMEN
Happy Easter
Thank you so much for posting this! I have sent it to so many family and friends. Truly inspiring.
I read that the staging of the sisters looking at each other, rather than at the camera, was to put the emphasis on the message, not on themselves. Also, the older sister is supporting the younger sister on her spiritual journey.
Some family responded that they wish they could sing, “I said It does not matter how you sound. It matters what is in your heart and in your soul.”
{ my grandfather was tone-deaf)
best man I ever knew
He could also recite long narrative poems. Robert Service,
Thank you so much for sharing this absolutely beautiful telling of the Passion story.
Looking forward…
Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my Flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.” ~ Jn 6: 52-58 (Hat Tip: A Catholic.Org).
I am also remembering a teaching from Catholic grade school…”No one gets to the Father except through the Son. No one get to the Son except through the Mother”.
Let us ponder this events of this week, and keep in our own hearts, while meditating on these events, the anguish that Mary must have been feeling within her heart. For Catholics, remember the Seven Sorrows of Mary. This week is the culmination and start of the Christ’s mission on earth…it is all about Him and the church, yet in the background, humble and silent (and no doubt aching within), is The Mother.
As a 20 year veteran, the closest insight I have into this week in the Passion of our Savior is that of getting ready to deploy to a combat zone. I remember the words, even light words, to my family getting caught in my throat or even my chest in that last week (or even month) before I departed. I am amazed that Jesus could and would continue to teach and minister so effectively, perhaps even the most effectively of His 3 years of ministry, facing what He was facing and given His love for His friends and family. We have all had to say goodbye at a certain point, but who has done it like our Jesus?
Yes my dear combat veteran. Thank you for your service and sacrifice. Holy week for me is nothing like what you faced prior to being deployed. Nothing. But for whatever reason, I am starting to feel the trauma of Holy Week as I experienced it as a child raised as a Byzantine Catholic. I did not understand the purpose of all of the fasting, the hours upon hours spent on my knees during the Stations of the Cross. I did not understand it at all.
Things are getting better for me. in this regard. I have reconnected with a cousin during this past year who grew up in the same faith. During this Holy Week I am going to let the trauma go, and find comfort that I believe in our Savior, and Lord Jesus Christ.
Thank you for this post Menagerie.
Thank you also
My favorite song for Easter week: Handel Comfort Ye. Might be a song for our times, not just Holy week.
I like that I can understand what is being sung. Beautiful.
My favorite song for Easter week. The best voice I’ve found, plus there are lyrics for people like me.
Comfort Ye
Thanks for pointing that out.
I was reading this this morning, and for the first time it registered with me the bit about a young man following Jesus in white linen, which came off of him so he ran away naked. What was this included?
I have read some who think it is a reference to Mark himself, placing him there at the scene as a witness, and a confession that he too fled.
Hosanna!
Menagerie, as always, you have Blessed us Treepers with God’s Word. Thanks for the important point made about the Royalty of Palm Sunday and how blessed we are to have a King such as Christ! Have a glorious Palm Sunday in your part of the world! Amen.
Thank you Jesus for the gift of ever lasting life. I pray that the blinders are lifted off of those with non belief, and those who don’t see the spiritual war being waged all around them.
I pray that they take up their cross and follow you. I pray for the holy spirit to guide them, and guide me today with the great commission. I pray for those with evil hearts to be convicted, and turn away from that evil, and turn towards you.
In Jesus name I pray, AMEN.
Thank you for the much needed reminder that Christ is King and everything else in this world is subservient to that fact! Let us rest in that truth today, and always!!
The link did not work?
Thank you! Fixed it, I think.
….. and thus the crown of thorns.
In their mockery of The King –of kings
they gave fodder for The Word to spread
–all the more; setting the stage for what was soon to come–
of His sacrifice
of His resurrection
The link doesn’t work.
I’ll check again, but I thought I fixed it.
Do not make a political comment and then say, sorry to add politics. None means none.
Another that I thought fit while I was listening to some of Matt Maher’s music in my collection
Christ Is Risen – Matt Maher
Christ is risen from the dead
We are one with him again
Come awake, come awake!
Come and rise up from the grave
Oh death! Where is your sting?
Oh hell! Where is your victory?
Oh Church! Come stand in the light!
The glory of God has defeated the night!
As always, I love these posts!
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
Do You Know My Jesus? | Steps To Christ | Fountainview Academy
Hi Menagerie,
Thank you for posting this. It reminds us of what is truly important in our lives. Also would you please tell me where you got the image for the painting and if you know, the artist is that painted it. I’d like to do a little research. Thank you.
The picture is in a lot of Catholic articles online, including the NCRegister article by Jimmy Akin. I think it is on some of the Mormon sites also. I did a quick search and could not find a title or artist, or any other information.
Thanks. If I find out anything interesting I’ll post it.
The artist is Harry Anderson. He did a series of paintings for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Here’s a link to a museum exhibit that focused on the studies he did for each painting:
https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/exhibit/harry-anderson-legacy-in-the-making?lang=eng
Here’s a link to the completed painting titled “Christ’s Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem”:
https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/media/christ-triumphal-entry-into-jerusalem-harry-anderson?lang=eng#1
(The internet can be a wonderful tool.).
Enjoy your Holy Week.
Thank you all for your beautiful posts and links. We really DO need to keep everything in perspective and remember that this is not our ‘home’. Jesus showed us all the Way and invites us to join Him in everlasting life….we only need to follow Him.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ !!