Let me tell you about an ancient Jewish custom. It has to do with waving palm branches and chanting, "Hosanna!" Really.
Every year, on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, worshippers would cast palm branches around the base of the sacrificial altar, all the while calling out, "Hosanna! Save, I pray!" Many Jewish congregations still do this today, laying the branches near the "ark" where the Torah scrolls are kept.
This ancient ritual was a clear statement by God's people that only He could save, and that His salvation was given at the place of sacrifice.
Fast forward to Palm Sunday in first-century Jerusalem.
The last time the members of Jesus' welcoming committee had been to Jerusalem, it was the last pilgrimage feast - the Feast of Tabernacles, back in the fall. As always, people had cast palm branches around the sacrificial altar, asking God to save them.
But now, here they were in the spring, back in town for Passover, the spring pilgrimage festival, waving palm branches and crying out "Hosanna" - to Jesus!
I don't know about the larger crowd or the bandwagon crowd, but the ones who started this greeting got it. They understood that the Jesus who proclaimed to be the Source of Living Water during the last Jerusalem feast, was indeed the God who saves. And now, seeing Him for the first time since the Feast of Tabernacles, they cast palm branches at His feet, instead of the around the sacrificial altar.
They didn't realize it at the time, but they'd gotten it exactly, painfully right.
In a week's time, this fully-God, fully-man Messiah would place Himself on the altar of the Cross to purchase our salvation once and for all.
Hosanna in the Highest!
(Tammy loves to teach on the Feast of Tabernacles and its connection to Palm Sunday, as well as many other rich, deep connections between the old and the new. To learn more, visit www.beginningwithmoses.com)
