Palm Sunday 2013 - 24 March

Palm Sunday is a universal Christian feast celebrated on the Sunday one week before the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, as first service of Holy Week. This feast commemorates the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on the Sunday before his arrest. The entry is mentioned in all four Gospels, which indicates significance ascribed to it in the church during the times when the Gospels were written. (Mark 11:1–11, Matthew 21:1–11, Luke 19:28–44, and John 12:12–19).

According to the Gospels, Jesus rode a donkey into Jerusalem, to fulfil the Old Testament prophecy that the Messiah would enter the Holy City in this way.  The celebrating people laid down their cloaks in front of him, and also laid down small branches of trees. They sang part of Psalms 118: 25–26 –“ ... Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.  In Eastern tradition a donkey is an animal of peace and a horse an animal of war. The triumphant entry of Jesus on a donkey proclaims him as a King, and more importantly as the humble Messiah, the promised Prince of Peace.  

Palm Sunday is the first day of Holy Week when we remember the last days before the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.  During Palm Sunday services palm branches are processed into church, music that hails Jesus as Saviour and King is sung and we celebrate that the perfect, unblemished Lamb of God arrived at the altar on Golgotha to be slaughtered during the Jewish Passover, to die for our sins and set us free to serve in the Kingdom of God.