In the 1830s, fiery preacher William Miller boldly predicted that Jesus Christ would return in 1844. While the anticipation was thrilling, the inevitable letdown in 1844 was crushing. So devastated were Miller and his followers when the stars failed to fall that history records their reaction as the “Great disappointment.”
The Israelites cheerfully chanting “Hosanna,” (meaning “save us”) on what we know today as Palm Sunday were also set for a great disappointment.
If Israel had a national flag in the Second Temple period, it would have likely featured a palm branch. Like the American flag or any other national flag, the palm branch was a symbol of patriotic pride and fervor. When the Jews restored the temple after the military victory against the Seleucid Greeks in 164 BC, palm branches were featured in the celebration. According to the apocryphal book of 2nd Maccabees, “carrying … beautiful branches and palms, they sang hymns of praise.”[1]
While this event had political/national and religious overtones, the next use of the palms was more overtly political. Once their independence over the Greek power was final, “the Jews entered the citadel with shouts of praise,” records Maccabees, and the “waving of palm branches” and singing ensued “because a great enemy of Israel had been destroyed.” [2] So prominent was the palm branch as symbol of patriotic zeal that, after the Bar Kochba revolt against Rome in 132 AD, the newly minted coins featured a palm tree of seven branches. The reverse side of the coin bore the inscription, “Year One of the Freedom of Israel.”
The waving of palms and shouts of “Hosanna,” in John’s account of the triumphal entry would have us to believe that the Jews were expecting a patriotic messiah in the mold of Judah Maccabaeus, the priest who led the successful revolt against the Greeks in 174 BC. A new champion riding into Jerusalem on a Davidic donkey would wrest them from the clutches of Roman power. “On the basis of this background,” contends Raymond Brown, “the action of the crowd … seems to have political overtones, as if they were welcoming Jesus as a national liberator.” [3]
What We Want vs. What We Need
The fanfare of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem quicky wanes. Jesus seizes no bases and rallies no troops. “The only anointing Jesus receives,” Brown writes, “is an anointing of death; the only crown he will wear is the crown of thorns; the only robe he will wear is the cloak of mockery.” [4] The disciples on the road to Emmaus voice the collective disappointment: “But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.” [5]
My late grandfather was a reservoir of wisdom. One truth he constantly told was knowing the difference between what you want and what you need. The Jews may have wanted a national liberator, but what they needed and what they got was a “spotless lamb of God” who would take away the sins of the world. The Jews did not expect too much from the Messiah, they expected too little. They wanted a Messiah who could slay Rome, but had one who would make them impervious to Rome by granting them a “peace that surpasses all understanding.” [6] The salvation they would receive is far greater than the one they expected.
The great American poet Henry David Thoreau wrote, “If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.” [7] We wave palms on Palm Sunday not to celebrate a military victory, but to remember a great disappointment — one that led to great compensation. We find the way, the truth, and life. We find a Jesus as the one who really did save Israel in a far better way than they could have possibly imagined. The one who really did conquer a great enemy, a far more powerful one, not with a sword, but with a cross. We find the one who can truly save us.
“Hosanna in the highest” indeed.
[1] 2 Maccabees 10:7
[2] 1 Maccabees 13:51
[3] Raymond E. Brown, The Gospel According to John (XIII–XXI), Anchor Bible, Vol. 29A (New York: Doubleday, 1970), 461.
[4] Ibid 463
[5] Luke 24:21
[6] Philippians 4:7
[7] Henry David Thoreau, Journal, March 11, 1859, in The Writings of Henry D. Thoreau: Journal, Vol. XII: 1859–1861, ed. Bradford Torrey and Francis H. Allen (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1906), 42.
