A Donkey, A Shout and A Tear
Luke 19:28-44
By Harold Dinsmore, M.Div.
© 2006 Harold Dinsmore

Please read our text with me.  Every year we celebrate Palm Sunday.  Why is this day so important in the Christian calendar year?  It is the one Sunday set aside in Christendom to celebrate and commemorate the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on the back of a young donkey.  People of Jerusalem greeted him waving palm branches and laid branches and cloaks in the roadway as he meandered into the city.  Waving palm branches was a symbol of victory by this time in history.  On this day we worship the Lord in the same manner as we acknowledge him as Messiah, the King of Kings.

This pivotal event is recorded in all four of the Gospels.  Matthew 21:1-11, Mark 11:1-11, Luke 19:28-44 and John 12:12-19.  In Christian tradition, Palm Sunday is also known as the Day of Passion.  This begins the day when Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem to begin his pilgrimage into the week we now know as Holy Week which would forever change not only the life of Christ, but the life of all mankind.  It was during this day that the people of the city came out in hordes to hear the preaching of our Savior and were literally awestruck by his words of wisdom and greatness.