Holy Week: My Favorite Holiday

Mar 20

I always claimed Palm Sunday as my favorite holiday. As a child, it was probably because I wanted to stand out. As a college woman, it was to outsmart the Buzzfeed quiz called “We can guess your favorite holiday by the character of Army Wives you pick” (side note: not an actual quiz, but I would probably pick Claudia Joy or Frank).

Now I can genuinely claim it as my favorite. And here is why:

The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. 13 They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed is the king of Israel!” Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written: “Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.” At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him.

--John 12:12-18

Reason #1: Victoria Osteen wrote on her Facebook in 2013, “When you enter His presence with praise, He enters your circumstances with power!” The people of Jerusalem heard Jesus was coming and they dropped everything to go and praise Him. They wholeheartedly praised Christ for who He is. And later that week he powerfully entered into the circumstances (sin) of the world.

Reason #2: Zechariah 9:9 begins the section called “The Coming of Zion’s King”. It says: Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious,lowly and riding on a donkey,on a colt, the foal of a donkey. Jesus, yet again, closed the loop. During Advent I talked about how Jesus continuously fulfilled the prophets effortlessly.

Reason #3: Jesus entered into the world as a baby - a helpless, needy baby. He also entered into the world in the town of Bethlehem - a nobody, dreary town. The stinky shepherds were the first to visit Him. And now, on Palm Sunday, He enters into His final week of life on a donkey. I picture Eeyore (dreary like Bethlehem) dragging his feet into Jerusalem with the smiling Messiah on his back. Talk about humility. Jesus got crap, yet He enters in - into the world, into Jerusalem, into our lives - willingly and wholeheartedly.

Palm Sunday is my favorite holiday because it is a reminder of wholehearted praise, God’s fulfilled promises, and unwavering humility.