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On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord. (John 12:12–13)

Minerva Teichert, Christ's Entering Jerusalem. Courtesy of Intellectual Reserve, Inc.

Christians around the world begin their observance of Holy Week by marking Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem,[1] which, according to the relative time markers found in Mark, took place one week before Easter (see Appendix B). All four Gospels paint a similar picture of crowds—though perhaps these were just the excited, gathered disciples of Jesus—welcoming Jesus into the holy city with shouts of praise and the waving of tree branches as he descended the symbolically significant Mount of Olives. Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles since 2004 and a member of the First Presidency from 2008 to 2018, wrote the following about this event: “Perhaps the disciples thought this was a turning point—the moment when the Jewish world would finally recognize Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah. But the Savior understood that many of the shouts of praise and acclamation would be temporary. He knew that soon He would ascend to the Mount of Olives and there, alone in Gethsemane, take upon Himself the sins of the world.”[2] Jesus’s knowledge of his coming suffering and sacrifice makes this event a fitting point to begin our formal observance of Passion Week.

While Jesus’s trial, suffering, and death lay ahead, the triumphal entry was one of the few times during his ministry when Jesus was recognized as the Messiah he actually was. Indeed, beyond its immediate significance, it was also a foreshadowing of his glorious return as King of kings and Lord of lords (see Rev 19:16). In this respect, the triumphal entry is the first of his acts in what we are calling the kingly portion of Holy Week that followed his anointing by Mary of Bethany.[3] A second act that exemplified his royal authority followed soon afterward, at least in Matthew and Luke, when Jesus ascended to the temple and demonstrated his authority there by casting out the merchants and moneylenders whom the temple authorities had allowed to set up their stalls and tables in the sacred courts. Both these episodes can be categorized as “prophetic signs” or symbolic, dramatic enactments in the tradition of Old Testament prophecy.[4] Drawing upon Zechariah 9 and Psalm 118, the triumphal entry illustrated that Jesus was the Son of David, the rightful king of Israel. Jesus’s actions in the temple, with an important reference to Jeremiah 7 and allusions to Zechariah 12‒13, were calculated to demonstrate that as the true king Jesus came to judge Israel, entering Jerusalem and the temple to assert his position, disputing the authority of those who had arguably usurped and wrongly exercised it.

By studying the events of Palm Sunday individually, reading them together with our families and friends, and establishing our own traditions for the day, we can enter Holy Week intentionally, using it as a time to come to know our Savior better, appreciate his atoning sacrifice and resurrection more, and look forward with confidence and joy to his glorious return.

Texts: Mark 11:1–10; Matthew 21:1–9; John 12:12–19; Luke 19:41‒44

The earliest account of the triumphal entry comes from Mark, which begins that Gospel’s “third act,” the climax in Jerusalem with what was, in effect, a prophetic enactment demonstrating that he was the true King of Israel. Matthew and Luke largely follow Mark’s version, but we have also provided Matthew’s account because of that evangelist’s particular use of the prophecies of Zechariah. John’s account also appears here because it is what gives Palm Sunday its name (see John 12:13). It also notes the effect that Jesus’s reception had on his opponents, galvanizing their violent opposition to him (12:19). Finally, Luke differs from the other Synoptics in that he adds a lament over Jerusalem by Jesus even as he approaches the city, adding a note of sadness or passion to an otherwise joyful episode.

Mark

¹And when they came nigh to Jerusalem, unto Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount of Olives, he sendeth forth two of his disciples, ²And saith unto them, “Go your way into the village over against you: and as soon as ye be entered into it, ye shall find a colt tied, whereon never man sat; loose him, and bring him. ³And if any man say unto you, ‘Why do ye this?’ say ye that the Lord hath need of him; and straightway he will send him hither.” ⁴And they went their way, and found the colt tied by the door without in a place where two ways met; and they loose him. ⁵And certain of them that stood there said unto them, “What do ye, loosing the colt?” ⁶And they said unto them even as Jesus had commanded: and they let them go.

⁷And they brought the colt to Jesus, and cast their garments on him; and he sat upon him. ⁸And many spread their garments in the way: and others cut down branches off the trees, and strawed them in the way. ⁹And they that went before, and they that followed, cried, saying,

“H�Dz����ԲԲ�;

Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord:

¹⁰ Blessed be the kingdom of our father David, that cometh in the name of the Lord:

Hosanna in the highest.”

Matthew

¹And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples, ²Saying unto them, “Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me. ³And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say, ‘The Lord hath need of them;’ and straightway he will send them.” ⁴All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying,

^{5 “}Tell ye the daughter of Sion,

Behold, thy King cometh unto thee,

meek, and sitting upon an ass,

and a colt the foal of an ass.”

⁶And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them, ⁷And brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon. ⁸And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way. ⁹And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying,

“H�Dz����ԲԲ� to the Son of David:

Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord;

Hosanna in the highest.”

John

¹²On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, ¹³Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried,

“H�Dz����ԲԲ�:

Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.”

¹⁴And Jesus, when he had found a young ass, sat thereon; as it is written,

¹⁵ “Fear not, daughter of Sion:

behold, thy King cometh,

sitting on an ass’s colt.”

¹⁶These things understood not his disciples at the first: but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of him, and that they had done these things unto him. ¹⁷The people therefore that was with him when he called Lazarus out of his grave, and raised him from the dead, bare record. ¹⁸For this cause the people also met him, for that they heard that he had done this miracle. ¹⁹The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, “Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing? behold, the world is gone after him.”

Luke

⁴¹And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, ⁴²Saying, “If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. ⁴³For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, ⁴⁴And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.”

The Triumphal Entry

Interpretation and Application

While crowds had come to see Jesus as a great prophet during his Galilean ministry (see Mark 6:14‒15; 8:27‒28), only once do any of the Gospels report that there was any open talk of his being their hoped-for king. Because of Jesus’s miraculous feeding of the five thousand, some from the crowd wanted to make Jesus their king (John 6:15), presumably because they saw features of the messianic age in what he had done. While he had not spoken openly about his identity before this time, at least in the Synoptic Gospels, through his actions here Jesus clearly made a claim to be David’s heir. To do this he appears to have orchestrated his entry into Jerusalem carefully, drawing upon Old Testament history, geography, and prophecy in choosing the place from which his entry began, the Mount of Olives, and arranging for the manner he would arrive in the holy city.

Jesus had specific scriptural reasons for finding a donkey to ride into Jerusalem, encouraging a procession, and, according to Matthew and Luke, essentially starting a riot as soon as he arrived in the temple complex. The books of the Hebrew Bible were his scriptures, and he knew them well. Further, the authors of the Gospels often frame stories about Jesus by comparing him to giants of the Jewish past. His activities upon entering Jerusalem before Passover are no exception. Both the choice of a donkey and the significance of the Mount of Olives connected Jesus to King David and as well as the messianic figure in the book of Zechariah. When David fled Jerusalem following the revolt of his son Absalom, he rode a donkey out of the city and, before reaching the summit of the Mount of Olives, he wept over it (2 Sam 15:30). David then commanded his servants to get “a couple of donkeys . . . for the king’s household to ride” (2 Sam 16:1–2 NRSV). Jesus’s acts mirror David’s in reverse order. First, Jesus acquired a donkey on the summit of the Mount of Olives, rode to Jerusalem, and then wept over Jerusalem when he came within view of the city (Luke 19:41).

King Solomon also rode his donkey at the base of the Mount of Olives, where he was anointed king over Israel (1 Kgs 1:32–37). During the royal procession, his constituents shouted, “God save King Solomon,” or “Long live King Solomon!” (1 Kgs 1:39 NRSV). Similarly, Jesus’s followers held a procession for him as he rode a donkey from the Mount of Olives to the east gate of Jerusalem while they shouted, “H�Dz����ԲԲ�! Blessed is the son of David. Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Mark 11:1–10; parallels Matt 21:2–9; Luke 19:29–44; also John 12:12–19). This shout is quoted from Psalm 118:26, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord,” providing a precedent in the Hebrew scriptures for Jesus’s triumphal procession.

Map of Jerusalem, triumphal entry, showing the approximate route of Jesus from Bethany to Bethphage and on to the temple. Eric D. Huntsman, used by permission.

Matthew quotes Zechariah 9:9: “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Look, your king is coming, unassuming and having taken his seat on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden’” (Matt 21:5, authors’ translation). The messiah-donkey tradition is also in Genesis, which declares that the future ruler from the tribe of Judah will bind “his foal to the vine / and his donkey’s colt to a choice vine” (49:10–11 NRSV). Both Zechariah’s original and the Genesis passage, using the poetic feature of synonymous parallelism, actually refer to only one donkey. However, even though Matthew understood this literary technique, he nonetheless chose to portray two to emphasize by the mother’s presence that the foal is young.[5] Mark and Luke may support this when they add that Jesus specifically requests a donkey that had never been ridden (Mark 11:2; Luke 19:30), a detail based on the Septuagint, or Greek translation, of Zechariah 9:9: “Your king comes to you . . . riding on a new donkey.”

All four Gospels have the crowds acclaim Jesus with versions of lines from Psalm 118, which is the last of what came to be known as the Egyptian Hallel, a group of religious songs (Pss 113–18) that was sung as part of the celebration of Passover. Originally, however, Psalm 118 appears to have been used in liturgical processions, sung as worshippers approached the temple.[6] This makes the timing, in the days before Passover, and the occasion, as Jesus approached Jerusalem to ascend to the temple, significant. When the crowds cried “H�Dz����ԲԲ�!” they were using an Aramaic form of the Hebrew hôšîʿânnāʾ from Psalm 118:25, which means “save now” (KJV) or “save us, we beseech you” (NRSV).[7] The members of the crowd then proclaimed, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,” which comes from the first line of 118:26. Matthew and John, however, vary the crowd’s acclamation to make it more explicitly a royal acclamation. Matthew has them begin by shouting, “H�Dz����ԲԲ� to the Son of David,” and John has them end their ovation by saying, “Blessed is the one who is coming in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel!” In Luke’s account, this joy is tempered as Jesus pauses as he approaches the city, lamenting that because Jerusalem will not, as a whole, truly accept him, it will be destroyed (Luke 19:41–44).

Jesus’s royal procession, entering the city from the east, contrasted with another, more worldly procession that would have entered the city from the west about the same time.[8] The standing Roman garrison of Jerusalem was surprisingly small, consisting of a single cohort, or detachment, of about five hundred auxiliary troops, most of whom would have been stationed in the Antonia Fortress next to the temple, leaving local police and temple guards to provide most of the security for the city. At the major festivals, however, the provincial governor, who normally resided in Caesarea on the coast, would come to Jerusalem, bringing additional troops to help maintain order while the city was teeming with Jewish pilgrims.[9] While we do not know exactly when Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor at the time of Jesus, arrived that year, it would have been several days before Passover while the city was filling with worshippers preparing themselves for the feast. Whenever it occurred, the procession of armed Roman soldiers bearing imperial standards as they accompanied the governor on a war horse would have entered Herod’s palace on the western side of the city. They would have contrasted markedly with the crowds of disciples, with an untold number of city residents looking on and perhaps joining in, waving branches as they accompanied Jesus, who rode into the city on a donkey from the east. The fact that no move was made to stop Jesus by either the Roman or Jerusalem authorities is in itself telling: the Romans apparently did not think that this spontaneous action was much of a threat, whereas the Jewish leadership, recognizing the popularity of Jesus, was hesitant to cause an uproar among the people by arresting Jesus publicly (see Mark 14:2; parallel Matt 26:5; also John 12:19).

While the difference between worldly and heavenly power is apparent in the two contrasting processions that week, Jesus’s triumphal entry was not only a symbol of how he was the actual king of Israel then and there. It was, in a very real way, an anticipation of the future, the actual rule he will usher in at his glorious return, as anticipated in the prophecies of Zechariah. Whereas Jesus’s first coming was to overcome the bondage of sin and death, at his Second Coming he will at last defeat all enemies and come to rule and reign. A Latter-day Saint reading of the triumphal entry lays out yet another level of significance between Jesus’s last week two millennia ago and his future Second Coming. The dedication of the Kirtland Temple on March 27, 1836, occurred on Palm Sunday that year, and the appearance of the glorified, risen Lord to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery (Doctrine and Covenants 110:1‒10) occurred on April 3, which was Easter Sunday. This timing has led Robert Rees to observe the following:

That entire week, in fact, seems to have been a holy week, for on Sunday, March 27, Joseph dedicated the temple and, at the conclusion of his dedicatory prayer, the congregation sang “The Spirit of God like a Fire Is Burning” and then partook of the sacrament. Joseph recorded, “We sealed the proceeding of the day by shouting hosanna to God and the Lamb 3 times sealing it each time with Amen, Amen, and Amen.” Although Joseph does not so indicate, this is the shout given by those who welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday.[10]

More recently, Latter-day Saints throughout the world performed the sacred Hosanna Shout on April 5, 2020—which was also Palm Sunday—to celebrate the bicentennial of the First Vision.[11] In the words of President Nelson, the shout “is a sacred tribute to the Father and the Son, symbolizing the reaction of the multitude when the Savior made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. It also reaffirms what young Joseph experienced that day in the Sacred Grove—namely, that the Father and the Son are two glorified Beings, whom we worship and praise.”[12] Key Restoration events such as these are evidence that Jesus is, in fact, our king and worthy of our praise now. As we look back to Jesus’s last week even as we enjoy the blessings of his restored gospel in this dispensation, are we eagerly looking forward to his return? Has our initial enthusiasm for our Lord faded or does our love for him continue to burn brightly, leading us to remember him, follow him, and love those whom he loves, including the poor, marginalized, and alone?[13]

Texts: Mark 11:11; Matthew 21:10–17; Luke 19:47–48

Mark’s account has Jesus enter Jerusalem, ascend to the temple, and simply look around before returning to Bethany to spend the night. While Mark delays his discussion of the temple incident until the next day for symbolic reasons, Matthew, paralleled by Luke, places Jesus’s cleansing of the temple directly after the triumphal entry, using it to demonstrate his authority to judge its so-called authorities, alluding to the prophecies of Jeremiah and again to Zechariah in the process. Matthew adds the details that Jesus followed the cleansing of the temple with miraculous healings, which led children to praise him as the Son of David.

Mark

¹¹And Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and into the temple: and when he had looked round about upon all things, and now the eventide was come, he went out unto Bethany with the twelve.

Matthew

¹⁰And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, “Who is this?” ¹¹And the multitude said, “This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.” ¹²And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, ¹³And said unto them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.’”

¹⁴And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them. ¹⁵And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, “H�Dz����ԲԲ� to the Son of David;” they were sore displeased, ¹⁶And said unto him, “Hearest thou what these say?” And Jesus saith unto them, “Yea; have ye never read, ‘Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?’”

¹⁷And he left them, and went out of the city into Bethany; and he lodged there.

Félix Louis Leullier, Christ's Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. Bridgeman Images.

The Temple and Its Hierarchy at the Time of Jesus

Background

After Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, all four Gospels have him ascend to the temple complex, although they differ in what he did next. After a brief inspection, Mark reports that Jesus left the city to spend the night in Bethany (Mark 11:11). Matthew and Luke, as we shall see, have him immediately drive out those merchants who had established themselves in the temple courts and overturn the tables of moneychangers, which the temple authorities would have seen as a riot (Matt 21:12‒13; Luke 19:45‒46). Although John’s narrative is vague on the timing and placement of the events that follow the triumphal entry (John 12:20‒50), Jesus’s past practice in Jerusalem and the context of his meeting with Greeks who had come up “to worship at the festival” (12:20, authors’ translation) both suggest that Jesus spent the early part of the week in the temple courtyards.

The First Temple, from its construction by Solomon until its destruction by the Babylonians in 586 BC, had effectively been a royal chapel adjacent to the king’s palace. This “Temple of Solomon” was replaced by the Second Temple after elements of the Jews returned from their Babylonian exile; in its first phase it was known as the Temple of Zerubbabel, after the scion of the Davidic royal family who returned from Babylon and started the rebuilding. In its final, expanded, and renovated form it was known as the Temple of Herod, with Herod having, in the eyes of many, illegitimately usurped the kingship from the rightful Davidic house. Herod’s temple was a massive compound, with an expansive, colonnaded Court of the Gentiles surrounding the areas reserved for Israelites, which included the Court of the Women and the inner priestly areas around the altar and sanctuary proper. [14] It was in the public areas of the Court of the Gentiles, probably in the colonnades surrounding it or in the massive Royal Stoa on the south end of the Temple Mount platform, where Jesus would have done most of his teaching.

Under Herod, his son Archelaus, and the Roman governors that replaced them, the temple was run by a priestly hierarchy, and understanding the nature of this establishment and Jesus’s interaction with them is essential for understanding Jesus’s last week. The priestly class were descendants of Aaron, Moses’s brother, who was of the tribe of Levi, a son of Jacob. They conducted all the affairs of the temple, assisted by the Levites. At the time of Jesus, the priestly class had become numerous, numbering many thousands, with priests living and working in all regions of the Holy Land. The priestly system comprised twenty-four courses (1 Chr 24:7–18), each course managing the temple functions two weeks per year. John the Baptist’s father, Zacharias, for instance, worked with the eighth course (Luke 1:5–9). The rest of the year, they worked in other capacities, such as managing synagogues.

Presiding over the priests and performing the sanctuary’s most sacred rituals was the high priest. David had appointed two high priests, Abiathar and Zadok, but because Abiathar had supported the attempted coup of David’s son Adonijah, David’s successor Solomon deposed him and established Zadok as the sole high priest (2 Sam 8:17; 1 Kgs 1:5‒39; 2:35). Only direct descendants of Zadok served as high priests from Solomon until the Hellenistic Period, when Greek kings in Syria controlled the region. Rival priests of non-Zadokite families often appealed to these foreign kings to be appointed high priest. The high priesthood thus became corrupted, with wealthy non-Zadokites purchasing the office. Several high priests were replaced by higher bidders or even murdered. This process continued under Roman domination, from about 63 BC to the temple’s destruction in AD 70, so that in a period of about one hundred years the office of high priest was occupied by over thirty people, illustrating the dysfunction of a corrupted system in which a religious position became increasingly political.[15]

Some purists insisted that a proper high priest be selected from the actual Zadokite line. Perhaps the best known of these groups, the priestly sect at Qumran near the Dead Sea, withdrew from mainstream Jewish society and referred to themselves as “Sons of Zadok.”[16] Nonetheless, by and large the chief priestly families in Jerusalem continued to appeal to the ideal of Zadokite legitimacy even if they were not from the proper family, which is perhaps the origin of name of the priestly party known as the Ṣādôqîm, or, in English, Sadducees.[17] It was from among these non-Zadokite chief priestly families that the high priests were drawn. The high priest then served as the presiding officer of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish high court. Many examples illustrate corruption within these higher priestly ranks before, during, and after Jesus’s lifetime. The Jewish historian Josephus related that in the early first century BC temple goers protested the high priest during Sukkot, or the Feast of Tabernacles, likely because although he was a descendant of Aaron, he was not a descendant of Zadok. Soldiers rushed in and killed six thousand people.[18] Another protest during Passover occurred when a Roman soldier exposed himself to the crowd at the Temple. When Pontius Pilate governed the region (AD 26–36), he brought pagan images of Caesar into Jerusalem, presumably with the knowledge of the chief priests. A sizable crowd disapproved and threatened to riot.[19] On another occasion, Pilate funded an aqueduct using funds from the temple treasury, again with approval from the temple establishment. A multitude rioted, to which Pilate responded by dispatching soldiers to kill them.[20]

It is no wonder that the populace, and Jesus himself, criticized the chief priests, who collaborated first with the Herods and then with the Romans in ruling the Jewish people, judging and punishing them, and managing the temple treasury. Josephus recorded, “No one need wonder that there was so much wealth in our temple, since all the Jews throughout the habitable earth, and those that worshipped God, even those from Asia and Europe, sent their contributions, and this from very ancient times.”[21] Josephus reported that Ananias, the high priest, sent servants to confiscate by violence the “tithes that were due to the priests.”[22] Texts in the Dead Sea Scrolls refer to the temple priests as wicked men who rob the poor, acquire massive wealth, and defile the temple.[23] The Testament of Moses (dated to the first half of the first century) similarly criticized the ruling class for being “destructive and godless men who represent themselves as being righteous, . . . [who] consume the goods of the poor, saying their acts are according to justice.”[24] Much later, the Babylonian Talmud describes the corruption and violence of certain chief priestly families.[25] This context is vital to understanding the events of Jesus’s last week as he contended with chief priests.[26]

The Cleansing of the Temple

Interpretation and Application

Although all four Gospels report that Jesus “cleansed” the temple, driving out the merchants and moneychangers who had set up their stalls and tables in its courts, they differ as to when and how they depict it. While the Synoptics place it at the beginning of Holy Week, John’s narrative actually places it at the beginning of the ministry, apparently the first time Jesus went to Jerusalem for Passover with his disciples (see John 2:13‒22).[27] Mark, as we shall see, places it on the day after the triumphal entry (Mark 11:15‒18), whereas Matthew and Luke (Matthew 21:1–11; Luke 19:45‒48), depict it as occurring right after Jesus had entered the city following his triumphal entry. The difference in timing can possibly be explained by the different symbolism assigned to the action by the different evangelists. For John, the temple incident is primarily an enacted sign, or prophetic act, anticipating his own death and resurrection (John 2:18‒22).[28] As we will see in chapter 3, Mark uses Jesus’s action in the temple primarily as a symbol of the rejection of Israel and as a prophecy of the temple’s coming destruction.

In the case of Matthew and Luke, placing the temple incident right after the triumphal entry stresses that this was a “royal act” by which Jesus emphasizes his authority over the temple and rejects the rights of the chief priestly establishment that has assumed control of and mismanaged it. When Jesus declares “My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a lair of bandits!” (Matt 21:13, authors’ translation; emphasis added), he was quoting Jeremiah’s condemnation of the political and religious establishment of his day, whom he describes with the Hebrew term pārīṣîm, meaning not just robbers but violent ones who break through and divide.[29] The Greek equivalent in both the Septuagint of Jeremiah 7:11, and Matthew 21:13 (Greek, lē_istai; KJV, “thieves”) also means “usurpers” or even “insurrectionists” or “revolutionaries.”[30] Herod had provided plenty of shop space along the southern and western bases of the Temple Mount; their presence in the courtyards on top of the temple platform suggests that the priestly establishment had usurped power over the sanctuary and had corruptly allowed the merchants and moneychangers to ply their trades in that holy place.[31]

Yet Jesus’s riotous acts in the temple courts again conjured up important imagery from Zechariah, this time from chapter 14, which presents a three-part act of the messiah figure when he comes, which Jesus follows. Entering Jerusalem by the east gate, Jesus cleanses the temple as prescribed in Zechariah: “There shall no longer be traders in the house of the Lord of hosts on that day” (14:21; emphasis added), explaining why Jesus targets those “who were selling and buying in the temple” (Mark 11:15; parallels Matt 21:12; Luke 19:45). According to the Hebrew scriptures, Passover was a time of cleansing the temple of wickedness and impurities, as is described in the narratives of the good kings Hezekiah and Josiah, both of whom sought to rid Jerusalem of the altars of foreign gods in the first month of Nisan, which is the month of Passover (2 Kgs 23:4–14, 21–24; 2 Chr 29:3–19, 30:1–14). Jesus, too, cleansed the temple just prior to Passover. Jesus’s activities mirror the three-part structure in Zechariah 14 that refers to the future divine messianic figure: (1) he arrives on the Mount of Olives, (2) he pronounces judgment on Israel, and (3) he enters Jerusalem and cleanses the temple.

Carl Heinrich Bloch, Cleansing the Temple. Asar Studios/Alamy stock photo.

Matthew alone adds that after casting out the merchants and moneychangers, Jesus lingered and healed blind and lame people who came to him, which constitute the only miracles Jesus is known to have performed during the Passion Week other than the cursing of the fig tree Monday morning (Mark 11:12‒14; parallel Matt 21:18‒20) and Luke’s account of Jesus healing the ear of the high priest’s servant in Gethsemane later that week (Luke 22:50‒51). Jesus’s sudden change from righteous rioter to compassionate healer can again be explained by turning to the David material found in 2 Samuel. When David and his men approach Jerusalem just after his coronation, the Jebusite (Canaanite) leaders in the city taunt him, saying that the city is so well fortified that “even the blind and the lame will turn you back” (2 Sam 5:6). David responded that after he takes the city, “the blind and the lame shall not come into the house” (2 Sam 5:8). This episode seems to relate to Leviticus 21:18–23, “For no one who has a blemish shall draw near, one who is blind or lame . . . shall not come near the curtain or approach the altar . . . that he may not profane my sanctuaries,” which established a restriction that kept disabled priests from entering the central sacred areas. We find a related prophecy in Jeremiah that in the messianic age, “the blind and the lame” will be welcomed back into Zion, the Temple (Jer 31:6–8).

Matthew’s choice to record these temple healings is significant because by the first century AD, Solomon had come to be seen as a great exorcist and healer,[32] so Jesus’s healing underscored his association with the original “son of David,” as illustrated by the children’s cry, “H�Dz����ԲԲ� to the Son of David” (Matt 26:15; emphasis added). This further angered the temple authorities, who called upon Jesus to rebuke them, leading him to quote a line from Psalm 8, a psalm traditionally attributed to David, that acknowledges that even the youngest children are compelled to praise the greatness of God: “Out of the mouth of babes and infants / you have founded a bulwark because of your foes / to silence the enemy and the avenger” (Ps 8:2 NRSV).[33] As the “Son of David,” Jesus marched into Jerusalem, contended with the temple leaders, restored to the temple complex the blind and lame, and fulfilled an “out of the mouth of babes” prophecy associated with David.

Celebrating Palm Sunday in the Christian Tradition

By the end of the fourth century, the Easter celebration had expanded into three days, called the Triduum Paschale. This period began with the Maundy Thursday evening service and ended the evening of Easter Sunday. By the fifth century, the triduum had expanded to include Palm Sunday, thus creating what later became known as “Holy Week.”

Eric Huntsman and his daughter, Rachel, join BYU students, local Christians, and pilgrims from all over the world in a joyous Palm Sunday procession on Palm Sunday procession on April 1, 2012. Eric D. Huntsman, used by permission.

The formulation of any Palm Sunday tradition or observance dates to at least the fourth century. Egeria, a western European pilgrim who traveled to the Holy Land in the late fourth century, documented firsthand the annual tradition of praying, singing hymns, and reading Matthew 21, followed by a procession of worshippers carrying branches of palms, olives, and other trees down the Mount of Olives and into Jerusalem. Christians gathered at a church on the summit of the Mount of Olives and followed the bishop (representing Jesus), who rode a mule. The procession started at 5:00 p.m. and ended within the walls of Jerusalem at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Along the way, worshippers sang and chanted, “He who comes in the name of the Lord.”[34] To this day, Palm Sunday in Jerusalem is a joyous annual event, with crowds of both Palestinian Christians and pilgrims from all over the world descending the Mount of Olives towards the Lion’s Gate in Jerusalem, waving palm branches and singing as they go.

Similar processions were held throughout Christendom during the Middle Ages. Congregants followed either the bishop or a Christ-figure set on wheels through the town toward the Church, where the leader would knock at the door. In some Palm Sunday worship services, the entire passion narrative in Matthew was chanted by three people: a tenor representing the author of Matthew, a bass for Jesus, and an alto for all other roles in the story.

Many churches today distribute palm branches during the Palm Sunday services. Congregants take the palm branches and decorate their homes. It is common for these churches to gather the branches the next year during Lent, where they are burned and prepared for the Ash Wednesday ritual, as mentioned in chapter 1. Palm Sunday is also called Fig Sunday in some cultures to commemorate Jesus cursing the fig tree (Matt 21:18–22), although Mark places this event on Monday, as we will see in the next chapter. In England it has become customary to eat figs or fig pudding on this day.[35]

Suggestions for Latter-day Saints

Although Latter-day Saint wards do not usually celebrate Palm Sunday as such, bishoprics and ward councils may wish to consider assigning speaking topics that deal with the kingship of Jesus, his Second Coming, or the idea of preparing that week for Easter. Ward music chairs may want to suggest that sacrament meeting begin or end that day with “All Glory, Laud, and Honor” (Hymns, no. 69), which is the traditional anthem for Palm Sunday. If not, families may want to consider singing it at home in a special devotional; families with younger children may wish to also sing “H�Dz����ԲԲ�” from the Children’s Songbook, a short composition that can help children feel like they were part of the crowd accompanying Jesus into Jerusalem that day. While the songbook’s version of the beloved “Tell Me the Stories of Jesus” does not contain this verse, Ryan Murphy’s arrangement for The Tabernacle Choir has restored this wonderful original stanza:

Into the city I’d follow, The children’s band,

Waving a branch of a palm tree, High in my hand;

One of his heralds, Yes, I would sing,

Loudest hosannas, “Jesus is King!”[36]

Art that can be used in the home includes Harry Anderson’s familiar The Triumphal Entry, Walter Rane’s Triumphal Entry of Christ, and any of Tissot’s vignettes from Palm Sunday.

Because of the power of scripture, reading the story of the Triumphal Entry and then the cleansing of the temple from Matthew or Luke, either from the King James Bible or our reader’s edition, together with families and friends should be the center of a Palm Sunday devotional. If a family decides to use an Easter wreath, such as we discussed at the end of chapter 1, they could start their devotional by lighting the purple candle, noting that its color symbolizes that Christ is our King. After reading the day’s scripture passages, families can then discuss the symbolism of each event, talking about how we have accepted Jesus as our king and how we look forward to his return. Younger children may enjoy watching dramatic renditions of these from The Life of Jesus Christ Bible Videos series or other depictions of the life of Christ. When one of our families was young, we even held a procession around the living room and yard, waving branches and artificial palm fronds. If these are not available, young children may enjoy coloring paper palm fronds and pictures of the triumphal entry that can be used to decorate the living room or other parts of the home. Finding a video clip of a Palm Sunday procession in Jerusalem or either attending a Palm Sunday service or watching one on television can help feel connected to the larger, worldwide Christian community.

Marking Palm Sunday

Not only does Palm Sunday commemorate Jesus’s triumphal entry and celebrate his kingship, but it also marks the opening of Holy Week. By intentionally making it different than the usual Sunday by what we read, listen to, discuss, and do, we set the tone for the subsequent days, preparing us to focus on the final events of the Savior’s life and commemorate more meaningfully his atoning sacrifice and resurrection at the week’s end. As Elder Uchtdorf has observed, “It is fitting that during the week from Palm Sunday to Easter morning we turn our thoughts to Jesus Christ, the source of light, life, and love.”[37] §

For Further Reading

Borg and Crossan. The Last Week, 1–30.

Hatch. A Stranger in Jerusalem, 128–31, 189–90.

Huntsman. God So Loved the World, 7–16.

Levine. Entering the Passion, 21–44.

Smith. The Gospel according to Mark, 601–11.

Wayment, Thomas A. “The Triumphal Entry.” In Holzapfel and Wayment, From the Transfiguration through the Triumphal Entry, 398–416.

Notes

[1] Gulevich, “Palm Sunday,” Encyclopedia of Easter, Carnival, and Lent, 431‒41; Huntsman, God So Loved the World, 7‒9.

[2] Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “The Way of the Disciple,” Ensign, May 2009, 75.

[3] Huntsman, God So Loved the World, 133‒35, and chapter 1, page 31, above.

[4] John Nolland, The Gospel of Matthew, The New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2005), 837, 844; Thomas A. Wayment, “The Triumphal Entry,” in From the Transfiguration through the Triumphal Entry, ed. Richard Neitzel Holzapfel and Thomas A. Wayment, vol. 2, The Life and Teachings of Jesus Christ (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2006), 399‒400.

[5] John Nolland, The Gospel of Matthew, The New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2005), 837.

[6] Nolland, Gospel of Matthew, 838; Nancy deClaissé-Walford, Rolf A. Jacobson, and Beth LaNeel Tanner, The Book of Psalms, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2014), 864, 868.

[7] Nolland, Gospel of Matthew, 838–39; Amy-Jill Levine, Entering the Passion: A Beginner’s Guide to Holy Week (Nashville: Abingdon, 2018), 31–33.

[8] Borg and Crossan, Last Week, 2‒3; Levine, Entering the Passion of Jesus, 23.

[9] Eric D. Huntsman, “Before the Romans,” in From the Last Supper through the Resurrection: The Savior’s Final Hours, ed. Richard Neitzel Holzapfel and Thomas A. Wayment (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2003), 277‒78.

[10] Robert Rees, “Why Mormons Should Celebrate Holy Week.” Dialogue 37, no. 3 (Fall 2004): 156–57.

[11] “Sunday Morning Session Will Include Worldwide Solemn Assembly with Hosanna Shout,” Newsroom of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, April 4, 2020.

[12] Russell M. Nelson, “H�Dz����ԲԲ� Shout,” Ensign, May 2020, 92.

[13] Huntsman, God So Loved the World, 13.

[14] Josephus, Ant. 15. 11.1‒7 (§380‒425); Wars 1.21.1 (§401). See Peter Richardson, Herod: King of the Jews and Friends of the Romans (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1996), 185‒86; W. Shaw Caldecott, Herod’s Temple: Its New Testament Associations and Its Actual Structure (Indianapolis: Alpha Editions, 1913), 183–210, 275–329.

[15] Elias J. Bickerman, The Jews in the Greek Age (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988), 142‒46; Anthony J. Tomasino, Judaism before Jesus: The Events and Ideas that Shaped the New Testament World (Downers Grove, IL: InterVaristy Press, 2003), 130‒33, 154‒56.

[16] Tomasino, Judaism before Jesus, 178‒80.

[17] Tomasino, Judaism before Jesus, 172.

[18] Josephus Ant. 13.13.5 (§372–73).

[19] Josephus Ant., 18.3.1 (§55–57).

[20] Josephus Ant., 18.3.2 (§60‒62).

[21] Josephus Ant. 14.7.1 (§110; translation, Whiston, 463). Second Maccabees, a Jewish second-century BCE text, similarly explained, “The treasury in Jerusalem was full of untold sums of money, so that the amount of funds could not be reckoned” (3:6).

[22] Josephus Ant. 20.8.181.

[23] 1QpHab. For a detailed discussion on temple corruption in the age of Jesus, see Evans, Jesus and His Contemporaries, 319–66.

[24] “Testament of Moses 7:1–7,” ed. James H. Charlesworth, trans. John Priest, in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1983), 1:920, 930.

[25] b. �ʱ����ḥ. 57. See the discussion of Borg and Crossan, Last Week, 39‒40.

[26] For a detailed treatment of the priestly class, see Deborah W. Rooke, Zadok’s Heirs: The Role and Development of the High Priesthood in Ancient Israel (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).

[27] Although some, harmonizing the Gospels, suggest that John’s earlier account indicates that Jesus actually cleansed the temple twice, others argue that John’s placement of it is meant to indicate that the opposition to Jesus that the event aroused had actually begun from the outset of his ministry. Further, in John the action in the temple was symbolic of its destruction, which, in turn, was a type of Jesus’s coming death and resurrection.

[28] Brown, Gospel according to John, 114‒25; Levine, Entering the Passion, 60‒62.

[29] Brown, Driver, Briggs, “prs,” BDB, 828.

[30] Walter Bauer, “lē_istēs,” in A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, ed. Frederick William Danker, trans. William F. Arndt, F. Wilbur Gingrich, and F. W. Danker, 3rd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago, 2000), 594.

[31] Nolland, Gospel of Matthew, 843‒45.

[32] Josephus, Ant. 8.2.5 (§45‒49); Huntsman, Miracles of Jesus, 101.

[33] Nolland, Gospel of Matthew, 846‒49.

[34] Itinerarium Egeriae 30.1‒31.4; McGowan and Bradshaw, Pilgrimage of Egeria, 167‒69.

[35] Sources consulted and cited include the following: Joanne M. Pierce, “Holy Week and Easter in the Middle Ages,” in Passover and Easter: Origin and History to Modern Times, ed. Paul F. Bradshaw and Lawrence A. Hoffman (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1999), 161–86; Frank Senn, “Holy Week,” in The Encyclopedia of Christianity, ed. Geoffrey William Bromiley and Erwin Fahlbusch (Cambridge: Brill/Eerdmans, 2001), 2:584–6; “Palm Sunday,” in New Catholic Encyclopedia, 2nd ed., ed. Thomas Carson (Detroit, MI: Gale, 2003), 10:810–1; Gulevich, “Palm Sunday,” Encyclopedia of Easter, Carnival, and Lent, 431‒41; William P. Saunders, Celebrating a Holy Catholic Easter: A Guide to the Customs and Devotions of Lent and the Season of Christ’s Resurrection (Charlotte, NC: TAN Books, 2020).

[36] “Tell Me the Stories of Jesus,” composed by Frederic A. Challinor, arranged by Ryan Murphy, Teach Me to Walk in the Light & Other Children’s Favorites (Salt Lake City: The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square, 2012).

[37] Uchtdorf, “The Way of the Disciple,” 75.