If you know anything about Palm Sunday in a Southern Baptist Church, you know that, just as they cross the threshold of the Sunday School door ON THEIR WAY OUT, each child is given a palm frond to remind them of the way that Jesus was welcomed to Jerusalem.
We have 6 yr. old son that is still getting used to attending “big church”. I don’t know what he understood about the palm frond that he laid on the pew next to us because he was much more interested in the Thomas The Tank coloring book that he was working on during the sermon.
Our 3 yr. old daughter didn’t know she had received a palm frond until we reached the car and she wanted one because her brother had one. They immediately created a game in which the palm branches were weapons. We confiscated both of them until we were home and out of the confinement of the car!
Much like my children may wonder why they were given plants at church and what that means, I suspect there were lots of people in Jerusalem that day wondering what all the commotion was about. Jesus certainly had not been what they expected to that point. All indications are that His entry to the Holy City was unconventional as well. We know that, in just a few days, their opinions would turn and, instead of hailing His arrival, they would clamor for His death.
Thankfully, Jesus understood what His entry meant and He didn’t change his mind about what He had to accomplish in Jerusalem.
It is a Holy Week indeed!
