A Pilgrim's Song for Palm Sunday

We begin in the dust of the road, weary and tired. Our feet are sore. Our throats are dry.  But in the distance we can see it, that city on a hill, the ancient-eternal city of Jerusalem, the pilgrim’s destination.

The torah instructs us that we are pilgrim people.  Even though we may be settled in our homes, the Blessed One has taught us to remember that“…a wandering Aramaean was my ancestor.”[i]  And so we make the three annual pilgrimages for the great Jewish festivals[ii].  We go up for Shavuot to celebrate the revelation of the torah to Moses.  We go up for Sukkoth[iii] – the Feast of Tabernacles, and as we do today, we go up for Pesach – the Passover - [iv] so that we can remember the time of our departure from Egypt, to recall the dramatic and miraculous events which led to our exodus from that ancient land of slavery.

We followed the Blessed One then, as he led us from Egypt, through the Sea of Reeds though we were pursued by the Egyptians and their chariots.  We followed him as he led us to meet with him at Mount Sinai where he gave us the torah.  We followed, though somewhat reluctantly and grumbling, to the Promised Land.  And now we continue to follow him, wandering after the Holy One of Israel.  Our feet are blistered. Our legs are weary.  But we follow because he is our God.  We are hungry.  We are thirsty.  But we will be filled. 

And even though we are road-weary we sing pilgrim songs, songs of the road.

I was glad when they said to me,
‘Let us go to the house of the LORD!’…
Jerusalem, built as a city
which is bound firmly together,
to which the tribes go up…
as was decreed by the LORD,
to give thanks to the name of the LORD.[v]

We sing in anticipation of the Passover hallel:

Hallelujah! Praise, O servants of the LORD,
Praise the name of the LORD!
Blessed be the name of the LORD
from this time forth and forevermore!
From the rising of the sun to its setting
the name of the LORD is to be praised![vi]

Our pilgrim band may be tired, but we walk on.  The children, with youth's wellspring of energy run on ahead, laughing and dancing, darting after butterflies. Some of us are slower; age has weakened our joints.  We breathe hard, panting for breath between the lines of the psalm, as we walk up these steep hills.  But there is always a hand ready to help us, to steady us.  We walk together.  You look tired.  Have some of my water and give me your bag. I will carry it for you. We’re almost there.  And there we will celebrate.

 Along the way our band of pilgrims has encountered other travelers.  They have joined us.  Or we have joined them.  All of us, together, making our way towards Jerusalem.  We have shared with them our stories, and they have shared their laughter with us.  We have shared our food and our songs and our prayers. 

And here now, as we pass the town of Bethphage[vii] we see fig trees, hundreds of them along the side of the road.  Several of the older children run towards them, but before we can warn them against eating any, they realize for themselves that the figs are not yet ripe.  The leaves are there, but it is not yet the season for figs.[viii]

And now we are nearing the town of Bethany[ix].  There are more fig trees here. The children run to check again, but they are disappointed again.  Their frowns are fleeting, however. They are quickly distracted by shouts and cheers from the road up ahead.

A large group of travelers has joined us on the road here and they are as excited as we are, perhaps more.  At their head is a man they are addressing as “Rabbi” and “master.”  He is smiling and laughing, too.  Though, if you’ll watch, his smile falters a little every now and then. There.  Did you see it?  That frown as he looked off towards Jerusalem?

But how can anyone frown at such a time as this?  There is a sudden cheer from the group as two of their members return from the nearby village.  They are leading a young colt – an unbroken colt, it would seem from the way it struggles and bucks against their leading. The colt rears his head back suddenly, and the young man holding the leading rope is jerked backwards.  He falls on his bottom in a plume of dust.  The colt neighs loudly and the crowd is laughing uproariously.

The rabbi, Yeshua, I believe they are calling him, laughs too.  His frown is gone, replaced by a wide grin.  He reaches down to lift up his fallen disciple. 

“It was just as you said, rabbi,” says the disciple holding the colt’s reins. “We found the colt tied up at a door way, out in the open street.  We untied him to bring him to you and some people there stopped us.  “What are you doing, untying that colt?”  We told them just what you said, “the Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately.”  Your word was good enough for them.  They let us bring it to you.”

Yeshua nods and thanks his disciple.  Immediately some of the men in their group begin to strip off their outer coats.  They lay them across the back of the colt and waving their arms towards the beast, invite this Yeshua to sit upon it.   He laughs again and embraces them and then sits on the colt.

He looks like a king.  But kings ride horses and this is only a colt.  And then someone remembers the words of the prophet Zechariah:

 Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.[x]

His disciples are cheering and the crowd is shouting.  They are wild with enthusiasm, and it is hard not to get caught up in their excitement.  Soon we are all shouting with them.

“Hoshanna”! Someone shouts, and for a moment I think that they have called out his name, “Yeshua” the words are very much the same.  “Hoshanna! They shout again and again.  “Save us! Save us now! Deliver us! Deliver us now!” 

And it isn’t long before our shouts have become a song.  We are singing another of the hallels- the psalms of praise. 

Save us, we beseech thee, O LORD!
O LORD, we beseech thee, give us success!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD!
We bless you from the house of the LORD!
The LORD is God,
and he has given us light.
Bind the festal procession with branches,
up to the horns of the altar.[xi]

Several of the disciples dart away from the road and begin gathering branches and brushwood cut from the nearby fields.  They race back to the road with armloads of these branches and they begin spreading them out along the road in front of the colt.  Others are waving them in the air and shouting and singing.

Blessed is the name of the Lord!
Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!
In the heights, cry out “Hoshanna!”[xii]

And still other voices are with us singing:

Our glad hosannas, Prince of Peace,
thy welcome shall proclaim,
and heaven’s eternal arches ring
with thy beloved name.

He comes, the prisoner to release
in Satan’s bondage held;
the gates of brass before him burst,
the iron fetters yield.

He comes, the broken heart to bind,
the wounded soul to cure,
and with the treasures of his grace
to enrich the humble poor.

Hark the glad sound! the Savior comes,
the Savior promised long;
let every heart prepare a throne,
and every voice song.[xiii]

He is the promised one, the coming one, the one who will save us.  We cheer him on. Ride on! Ride on! Hosanna! Ride on!

Ride on, ride on in majesty!
Hark, all the tribes hosanna cry;
thine humble beast pursues his road
with palms and scattered garments strowed

And, because we are singing from this side of history, we can sing more than those weary but eager pilgrims so long ago.

Ride on, ride on in majesty!
In lowly pomp ride on to die;
O Christ, thy triumphs now begin
O’re captive death and conquered sin.

Ride on, ride on in majesty!
In lowly pomp ride on to die;
Bow thy meek head to mortal pain
then take, O God, thy power, and reign.[xiv]

Let us–who are pilgrims wandering after God today, say to him as he enters the city: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the king of Israel.  Let us wave before him like palm branches those final words inscribed above him on the cross.  Let us show him honor, not with olive branches but with the splendor of merciful deeds to one another. Let us spread the thoughts and desires of our hearts under his feet like garments, so that entering us with the whole of his being, he may draw the whole of our being into himself and place the whole of his in us. Let us say to Zion in the words of the prophet: Have courage, daughter of Zion, do not be afraid. Behold, your king comes to you, humble and mounted on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.[xv]


Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews, may your reign become real through the works of our hands and your love become alive in our hearts.

Hosanna and Amen.

I am grateful to Charles Foster's book The Sacred Journey for some of these thoughts. 

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[i] Deuteronomy 26: 1 - 5

[ii] Exodus 34:23

[iii] Leviticus 23:42-43

[iv] Deuteronomy 16: 1- 8

[v] Psalm 122: 1 - 4

[vi] Psalm 113: 1 - 3

[vii] Aramaic “House of Un-ripe Figs”

[viii] Mark 11: 1, 13

[ix] Aramaic “House of the Figs” or “House of affliction/poverty”

[x] Zechariah 9:9

[xi] Psalm 118: 25 - 27

[xii] Mark 11: 9 – 10 Anchor Bible Translation

[xiii] Phillip Doddrige (1702 – 1751) – can be sung to “Joy to the World”

[xiv] Henry Hart Milman (1791 – 1868)

[xv] St. Andrew of Crete