What is Palm Sunday?

Jesus Enters Jerusalem
(Mark 11.1-11; Luke 19.28-38; John 12.12-19)

Many people spread clothes in the road, while others put down (palm) branches which they had cut from trees. Some people walked ahead of Jesus and others followed behind. They were all shouting,

“Hooray for the Son of David!
God bless the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hooray for God in heaven above!”

Matthew chapter 21, CEV

Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)

© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.

Edward McKendree Bounds was trained as an attorney, but instead of pursuing a legal career, he entered the ministry in his early twenties. In 1859 he was ordained as pastor of the the Monticello Methodist Church in Missouri.

Bounds served as a chaplain in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He was captured by the Union Army in Franklin, Tennessee. After his release, he strove to build up the spiritual state of Franklin by starting weekly prayer sessions.

The “holy days” of Lent

Palm Sunday is one of several “holidays”, or more correctly holy days that Christians “celebrate”, meaning observe, in the weeks before Easter which we call Lent.

Lent starts with the well known Fat Tuesday-Mardi Gras and Ash Wednesday.

Holy Week starts with Palm Sunday, illustrated in the Lightstock drawing above.

At my church on Palm Sunday, the preschool age children march into the auditorium waving palm branches and sing a song for us. The parents and grandparents sit up front, proudly taking pictures and video. It’s a day to celebrate before we observe the solemn sad day later in the week, Good Friday. .

Exploring the Heart of